I was thinking about purchasing a high-definition stereo deck for my 05 cavalier. Does anyone else have one of these? Is the sound of the HD radio stations any different than regular stations? Is it worth it to purchase this thing? Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks!



----a quote from Christopher Walken----
"Youre talking to me all wrong, it's eh, it's the wrong tone. You do it again, I'll stab you in the face with a soldering iron."

How can it not be worth it, you don't pay anything other than for the deck. Go for it.

Heh.. HD radio, commercials in HD, yay!!!

I'd go for XM or Sirius for the no commercials and decrease in sq.

It'll be worth it when all the stations switch over.
CD quality FM and FM quality AM and you get song info and such.
I think it's worth it but only if you don't have to spend a bunch of money to get it because like I said, most stations don't have it yet.

-Seth

wizkiddrummer wrote:It'll be worth it when all the stations switch over.
CD quality FM and FM quality AM

yeah, thats how its advertised, but does it honestly sound like that? Ive never actually listened to one, but if anyone else has one, is the sound difference actually that noticeable. Is it comparable to xm or sirrus quality sound? To me, the whole concept just reeks of total . I dunno...



----a quote from Christopher Walken----
"Youre talking to me all wrong, it's eh, it's the wrong tone. You do it again, I'll stab you in the face with a soldering iron."

HD radio is supposed to be near cd quality. XM and Sirius sound like a 96kbs MP3....

my friend has heard hd radio and he said he loves it....make sure stations in r area broadcast it though...thats the only reason he didnt eget it


and sirius actually sounds pretty good....im into sound quality but u really dont notice much difference...and if you listen to radio in my area, anything is better than our radio

OK, my first post and yes I'm a noob here, but a noob to Cavi's, not to car audio.

Warning long post ahead

In one word, NO!

With the FCC cracking down on every little thing nowadays, and the emergence of Satallite (not FCC regulated) testicle radio is a dead horse.

Think about this, $325,000 fine for every little comment uttered on testicle radio if it has sexual undertones, suggestive remarks, racial soundings, etc... Words or combination of words such as, ass, penis, vagina, camel toe, blow me... $325,000 fine. Say something like "wow, Cindy you have a great body, I really like those big boobs"... $325,000 fine. Songs with swear words or racial or sexual epitaphs(sp) cut or beep the hell outta them or else $325,000 fine. How can that be good radio?!? All HD is, is the same crap pushed down our throats except now we have 5x (more or less) the stations of so called digital crap. I was a BIG fan of Bob and Tom, now I can't stand the show, they ain't funny anymore, and you can tell the strain in their voices as they have to edit themselves, and funny songs and bits they had such as Shirtless Girl, If I Had An Enormous Penis, The Camel Toe Song, Blow Me a Kiss, etc... cannot be played anymore. Same goes with any DJ or Radio Act. This is why Stern switched over to Sirius Satalite radio (well 500 million and stock options doesn't hurt either, yes he gets 500 mil, but he has to pay the salaries of his personnel, Robin, Artie, Fred, etc... not Sirius)

On top of that, I can tune into any radio station here in St. Louis, and hear a song, then 2-3 hours later hear the same song again, and again and again. The same 12 song (maybe 13?) playlist played over and over and over, day after day, again HD radio will present the same thing except now you'll have 5 stations playing those same 12 songs, oh, and with a hundred commercials sprinkled in between...

Remember AM Stereo? What a bunch of BS that was, millions upon millions of $ spent on equip ugrades and advertising. Pity the poor saps that bought into that debacle

Quote:

It'll be worth it when all the stations switch over.
CD quality FM and FM quality AM and you get song info and such.

AM will not be affected by HD, no AM station owner is gonna pay the millions of dollars to upgrade their equipment, especially when most AM stations are barely breaking even as it is. and even more so after the fiasco of AM Stereo.

FM stations will be slow to adopt, and many stations will not. Well the chains such as Clear Channel and CBS prolly will. The advertising dollars just aren't there to pay for 5x (more or less) the stations. HD radio was dead before it was released.

Put it this way, HD radio is like Betamax and Satallite is like VHS, which medium survived?

Quote:

HD radio is supposed to be near cd quality. XM and Sirius sound like a 96kbs MP3....

Satallite = CD quality if directly connected to (mine via Aux inputs) or built into car radio (not FM Broadcast, which I'm thinking is how you've heard it.)


In a nutshell:

AM - good for broadcast of local sports

FM - Good for nothing, well maybe winning tickets to a concert.

