Where is my HD radio?

[Smokey]

Depends on the tuner and the reception in your vicinity. We come back to the classic digital vs. analogue shootout. Problem is most people have never heard how excellent the sound is from a high quality analogue tuner receiving a clear signal. I don't have a great tuner right now, but when I receive 89.9 KCRW (out of Santa Monica College) and they broadcast bands as they play in the studio live the sound is amazing.

I agree with you there. I have Hitachi analog Tuner (FT-440) which looks like a tank and sound much sweater than integrated receiver tuner.

But on the same note it might worth mentioning that no matter how much they improve FM, it is still inherently a Mid-Fi medium. And that is mostly due to its limited bandwidth (200khz) which can not be changed. That bandwidth only allow bandwidth allows for broadcasting a 15 kHz bandwidth audio signal.

Also, don't buy into any of the talk about "CD quality" audio with HDRadio. Aside from the lossy data compression, the audio signal beaming out to an FM transmitter almost always undergoes often heavy dynamic range compression. And most FM stations nowadays play their music off of digital servers, rather than CDs (again, doubtful that this playback is lossless). If HDRadio simply simulcasts the analog feed going to the FM transmitter, it won't be anywhere near CD quality.

Until Elapsed mentioned it in his post, I thought HD stand for High Definition radio and was expecting a much higher quality sound than FM (like moving from NTSC TV to HDTV). But all this talk about low bit rate, compressed sound and lossy format for HD radio make it sound like it is going to be DOA (Drumstick On Arrival ) even before it takes off.

May be I had my hopes too high