
Customers most agreed on the following attributes:
Attached to attic antenna tuner performs like a champ. No more fade and static. This is like what FM added to radio 50+ years ago.
The best FM tuner I've ever owned! Great
stereo separation and quieting even with very
weak signals. Using an APS-13 FM antenna at
about 20'AG and have many 50kw locals at
7 and 17 miles from me. With antenna pointed
at these stations there is absolutly no cross-
modulation, spurious signals-NO overload
what so ever.NO adjacent channel splatter either.
HD is excellent.Sensitivity is equal to the best.
AM reception is good with loop antenna.AM HD is
OK.Compact size a plus and full function remote
control that's larger than those credit card
sized ones. Unit works OK with supplied antenna
on FM,but for long distance reception try your
old tv antenna or invest in an outdoor FM antenna,
that yuo can turn with a rotor unit. Hope you
give the Sony XDR-F1HD a try-you won't be sorry.
This is a great receiver for getting FM stations in areas where there are many stations on the dial. Also it is more sensitive than any receiver I've used. Great for long distance reception or DXing. One thing I don't care for is the soft muting feature. I understand why it's there but I don't care for that feature, but this is a minor thing.
compact form factor was essential for my application
This is a quite basic tuner - not radio, as some advertise it, so you need some kind of powered speakers or audio system which also has volume control. It performes really well, it is very sensitive and very good looking among your audio gear.
One weak point is that the display doesn't dim out when the radio is turned off, another one is that the settings are lost when unplugged, and the final one is that it runs kind of too warm for such a small device (it needs good ventilation). DO NOT expect Hi Definition sound because HD radio actually means Hibrid Digital Radio. Due to bandwidth limitation, the HD streams sound good, especially the AM streams, comparable or marginally better than the analog FM stations, but not CD quality. Anyway, very good buy, compared with what's now on the market.
For [$] after rebate this is a decent tuner. However, the hype over "HD" radio is way overblown. HD means Hybrid digital NOT High Definition (high bit rate). Unless you are seriously hearing impaired, there is NO WAY you'll agree the sound is "CD Quality". Sure, there is no static when you pick up an 'HD' channel, but the audio is so compressed (due to bandwidth issues obviously) that the increase in sound quality over FM is minimal at best. I work about 17 miles from the transmitter tower of the station I listen to most. This tuner will not pick up that signal in 'HD'. Yes--I checked and they DO broadcast in 'HD'. The straight FM signal is picked up and processed better through my $200 Harmon Kardon receiver's tuner, so even as a stand alone FM tuner, it's not worth it. Until a True HD radio signal with a higher bit rate than even marginally sounding 160 kbs MP3s is on the market - pass over this current phase of 'HD' radio from ibiquity. In my opinion, saying it's "CD Quality" verges on false advertising.