May 31, 2007
Sangean Announces HDT-1X Component HD Radio Tuner with Optical Digital Output
Sangean will offer its second HD Radio component tuner in mid-June: The new model featuers SPDIF optical digital output, and improved receive sensitivity. The tuner can also be locked into analog-only mode when listening to stations that are on the edge of providing consistently interpretable digital information.
April 11, 2007
Consumer Reports Praises Sangean Component Tuner
The first component tuner for HD Radio gets high marks from Consumer Reports: The $200 tuner pulls in a good, clear signal. Consumer Reports didn't like the bright display (for dimmer rooms), and the lack of being able to lock a signal for analog only. In reviewing all the HD Radio sets available last fall, I found that none of them offered an analog lock--an irritating feature when a digital lock can't be reliably obtained.
Sangean's HDT-1 nonetheless should score quite a few purchases from people with home entertainment systems where they want to slot in a replacement radio receiver instead of having a standalone (and potentially overdesigned) radio or replacing other gear.
Right now, I'm only aware of a single receiver meant for home systems that tunes in HD Radio signals. I expect that we'll see a small explosion of digital AM/FM being added to those kinds of units.
September 19, 2006
Logjam Starts Breaking on HD Radio Receivers
Sangean announced to day that they'd ship two HD Radios by Christmas: The tabletop radio (HDR-1) will cost less than $250 and includes optical digital output, as well as alarm clock features, equalization, and tuning tools. The $200 component tuner (HDT-1) has just regular RCA-style stereo outputs and a rather stripped-down front panel.
September 13, 2006
Cambridge SoundWorks Offers Two Home HD Radio Options
The company showed off at a trade show two $300 HD Radio options aimed at home users: The SoundWorks Radio 820HD is a stereo tabletop receive for AM and FM in regular and HD Radio flavors, with specifically designed antennas for better HD Radio reception, along with an input plug to pass through sound from MP3 players and other devices. The SoundWorks Tuner 850HD is a component tuner with two digital and one analog outputs, designed for rack-mounting. Both units will ship in November.