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Radio Shack Starts Shipping Sub-$200 Accurian Tabletop HD Radio
Radio Shack is shipping its $199.99 Accurian Tabletop HD Radio: The price drops by $25 via a mail-in rebate from iBiquity. This is only the third tabletop HD Radio, and the second (after the Boston Acoustics Receptor Radio HD) that's designed mostly as a radio. Polk's iSonic is a home-entertainment system that includes HD Radio. The system is all-in-one, as opposed to the Receptor's satellite speaker, which provides increased stereo separation. It's also upright (at a slight tilt) with no clock-radio feel to it. The Accurian isn't available in stores yet; I just checked at a nearby mall, where the Radio Shack store said they would have them next week.
Radio Shack has been a big seller of the Boston Acoustics unit as its only national non-specialized retail bricks-and-mortar channel. A Radio Shack spokesman told me that because stores have very little storage space for inventory, that stores were frequently selling out of the three to six units they kept in stock. This may have suppressed sales slightly.
The Boston Acoustics is currently $300 (okay, $299.99), with a $50 mail-in rebate from iBiquity.