What tabletop type of hybrid digital HD radio models have the new improved chip?

[thezak]

What tabletop/boombox type of hybrid digital HD radio models have the new improved hybrid digital HD circuitry/chip ?... for example how do you get the new hybrid digital HD circuitry/chip in something like the Sony XDR-S10HDiP ?

see also
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/technology/personaltech/09pogue.html

[Zach]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/technology/personaltech/09pogue.html

For a guy who's supposed to be shedding light on this technology, he isn't doing a very good job of it.  To whit:

“What the ads say is true: AM stations sound like traditional FM (most are even in stereo), and the FM channels sound like a CD. There’s no static, ever.”

Oh brudder. 

“Thirteen car companies, mostly small ones, offer option packages that include HD radios. You can add an HD receiver to your existing car, too ($200 and up). There are no pocket HD radios.”

Ford is a small car company?

And my radio fits in my pocket nicely; it's smaller than my cell phone, even.

[Tom Wells]

Is this new chip also designed to make AM sound as horrible as possible if there's no HD to decode, like the one in the Accurian?
If it is, I have several suggestions for them for what to do with it.

[ddsparxx]

"The marketing doesn’t lie: HD radio really does sound better than regular radio. AM loses the tinniness. FM gets richer and deeper."

I'm not sure I would agree with the article on that. On AM HD, it sounded artificial, tinny, lacking some bass. Unless the AM station is heard on FM HD-x (x=2 or more) subchannel it would sound OK to me.

[Play Freebird]

Speaking of marketing, he forgot to mention the $159 HD Radio Antenna, some kind of "miracle whip" that's supposed to solve those reception problems:

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/PIXEL-TECHNOLOGIES-AFHD-4-/33-10630

[Chuck]

Speaking of marketing, he forgot to mention the $159 HD Radio Antenna, some kind of "miracle whip" that's supposed to solve those reception problems:

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/PIXEL-TECHNOLOGIES-AFHD-4-/33-10630

Looks like a $20 CB whip antenna to me.  In many cases, a CB antenna will work for FM, especially on the higher frequencies of the band. Even on the low end of the FM band, it is usually better than a crumpled up folded dipole stuffed behind the receiver.

[Tom Wells]

Speaking of marketing, he forgot to mention the $159 HD Radio Antenna, some kind of "miracle whip" that's supposed to solve those reception problems:

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/PIXEL-TECHNOLOGIES-AFHD-4-/33-10630

I love it when someone suggests such a whip will do anythng for AM....not unless there's some kind of tuned RF amp specifically designed for AM, otherwise any broadbanded design is only going to squash desired signals with interference.

Just exactly how would any radio "tell" the antenna what to tune for?  Does the antenna "read" the local oscillator an then tune 455 khz lower? Otherwise it's a no-go for AM.  What radios beside auto radios bring AM in on a coax?  How would they couple the signal into the loop antenna found on most radios?  Answer: It probbaly can't.  So why claim it's for AM?

[KTN Corp]

[quote author=Zach link=topic=174301.msg1508396#msg1508396 date=128254
“What the ads say is true: AM stations sound like traditional FM (most are even in stereo), and the FM channels sound like a CD. There’s no static, ever.”
[/quote]

There's no static ever because it will go blank (in all-digital mode) when faced with interference.

[Savage]

Umm....people: the NY Times article is from April 2009.  A year and a half ago.   

Nothing much has changed since then.  Other than the vaunted digital power increase for FM.  Which has done essentially nothing for HD Radio, in real-world marketplace terms.

Oh yeah: there IS now a "pocket HD Radio."  The Insignia, and if you choose to regard the Mighty Red as a "second" pocket HD unit, that's......two. 

And then there's the fact that almost a third of HD-AMs have turned off the Decepticon hashmakers.

[Nick]

If every FM HD station can now legally broadcast at -14, why hasn't everyone done so, even if it means replacing a perfectly good transmitter? A few more watts of IBUZ isn't going to magically result in more HD radio sales.