Sony XDRF1HD HD Radio Tuner

Pre-set information is lost every time the power goes out. In Florida, this is every day in the summer and every other day in the winter. Very inconvenient and a major nuisance. However, I noticed a remarkable difference in sound when I tuned into the local classical music station. They were playing Stavinsky, picking up subtle sounds and nuances. The pre-set problem really bugs me, though.

Sony XDRF1HD HD Radio Tuner
I purchased this unit to use in NW NV because local radio reception is limited (and because there was a $50 rebate). It did not work well in NW NV with the supplied antenna. I moved it to my SE MI home where it works great. It replaces my 25+ year old Sony AM/FM tuner which is now marginal at best. It works just fine here with the supplied antenna. I have to look at the instruction manual further to find tuner adjustments as the bass played through my normal stereo system is too dominant, but overall, it was easy to set up, has been easy to use and has great sound. It also has a small footprint and was easy to pack for travel to my other home.

great sound easy to use and setup.
only down fall is it has no volume control.

This is one amazing tuner. The performance on regular FM is on a par with the most expensive tuners. Superb sensitivity and selectivity. The Sony locks on to the digital carrier quickly, and displays the transmitted call sign, etc. on its bright LCD screen. More on that later. The AM performance is excellent, although a bit narrow-band for my tastes.
What's not as stellar? The bright LCD screen does not dim when the power is off, the tuner 'forgets' its presets if there is a power interruption of some length, it runs hot, and the supplied FM dipole is too long by about 6". Minor stuff, and if you know what you are doing, correctable.
I am in the broadcasting industry and would seriously consider using this tuner in critical applications. It's that good!
Oh... It has a decent manual and a good remote control, too.

The receiver is a tuner that is very small and intended to plug into your existing stereo system in a living room setting and it does this very well.
Acquiring HD is the fastest I've experienced, not the 8 seconds it should be, but close enough.
There is a really handy arrow that tells you if there are more subchannels and if you should tune 'up' or 'down' to hear them. This is really handy since it takes a while to tune HD signals, even on the best tuners.
Sound is excellent. You hear the talk radio host sip his coffee.
Remote is handy and not as useless as others think.
Presets can be set to HD subchannels. This is a major, crucial feature, and I'm very happy with it.
On AM Radio, even if the analog signal has static and interference, the HD Radio signal still comes on with crystal-clear audio. This is a huge advantage.

Some issues:
The unit runs extremely hot when tuning HD, hot when running, and very warm when off.
The back light cannot be turned off and remains lit when the power is turned off--this is a major flaw.
No optical output is a major omission for something that is just a tuner.
You cannot input a frequency. You must tune up or down one step or use presets.
The radio does remember its presets when AC power is removed, so I'm not seeing what other reviewers said.
The tuning buttons are to the left of the preset buttons meaning that I accidentally hit the preset when I want to "tune up" or "tune down".
Tuning off an HD channel is easy to do accidentally and tuning back takes a while for the HD to come back.
The tuner machine picks up alot of its own digital hash on AM.
Nighttime AM HD is currently banned by the industry due to adjacent channel interference so your AM radio will go to analog when local sunset occurs.

One word about talk radio: Even though HD Radio has been around for a few years most broadcasting equipment in my area is not upgraded well enough to provide clean broadcasting, especially on AM talk radio stations whose old analog signal covered up a world of audio hurt that you can now hear in HD. Talk radio is hard to listen to unless it's a national show that is well produced and processed. You'll hear background sound, hiss, hum, and feedback which would otherwise be masked by traditional AM broadcasting.