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Is HD Radio a failure?

Kazaam

Well-Known Member
I always assumed it was, but am I wrong? Who here has it? How common is it in cars these days?

Recently, I've had my first exposure to HD radio (in a car) and will say that I think the sound quality on the primary hd stations is usually much better than their analog HD counterparts.

Granted, I don't know if I'm just being fooled by louder volume but i sure feel that I am hearing something better. And those additional sub-stations can be kind of cool for variety. Though, the sound quality on sub-stations can sometimes be too compressed to enjoy, reminding me of garbled SIrius satellite radio. Speaking of which, I was surprised/annoyed when I discovered that one of the big AM talk stations had a digital broadcast on their AM frequency, but it was terrible. Sure there was maybe a little background hum on the analog AM but voices were clear. But on the digital broadcast voices were garbled like early 2000s internet streams. I thought they used to claim that these HD?, erm, digital broadcasts were going to make FM sound more like CD (true in some instances, IMO) and to make AM sound like analog FM (questionable, at least in my limited experience with 1 station).

Still... I kind of do hope HD catches on. It did seem kind of nice for the most part, so long as the traditional analog is still there to fall back on (for in cases like that AM talk radio station).
 
I believe HD Radio is a success due to the fact that most broadcasters are offering it and nearly all new radios come with it inherently. My car stereo says "HD Radio" on the front of it, but when I tune to a FM station it automatically chooses HD if it is available, which is all of them I listen to. There are only two ways I can tell they are HD stations: 1) they sound better, especially in the treble range, and 2) when I first tune in the display on the car stereo says it is HD Radio for a couple of seconds.

I think most people are not necessarily aware they are listening to HD radio, but the benefits to the radio station are enough to justify the entire program. Radio stations, especially the common conglomerates which could have a dozen channels in a given market, can broadcast all their channels with significantly less power and lower cost to the broadcasting equipment and upkeep. They offer additional information in their broadcast, allowing for more avenues of non-disruptive advertising, and they can multi-use the digital feed for both over the air and internet radio broadcasting. Not only that, but they can also offer more channels to cater to various unique markets - such as the local public classical station offering a channel of Christmas hymns during the month of December and another channel of non-religious "holiday carols" on another and make all of their listeners happy.

This is a great thing for us and any time a new technology just works without the user having to re-learn everything - well, that's success in my mind.
 
Cool. So I probably don't have to worry about it going away anytime soon. I definitely like the sound quality of the main stations. And I like the secondary stations even if some of them don't have the best sound quality, some are still decent enough for the car. I like that there are a couple of additional classic country stations to listen to because of the digital broadcast. And the local alt rock station has a sub-station of local musicians, which is kind of cool. I've heard it on the web stream before, but I suppose it's like you said, flint, in that they can use the same broadcast for HD and internet.
 
Nearly all new ones coming with it? Not really. I put a new car stereo into my truck this year and HD Radio was only offered on much more expensive models... several times the cost of the lower end ones I was willing to buy. I'd have gone for it for another $50... not another couple or three hundred. OEM units don't often have it.

I don't think it's failed, it just isn't gaining market penetration. I've heard HD Radio and the result is great, but the availability is well behind that of satellite radio, even this long after its introduction. Most every vehicle has sat radio as an option. It's a low cost add on to most aftermarket units. HD Radio, not quite so much.
 
Akula said:
Nearly all new ones coming with it? Not really. I put a new car stereo into my truck this year and HD Radio was only offered on much more expensive models... several times the cost of the lower end ones I was willing to buy. I'd have gone for it for another $50... not another couple or three hundred. OEM units don't often have it.

So I just looked up car stereos on Crutchfield for my truck and there were over 50 units with HD Radio starting at $59. That means over 30% of the car stereo head units for my truck available at Crutchfield offer HD Radio and price really wasn't a determining factor as to where or not it was offered.

To me, that qualifies as common, though maybe not "most".
 
I was shopping double DIN models so I could have a rear view camera installed (a 4x4 F-150 has about 2 acres of blind spot back there). Maybe the single DIN units had it at more reasonable price points... the double size ones sure didn't. Those got you into the $400+ range pretty quickly.

I ended up with a fairly cheap Jensen unit. I was trying to see if I could find one with HD Radio for not much more but it just didn't look like there was much along those lines in the larger touchscreen units.
 
I can't answer the original question because my 10 year old Audi A4 still has its original sound system (which includes cassette, CD, and AM/FM).

However I must say that for local FM listening, where I have 30-40 available stations, I get great sound.

Our new Hyundai Santa Fe Sport (which my wife uses) has a pretty extensive entertainment system, and is kitted-out with the deluxe amps/speakers, however for that same FM listening it's not even close to that old Audi in terms of sound quality. I am, however, now curious to see if it has HD radio or not. I let the initial sat radio subscription expire (was not impressed with either the programming nor the sound quality - which I found very compressed.)

Jeff
 
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