by albertaboy4life » Tue Mar 01, 2016 8:18 pm
I'm using an Audiovox iHD-P01A HD Radio Portable Player, with the supplied ear buds, to listen to Country 105 (CKRY) and News Talk 770 (CHQR) in HD as I post this. Country 105's HD feed is on HD1 while News Talk 770 is on HD2. No sign of a signal on HD3. The Audiovox is an FM only radio.
This is my first experience with HD Radio. I don't have access to a car with an HD Radio and I have no other devices capable of receiving HD Radio signals. I'm also not a broadcast engineer.
The following descriptions are highly subjective and may be due to the limitations of the radio and ear buds I'm using. I have nothing else to compare what I'm hearing with and tonight's experience will serve as reference points for me.
News Talk 770's HD audio is a mono signal and sounds like a web-stream. I'm hearing digital artifacts, especially when the talk show hosts speak. No question that the audio is more wide-band like than the AM signal and there is no electrical noise. There is the odd popping sound, sort of like the sound a static electricity shock makes.
Country 105's HD audio is in stereo but while it seems to be a pretty decent bit rate it too sounds like a web stream. I would not call it CD-like quality. I'd compare it to a stereo 64 (maybe a bit higher) kBps web stream as again I'm hearing digital artifacts. It's quite noticeable, for example, when a SHAW cable ad runs and their "chime/sounder" for lack of a better description is played. This is also the case with percussion instruments and acoustic guitars. Years ago I remember reading a critic of compressed digital audio saying that the ultimate test is a hand clap for hearing digital artifacts. Haven't heard any applause so far, but I'd bet the digital artifacts would be quite noticeable for both stations.
The switch to the HD feed isn't immediate so I briefly hear Country 105's FM signal before the HD feed kicks in. There is a noticeable difference as the FM signal has the usual lop-off of frequencies above 15 kHz and again, like 770's feed, a more wide-band like sound when the HD feed starts. The HD Radio stereo separation is pretty good.
In listening for over an hour and switching between the two stations, I'm not experiencing any signal loss and haven't had a single drop out.
Now if only some other Calgary stations would offer HD Radio signals as neither 105 nor 770 are among my local favourites. It will be nice to listen to play-by-play of Stampeders games, though, without any sign of electrical noise.
Faster cars, younger women, older cheese, more money . . .