Boston Acoustics Recepter Radio HD user reviews

Pros Really great sound, great display

Cons Front end is as deaf as a post

Summary I live roughly 40 miles from both Philly & NYC - within signal range for a solid analog stereo signal. However, unless you have a outdoor FM antenna, or the paitience to spend 20 minutes aiming a cheap dipole antenna on your ceiling. You need a really good antenna to get it to lock onto the HD signal, or else you just get a blinking light and really frustrated.

Its simple to operate, only pet peeve is the small remote (easily lost). The HD sound quality is not CD on FM, or FM on AM, but allot better and less processed than the analog counteparts.

I am happy overall, but not about having to spend money on a new antenna to get the HD stations.

Pros Second speaker, hd capable

Cons Nonexistant fm tuner sensitivity, ridiculous power brick

Summary I have the original recepter and have been very satisfied with it which is why i tried the hd version especially when the price dropped below $300. The hd could charitably be called junk. The power supply has been removed from the radio and placed in a huge power brick and as a further insult the line has two more modules built into it. The fm tuner could not pull in one single station clearly, the old one gets six (I live in a hilly area where fm reception is difficult). Finally while setting the radio up the audio died twice, like the mute button had been pushed, requiring recycling the power button to get it back. Stay away from this electronic disaster!

Pros Sounds good, satelite speaker, remote

Cons Weak reception, Spastic controls, Forgets bass trim (when used)

Summary When my old GE Superadio III intermitantly worked, I decided to take the HD plunge, and got this HD radio.
First thing I liked was the size, small. Non-intrusive, and would sit easilly on my workstation at work. Another plus for the work enviornmewnt is the remote, where I don't have to stop work to change the station, or raise/lower the volume, but I do have to rotate the radio itself toward my locale, and the satelite speaker allows me and colegues, to listen to the radio within 1, 2, and even 3 workstations away, so I don't have to unplug and move a radio, or go without. If alone, there's one station I run a headphone extention cord from the radio to a set of (Bose) speakers, but you best be sure it's plugged in all the way. The jack doesn't seem to grab the plug too well, and if you crank the volume on the radio for external speakers, may get a blaring surprise. One drawback of the headphone jack use is that if going from using it, to not, the audio, either way, may die out. It may take a few minutes to come back, or just shout off/turn on, and even plug-unplug (headphones/external speakers).
Being an industrial enviornment, I programmed the radio at home, and reception was awful at best, with the supplied FM "antennas". I put bunny ears on it instead, and it was a lot better. Only two station 15 miles (LOS) away worked in HD, and to get more HD, hooked it into the roof antenna.
Before I go farther, BE WARNED, you need a noiseless signal for the HD to work! Keep in mind that a crystal-clear sounding FM station does NOT mean it's strong. It only takes about 20-25% singal strength to get flawless sound, and another thing to keep in mind, is that digital equipment needs about 33% to work. One last thing, radio stations do not broadcast very strong anyhow. See what your VHF TV reception is like. If it sounds good, looks bad, HD radio may not work for you without a roof antenna (FYI: FM radio is in the VHF range, between channels 6 and 7).
At work ,it's hooked into a 50dB gain antenna, and still falls short of the Superadio, but very close to make it worthwhile. As for HD in industrial environments, don't even bother, unless you work near a station, and if there's a lot of machenery, the signal strenth meter is inaccurate (usually 1 bar off, sometimes 2). As for AM, it worked okay, no HD there, either, but the noise and other AM annoyances were not there, just sound on most stations. A BIG plus on a talk station my boss an I sometimes listen to.
(There was one time one AM station worked in HD for 45 minutes, and an FM station triggered, but didn't flip over to HD.)
There are a couple issues to go with the good, though, like the Bass Trim feature. If you reduce the bass (say, to -6), as soon as you turn the radio off and on, or use external speakers/headphones, the bass will revert back to normal, even though it does remember your -6 setting. Another issue are the spastic dials. Most of the time, they work fine, but every now and then, the volume and tuning controls zoom out of control, like a slow, 1/8 turn makes the volume go from 40 to 8, or the FM dial go from 100.1 to 107.3, which fortunately, doesn't spike up the volume, yet. It's even worse trying to set the clock, zooming 50 minutes on only one click. Hopefully, Boston Acoustics will solve these with a software patch.
Overall, it's not a bad product, although it sould've had a slightly better tuner, the other plusses make this a good at-work radio, and even that much better for the home.

Pros Looks really nice. Sound quality is fantastic. Controls are easy and instinctive.

Cons RECEPTION is horrible. You can't pick up anything on this unit. When you are trying to listen to an HD station, the weakness of the signal makes the song sound like a skipping cd.

Summary Too expensive to just be an alarm clock (NEVER set it to wake you to music, or you will get the surprise of your life when you wake up late to complete silence). Reception is so bad, it renders the entire unit worthless. There is no setting to disable HD and use the radio like a standard unit. Your choices of listening are: Static from a weak signal, skipping/stuttering songs from a weak HD signal, or complete silence from a weak HD signal. I started listening to streaming audio on AUX, but $30 computer speakers would have accomplished that. Oh, others have mentioned that it has failed to operate on occasion. Yes, shifting through "AM/FM/AUX" it has frozen up a couple of times. Powering down the unit will get it back up and running.