Sangean announces HDT-1, HDR-1 HD radios

Like any relatively nascent sector of the gadget world, things generally start out being expensive and then pretty much follow some version of their own Moore's Law, dropping in price and increasing in value. The new Sangean line of HD Radios is no different -- the company is giving its competitors a high-def run for their money. Now if you're saying to yourself, "but this tabletop HD radio isn't really going to fit in my home entertainment altar," Sangean has another product for you, its HDT-1 Component Tuner (peep the mock-up on the next page). It'll stack nicely with your pyramid of other devices and includes a line-out (RCA), but many of the other features (even its weight?) remain "undisclosed." What is disclosed, however, is the price, which Sangean is putting at "under $200" -- that's PR-speak for $199. The slimmed down (and more expensive, at "under $250") version is the HDR-1 Tabletop Radio (pictured above), which is a good $100 less than the last tabletop HD radio that we saw. It's got all the normal features that you'd expect on a radio of this caliber, including S/PDIF, aux-in, multi-cast capability, and something called an "Alarm w/Humane Wake System." Most editors here at Engadget are woken rather inhumanely, so we'd love to find out what Sangean's created. Sadly we'll have to wait until the company discloses more information about the radios' availability, as all it's said for now is that they'll be available "for the 2006 holiday season" -- we're counting down to Black Friday.

Read - HDR-1
Read - HDT-1

[Matt @ Sep 19th 2006 1:14PM]

HD Radio is a scam.

[tristanfey @ Sep 19th 2006 5:22PM]

What exactly makes it a scam?

[JON BLAST @ Sep 19th 2006 1:21PM]

Listen to the banality that is FM Radio, in new high deifnition! Hear crystal clear obnoxious car refinancing commercials for 7 minutes straight before we play "Dont Stop Believin" by Journey followed by 7 more minutes of commercials!

Why anyone would want to hear the crap that is FM radio, but only clearer, is beyond me.

[alex @ Sep 19th 2006 1:49PM]

I didn't know there where satellite radio fanboys I should have guessed ..... As for me I'm still waiting for a nice A/V tuner that includeds HD, right unless you want HD in your car your options are very slim.

[Rick Lyon @ Sep 19th 2006 2:10PM]

I'll never understand a HD radio alarm clock. If I want to hear HD radio, I'd want it on my HT system, not 4" speakers from a tiny desktop unit. THeir component unit is an RCA out? Huh? Why not digital or optical?

[Crono141 @ Sep 19th 2006 2:54PM]

The 70's called, they want their simulated wood grain back...

[coop @ Sep 19th 2006 2:54PM]

I love my HD radio in multicast mode. My local NPR station is all talk on their HD-2 channel, so I hear a varity of the NPR & APM programs all day long. If HD Radio is going to "fly" - it is because of its multicast mode, permitting one station to broadcast more than one channel of audio.

[quig @ Sep 19th 2006 5:00PM]

Cyrus, a humane wake system is a series of beeps which get progressively louder with time, until they wake you. It's a feature of some alarm clocks.

[Cyrus Farivar @ Sep 19th 2006 5:00PM]

I didn't know that. My alarm clock doesn't have that. Nor does the alarm on my cell phone.

[iamcoldnorth @ Sep 19th 2006 8:10PM]

I agree with the earlier poster...It is the multicasting that will make HD Radio fly. Originally, this capability was not there. Commercial broadcasters (the ones behind HD Radio) feared that additional channel capacity would give them additional competition, so they were against it. Public broadcasters, on the other hand, were all for it! They often have more content than they have airtime, and no commercials! Maybe if commercial broadcasters adopt multicasting, we will (at least initially) see some commercial free HD2 signals out there from commercial broadcasters.

Some people believe it is a scam because one of the chief stakeholders is Clear Channel (one of the largest advertising companies in the United States who also happens to own a large number of radio stations).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear_Channel

Others point at the fact that the technology is not an "open" standard (like DRM--NO not THAT DRM--Digital Radio Mondiale). Ironic that an open standard for something has the acronym DRM... (side note--this is probably why most of the HD Radios out there do not have optical or coaxial digital outputs)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Radio_Mondiale

People also complain that the US did not adopt the same digital broadcasting standard as much of the rest of the world, DAB. The main reason for this is because the frequencies used for DAB in the rest of the world were not available here in the US. The FCC had already allocated them for other purposes. Also, broadcasters were not anxious to give up the large investments in their existing frequency allocations. As the recent spectrum auction demonstrated, licensing of radio frequencies is big business and involves a lot of money.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_audio_broadcasting

HD Radio was developed, and is licensed by a company called iBiquity. iBiquity was born out of a merger between several companies who were originally developing competing digital radio technologies for use in the US.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibiquity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_Radio

It is a bit of a compromise, because it allows for broadcasting of both an analog and a digital signal on the same frequency. Existing radios will continue to work and newer HD radios will take advantage of the digital signal if it is present. If the digital signal is not present, the HD radios will just act like a normal radio.