HD radio - Equipment $300 or more, has to stay in car, no subscription $, but same garbage you are hearing now but in CD quality and 5x (more or less) the stations.

Satalite Radio (Sirius not XM, XM Sucks) - Equipment $100- $300, can be in car, in home, or on the go, yearly subscription $120, or lifetime $500, 150+ and growing stations of music (nearly every form), talk (Stern, Bubba and more), entertainment (comedy), sports (NFL, NBA, NHL, coming soon Nascar), news, traffic, and more. CD quality and nationwide.






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Sirius has a lesser quality sound then XM because of their encoding. I forgot what Sirius uses, but XM is using AAC+ for their audio, and because of the bandwidth limitations on both XM and Siruis, the SQ blows. I have mine direct connected using RCA's and it doesn't sound much better. Muddy lows, swishing highs, it really does sound like a low quality MP3 download. Trying to stuff 150+ channels in only 12mhz of bandwidth leaves about 31kb/s per channel. And it vary's per channel. Some channels sound better then others... for example: XM 66 Raw is recorded at 31kb/s while XM Top 20 on 20 is recorded at 61kb/s. Still lower quality then CD, but sounds better.

I've plugged both in my car, XM sounds better then Sirius hands down.

Also, Sirius lost the NHL bud and their new Sportster 4 blows goats, but that's not their fault... damn FCC got ahold of that one. And no man, it's not CD quality whatsoever.

Sirius is basically 2 years behind XM in terms of product and history, yet, I predict by the end of 2006 maybe at the latest first quarter 2007 Sirius will pass XM in subscriber base.

They lost the NHL? and gained Nascar, hmmm, I think I'd prefer Nascar, the hottest spectator sport in US.

I use the JVC unit and I have no issues w/ sq at all, actually did a test, I took one of my MP3 CD, I record (or download) at 160kbs min, and waited till a song I knew I had on the CD came on Sat (Queensryche, Empire), I switched back and forth and didn't hear no real diff, mind you, I have my highs turned down somewhat, so swishy highs may be present. but the bass was right there. Maybe it's your unit, dunno, but my Sirius sounds pretty damn good 2 me.

Funny thing is, I had XM too, but got rid of it once I found out Stern was coming over. LOL, calling XM to cancel my subscription was a joke, kept asking why, kept offering me discounts... at one piont I had an offer of a new radio and home kit free, and 6 months free if I took another year membership. I agree, XM has the better Sat system and more product. but their programing is seriously suffering (mismanagement).

Anyhoo, the whole point of my post is to steer people clear of what I see as a dead horse, HD radio. and maybe, just maybe turn them onto Satallite.

Howard Stern
Bubba The Love Sponge
Hair Nation
NFL & Nascar

Can it get any better?



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Yeah... HD radio is a dead horse. Satrad is the future.

$200

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-EpSg5UpPPKZ/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=280150&I=257KDHDR1

It all boils down to personal preference. I'd rather go with HD than satrad (now if satrad was free...)

I only listen to 2 radio stations. Both of which are broadcast in HD.

The $10/month for a possible grand total of 10 hours/month of listening...

Same reason I dropped satTV. Don't watch enough to justify paying for it.

there is a claim that there are channels between channels that are in HD.
so if that is the truth, you will get channels in HD that arent broadcast in stadard def.
are they commercial free? im not sure.
here in the seattle area, KISW says they broadcast another station in HD besides their reg. radio station.
there are a lot of the radio stations that are broadcasting in the seattle area in HD, but like said before, if i wanted to listen to the radio in HD, i would just make myself a cd from their playlist.

when i listened to sat. radio, a lot of the stations would have songs that were not played on the radio stations.
thats why i liked sat. radio.

Quote:

when i listened to sat. radio, a lot of the stations would have songs that were not played on the radio stations.
thats why i liked sat. radio.

Exactly, the assortment is unreal, I listen to a half dozen or so stations and seldom hear the same song repeated more than once a day. On top of that, I get to listen to, without a doubt, the 2 best morning personalities in the past 30 years of radio, Howard and Bubba (afternoon drive slot on Howard 101), laugh my ass off to Pryor, Murphy, Engval..., I could go on and on, but...

Checked the sq again this time going with the Jazz EQ preset, the highs are not all that great as you said, maybe not cd quality, but still damn fine IMHO.

