Sangean HDT-1X HD Radio Component Tuner

I was soooooooo happy to get my regular analog FM receiver working with the Terk FM Pro antenna that I got interested in HD radio. I bought the Sangean HDT-1X HD Component AM/FM Tuner and it worked fine except for the bright blue screen, and it has a huge ugly digital clock when you turn the unit off. Where is the button to turn that off completely? Options please! Better yet they should have put a standard display on it in the first place. The Terk FM Pro antenna almost eliminated the need for the tuner to default to regular FM. HD having to revert back to standard FM when the HD signal faded was one of the downers that I read about on the internet. Some people said it happened a lot. Although under impressed with HD, I will keep it to get good AM reception. Don't miss-understand, HD does work good but maybe I just have to get used to it. I wasn't a purist that had a problem with CD sound over albums when CD's first came out. Remember those guys? Maybe I am just used to the fuller midrange sounds from the way standard FM is mixed for transmission. I used the Terk AM 1000 antenna with the HD receive as well. The Terk AM antenna made the regular AM radio work great all by itself. But just not as clear as HD AM. For talk radio HD AM is like the guy is sitting right there in the room. It was amazing to find that HD AM gets turned off at night. For a while I could not understand why I wasn't getting any HD AM at night???? It turns out that the signal is so strong that at night it travels farther and interferes with HD AM and other AM stations in nearby towns. To compensate, supposedly the FCC made a rule that HD AM can not be broadcast at night. Ya would have thought the big brains could have figured that one out technically before they approved and set up the system "ALL AROUND THE COUNTRY." A big round of Duhhhhhhhh! for the designers please! I really am thinking that some other all digital system that is more robust will eventually take HD radio's place. But again, it is still pretty good, and maybe the bugs will get worked out over time. One thing that is not made clear is that you can scan from one main HD channel to the next. Each analog station can have up to 3 digital channels, each with less bandwidth, or one digital channel with full bandwidth. Right now it seems that each analog station has one main HD digital channel, and one additional channel with less bandwidth. Since the station up down scan button goes from one main HD channel to the next, you have to use a separate scan button to get to the extra HD channels. I read another article that made this sound like a big problem. To me it is not a problem. It actually seems somewhat logical. It is like going from one store to another. Once you get there, you have to get out of your car and go in to see what they have. But overall right now HD is good. Not great, but good. Oh one other thing HD does not mean high definition. It means hybrid digital. That means when the digital signal fades, it reverts to regular FM. It is not horrible or terribly noticeable. But it is what it is. Enjoy!

This tuner works very well and is part of my home theater system. AM radio sensitivity is somewhat lacking, but this is generally true of many contemporary tuners and receivers. It is too expensive for a radio tuner.

The HDT-1 is an excellent tuner however being the initial offering from Sangean there were some annoyances like the display that could not be dimmed and no optical output. Well these two issues have been addressed in the HDT-1X! Other improvements like forced analog mode; split comparison between HD and analog signals; accurate time keeping; display that goes black when in the standby mode but you can push the INFO button and the time will come on and stay on for a few seconds. The sensitivity of the tuner is superb as I live almost 50 miles north of NYC. While I do not get all the HD stations, I pull in a fair number to cover the various music genres. I am most satisfied and I am not a teckie, but I know a quality item; as I said this is my second Sangean tuner and I am enjoying it! Buy it, but make sure you have a good FM antenna -- I am using an indoor whip antenna and a Magnum Signal Sleuth and I get HD stations -- imagine with a roof or attic antenna (I can't have either as I live in a townhouse). Of course if you live close to a large city like NYC you won't need any elaborate antenna!