[@ Sep 19th 2006 10:25PM]

Right...it's still radio.No content+mass commercials=me not listening.I could care less if the signal is "HD"...I don't need any more clarity on 20 minutes of ads.HD radio is crap....marketing crap.I'm not a satelitte fanboy,but what I want to hear is there now.I download Stern and Bubba daily from a torrent tracker only because there is still NO WAY for me to listen in live at my job.I would gladly pay the $13 a month for Sirius if I could hear it at work...but as it is now,I just download the shows and listen a day late every day.

HD radio is completely irrelevent for me.....why would I want ads in "HD"????

[coop @ Sep 20th 2006 8:55AM]

Ahh... Isn't there still commercials on the Stern Show on Sirus? So now one has to pay $13 per month & still listen to Stern & commericals. What a deal.

[emsyff @ Sep 20th 2006 8:12PM]

Ya,there's stil commercials on the Stern show,but they go 2 hours between commercials half the time.No more of the old Stern show that was 15 minutes of show then 20 minutes of commercials.The show is better than ever in my opinion too.The music channels are commercial free..that's the great part.And there's mass music channels of all kinds.

[Stoshew @ Sep 20th 2006 2:53PM]

You guys have no idea what is coming to HD Radio... Will radio re-create itself in solely a mirror-image of what it is now.. lots of commercials on all stations? That remains to be seen... But, I've snuck a glimpse into the future of HD Radio and it was so bright, I'm still blinking the blindness away!

In the case of the 'chicken and the Egg', the content will come, mass numbers and types of units will become available, and then people will go buy radios because it's going to be AWESOME!

And you know what, they won't have to pay 10 bucks a month to someone who needs to pay off their satellites either!

[John @ Sep 25th 2006 8:30AM]

Yea i kinda agree that HD radio is a scam a bit of a waste in my opinion

http://somethinghuman.net/printer/

[Mark @ Sep 27th 2006 3:57AM]

Sangean is a high quality radio manufacturer. I have Sangean WR2 and it has a feature called RDS (Radio Data System). It shows singer/song title/channel name/traffic info/enhanced other network feature-EON/humane waking system/excellent bass and sound. I love it and I can't wait to have their upcoming HD radios. Sangean...keep up the good work.

[Kevin @ Sep 29th 2006 12:15PM]

I have four, count 'em four non commercial FM stations within range, one all talk/news three others with different music formats and NO COMMERCIALS and it's free (no HD yet, but I'm looking forward to it.) I can't believe you satellite guys pay for telephone quality sound.

[Jerseyradio @ Jan 31st 2007 7:20PM]

Sangean HDT1 is a great tuner. It outdoes any audiophile tuner with sensitivity and selectivity. This tuner has the ability to tune in stations between the stations I normally listen to. I didn't know that they were there. Now add to this the fact that I get the bonus of listening to the second audio channel with different content on it. This channel has no commercials ! What a great deal from Sangean. No one else makes a tuner with such quality and features, all for $ 199.99. The tuner sports a fantastic, large blue display with station, song title, and artist information that is readible from across the room. I have never heard such clarity in the FM band before this unit. A fantastic buy. Best product on the market today. Brings new life to my 25 year old stereo system.

[RadioWavesOKC @ Apr 15th 2007 9:47PM]

I just bought a HDT-1. As a broadcast engineer I have to tell you guys this is one of the BEST damn radios I've seen so far for HD, especially if you want something to fit with the rest of your home entertainment stuff. If you're just the general public it'll get you either full RDS for analog stations (if they send out the signal) DONE THE RIGHT WAY where you see the static messages AND the dynamic messages right on your screen and the call of the station, or the scrolling stuff in big letters. It's a great basic tuner for pulling in distant signals even without worrying about HD. The unit even features a signal strength meter BUILT IN. It has a audio spectrum display as one of the display options too. If you hold the info button for more than two seconds, all of a sudden you've got somehting that engineering guys can absolutely use. It shows bit error info and other things including even the serial number of the Ibiquity license of the radio station!! THIS IS A GREAT RADIO for 200 bucks!

Now on for the comments about the whole "HD sucks" thing. I tend to agree that the AM format is a poor and flawed system. The good news is, thanks to PUBLIC radio and NPR Labs, we will have TOMARROW RADIO for all of us to enjoy on HD2 and HD3 for those that want to transmit it. In 20 years when the patents run out and there's a lot of radios out there, it'll be time for AM to make the switch to digital really. Until then, enjoy something that works which is HD1 and HD2 (and 3) and encourage the mcradio giants to PROGRAM them with some good content. Get on the phone and start asking local PDs nicely to do your favorite format on HD. Maybe we'll get something out of digital worth listening to.