Definately, it all comes down to taste, what you as an individual wants/prefers, I'm just trying to help people question themselves, before going out and spending $$$ on a format that'll be all but dead in few years. (Remember DAT?, yep that's me, now I can barely find a new blank tape for my #%^*ing $550 player/recorder)




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Quote:


Satallite = CD quality if directly connected to (mine via Aux inputs) or built into car radio (not FM Broadcast, which I'm thinking is how you've heard it.)

Sorry, not even close. I have a direct aux in setup and the SQ is nowhere near 16-bit 44100hz PCM (CD quality). I don't even have aftermarket speakers yet, but the difference between CD or even a 128kb mp3 and XM is undeniable. Sirius is even worse in the quality department. Corsica Dude is right. It sounds like a 96kb mp3 at 22khz. Great for talk, not for music. They're trying to cram too many channels in the bandwidth that they have. XM is beyond AM, but not up to FM quality so the whole "Beyond FM" thing is a lie. For what it is, XM is a good deal. It exposed me to many songs and artists I would have otherwise never heard. It's also great for commuters as they don't have to worry about outrunning a terrestrial station. Unless you really like that hack, Stern, I'd say go with XM. The Delphi Roady XT is great and you can bring it inside too with the home kit.

2002 Cavalier 2200 5spd

KeWL Logic wrote:

Quote:

Definately, it all comes down to taste, what you as an individual wants/prefers, I'm just trying to help people question themselves, before going out and spending $$$ on a format that'll be all but dead in few years. (Remember DAT?, yep that's me, now I can barely find a new blank tape for my #%^*ing $550 player/recorder)

you can still find DAT tapes.....but you'll only find them in professional catalogs and they a pricey...i can dig out an old prodction catalog next week if u want




Edited 2 time(s). Last edited Sunday, September 17, 2006 1:51 AM

lol, this is funny. Seems like me and KeWL Logic are complete opposites. I hate Howard and I listen to O&A and I'm an XM guy, lol. Ah well, SatRad FTW!

Actually, I was a Bob and Tom guy, but after the FCC crackdown, I can barely stand to listen to them anymore. Howard is crude but some of the stuff is just plain hillarius and sexy, like the ho- deo, where contestants rode a sibian for prizes, wow, damn ...

I didn't listen to O & A enuf to rate them. I only had the XM for 3 months, before I switched.

I think I need to get my hearing checked, cuase I swear, I can't tell much of a diff except the highs are kinda 'swishy' for lack of a better term.

Funny cartoon btw


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Well, I just forgot about the whole HD radio thing. Went out and bought an xm receiver tonight, and I think I'm gonna be quite satisfied with it. Lots of different music, no commercials, low price. I think its worth it. I'm just freaking tired of half of my listening time being occupied by radio commercials. Also, in my local area, one of my favorite radio stations that Ive listened to for 10 years recently switched their format to rap. I absolutely hate listening to rap, and, now the majority of stations in my area are hip hop and r & b. Just pissed me off beyond words can describe. Thanks for the advice, I think I made the right decision.



----a quote from Christopher Walken----
"Youre talking to me all wrong, it's eh, it's the wrong tone. You do it again, I'll stab you in the face with a soldering iron."

hd radio is going nowhere. its a broken industry trying to ressurrect itself...and failing.

XM and/or sirius is the way to go. ive got sirius myself...and ive had it for a few years. music is great. xm's music is good too...but i personally prefer sirius.

O+A piss me off...they are pretentious ripoff artists to me. but thats just my opinion....im no stern fanatic either, he seems to me like a egomaniac. everything must be about him all the time.

listen online to the free trials, and decide for yourselves which you like better...


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hd wont die because not everyone is willing to go out and spend 10$ a month for radio when they can have it for free. not everyone will buy into the satelite hype. hd is starting to come out in high end oem vehicles and if it starts to trickle down as well.


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The NY area has commercial free HD stations through Z100. They have been advertising that they have 4 other channels, one that is soley new music, one old music, one all Z morning Zoo show. etc. So for me atleast an HD radio would not be a waste of money.

well, im thinking that I made a bad decision. I just had the xm installed, and I gotta tell ya, the thing sounds like @!#$. I really didnt expect this kind of distorted music quality from a service that claims its "beyond fm" Is this thing supposed to sound like this? If so, im wishing I would have bought the hd.



----a quote from Christopher Walken----
"Youre talking to me all wrong, it's eh, it's the wrong tone. You do it again, I'll stab you in the face with a soldering iron."

if its really sounding that bad you may be having an install issue or a product issue.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/sndsgood/ https://www.facebook.com/#!/Square1Photography

i use xm at work, and it doesnt sound too bad, yesh i have the direct aux in too, but it works for me