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The combination of this radio and the Greentek antenna provided the perfect music experience in my office. The great reception could also be the result of the HD radio antenna. It picks up my favorite station in HD even though the radio is placed in an interior space and under my back counter top. He bought me the FM-02 Omi-Directional AM/FM Amplified stereo antenna by Greentek. He bought this one on sale.
It works better than some of the popular brands like Terk. I agree with another reviewer that there isn't an HD button, so it's not easy to tell if you have an HD channel on. It was only $50 because it was missing the remote. I moved into a new office space and mentioned to my husband that I wanted a radio to listen to. I couldn't be happier.
My husband is an electrical engineer and tried many name brand radio antennas.
It's true that there is no background hiss but other than that there is no apprecoable difference between HD and analog FM stations and for the most part I listen to analog FM stations.To be quite honest, the Logitech speakers on my computer sounds better than this radio. Here in Norfolk VA, there are very few choices for clasic rock in the HD format, but those that do offer it provide very unreliable brodcasting. If this is you, take my advise. The initial setup was easy enough but the sound quality is lacking, probably because of too small speakers. You can get one for about the same price, it will sound better and you'll have additional applications you can use such as CD players, and MP3 player docks. The volume modulates up and down and at times the station just goes off the air for a few seconds.
Spend you money on a nice shelf type stero system. I have owned this radio for about 6 months now and I find everything about it from the looks, operation and sound quality to be mediocre. The simulated wood grain cabinet looks like adheasive shelf paper. It's also true that if you live more than about 30 miles from the HD broadcast tower you won't get HD.I was intrigued by the prospect of HD radio and was willing to give it a try.
Would be even better if I were not in a somewhat fringe area for reception of the stations I bought this radiofor.Only complaint: there are occasional very brief surges in volume (1-2 seconds) and occasional very brief periods (also 1-2 seconds) when the sound stops. I cannot tell. Sony XDR-S3HD HD RadioSound quality is excellent. I attribute this to fringe reception, but it may be aproblem with the radio.
If you listen to a station in a fringe area, the station will continually go between HD and regular. Any electical outage or blip will loose all the stored channels, unless you plug it into a UPS meant to power computers.The second flaw is that it has no switch to turn HD on or off. Too bad, otherwise this would have been a great radio. This radio works great under the right circumstances, but has two fatal flaws which have caused me to move it from the living room to the garage. The first is that it has no battery back up. There is a 3 second time difference so this makes those stations unlistenable.
Reliability is important and we get it. I have another brand that is also very good. Actually, very good. Great styling and as it is a Sony, well made. But Sony.
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