"Rfburns" wrote in message
...
A friend let me borrow his Sony XDR-S3HD radio before he sells it on
eBay to try and recoup some of his money. Trying it out I kept
wondering – what’s so compelling about this? I could detect virtually
no difference in audio quality between FM analog and FM “HD”.

On a larger radio, there is a definite improvement in audio, but one of the
big advantages is the near total absence of multipath in vehicles in motion.

What was even more irritating was that the analog and
digital signals were out of sync by about 5 seconds. So much for a
smooth transition. No CD Quality here boys.

The delay is supposed to be synchronized by the station. Obviously, the
station did not do this right, which is not HD's fault. All stations I have
heard transition seamlessly.

The real shocker was how power hungry the radio must be – and this is
just a tabletop clock radio – nothing fancy. It comes with a MASSIVE
external power transformer “brick” that you could use as an anchor for
a boat.

The available second generation receivers, overall, suck.