Sangean HDT-1X HD Radio Component Tuner Review

I wanted to update to HD radio, since my favorite stations were pitching it as well as compare it to my analog tuner. My home theater/hi fi system is composed of separates (pre-amp processor, amp, DAC, etc.) vs. a Receiver. This is a good tuner to add to such a system. It offers both analog outputs (RCA) and a digital output which you can use to connect to a DAC or directly to your receiver's/pre-amp processor's digital input to help improve and/or modify the sound vs. the internal DAC built in the tuner. Whether you listen to a traditional analog tuner or an HD radio tuner, you're still listening to music that has been digitally ripped. A friend of mine who was the Engineering Director at my favorite Los Angeles classical radio station told me that his station now rips music from CD's or LP's, stores them then uploads it to an earth station in the Northern US, where it is transmitted to a satellite back to a mountaintop in L.A., where it's processed again into analog radio wave or digital (HD) radio wave. And yet, they sound excellent. This is how most stations transmit radio today, even my favorite Jazz station. So for someone to make the claim that by listening to an analog tuner, you're getting that "old-fashioned" analog sound isn't quite accurate. Another point to consider is that many radio stations use compression, to keep the volume steady (lower the high volume and raise the lower volume). This drives me nuts when I hear music playing softly, crescendo to a loud volume, only to have the dynamic impact reduced by the compression. Same in reverse when you hear loud music, then the soft part comes on loud. The Sangean unit helps to either reduce this effect or eliminate it since compression takes place in the ripping process. The Sangean HDT-1X outputs both analog and HD, so you can compare them side-by-side.


A site that reviewed the Sangean with substantially more expensive audiophile tuners is (I have to spell it because of the no U R L rules) positive-feedback dot com. Go to positive feedback online archive and look up Issue 30. It's toward the bottom of the Hardware reviews section under Sangean HDT-1 High-Definition Radio Component Tuner. You will be quite surprised at how the Sangean performed in the review.

Things I like about this tuner.

1. It's inexpensive.

2. You get "extra" radio stations in the sub-bands of each station's frequency; e.g. my old classical station who changed formats' broadcasts in HD. There are usually 1 to 3 extra stations in each sub frequency.

3. Sound in the HD is good (based on the stations I listen to); full bodied, quiet background, very dynamic, musical sounding, better than listening to mp3's or ACC's at 256k. Things like cymbals, triangles, and high pitched instruments, a killer for digital to reproduce without digital harshness, are rendered quite well. Voices sound reasonable and full-bodied. Soundstage is convincing, both deep and wider than typical compressed formats (mp3's, AAC's, etc.).








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