Insignia™ - HD Radio Tabletop Radio - Black

Reception and HD stations will depend on where you live, and this unit has acceptable reception. Compared to the smaller, older portable version I have, this one has a display that scrolls very slow. Scrolling is faster in the portable, and in the portable there is a button that changes the large format display to a smaller format where 3 HD stations (within the same frequency) can be viewed in the display at the same time. This allows you to see what's on the other HD 1/2/3 channels without changing the station. The desktop version has a blank button that could have been used for this same purpose. It would be a 5 start item if it had this same feature as the portable unit.

This is one of the best portable & HD Radio design I've seen in quite awhile. The sound quality, whether analog or digital signal, is first rate. The selectivity of the tuner, specifically its ability to pull in distant stations and stations located in the middle of a crowded FM band, has been quite impressive. I've used it in the San Francisco Bay area, the New York metropolitan area, the Washington, DC area, the Boston area and rural areas in New Hampshire, upstate NY, central Virginia, and Charlotte, NC and I was quite impressed with its flexibility under widely differing reception conditions. I've bought 3 of these ranging in price from full price at $59.99 to on sale for $39.99. Its a great value @ $40, and a decent one at $60. Well worth it for a table radio, traveling radio (although no alarm clock); or as a hook up to your high-quality stereo system as an FM tuner. My complaints: 1) no AM (it would be nice to have a good AM HD Radio, or at least a good high-fidelity AM radio like the Sony SRF-A100 from 1983, again); 2) flimsy antenna: I've already had one break off when the radio tumbled off the table and what should have just rotated the antenna actually broke it; 3) the battery door doesn't like to stay on (which is what led to the radio tumbling off the table in #2) and I've had to tape it on; 4) no digital out, either coax or optical: it would have been nice to be able to use this radio with my high-quality sound system with something other than the stereo analog out; and finally 5) the designer used the earphone jack as part of the antenna system when its hooked up: REALLY bad idea that just makes reception worse. It the only serious actual design flaw in the radio (in fairness, all portable radio manufacturers have done this since the late 1980s with varying levels of success). My conclusion: first rate radio electronics and display, cheap case and antenna.

The HD radio selection in the market is very slim, and Best Buy has a great option at a great price. This is the only radio I could find remotely in this price point, and it has features such as headphone out and external antenna connection. I attached the HD radio's headphone out to my audio receiver as an additional source. I also connected my home antenna via the 1/8" antenna port. I purchased an 1/8" to coax adapter to allow this connection, and it makes the radio even better. Highly recommended purchase.

I am quite happy with this little tabletop/portable "HD" radio, and I was happy to find it. I listen to radio a lot (just ask my wife and kid). HD radio allows access to programming - free - by permitting the listener to tune in to stations' 2nd and 3rd 'channels' (e.g/fyi., a Boston station I like plays news- and-talk on its HD1 channel, classical music on HD2, and mixed programming on HD3. Channels 2 & 3 aren't available on non HD radios.) When HD radio came in it soon lost ground to on-line radio; manufacturers shied away from it. I do listen to radio on-line, but limitations include upped data usage, interruption/buffering, etc., etc. But I digress. This Insignia model picks up signals decently enough (I live on a peninsula north of Boston, where signal strength can be poor - the little Insignia HD radio performs better than my previous cell-phone carrier... Just sayin.') Would that this device had snazzier speakers, though the in-unit speakers are more than adequate for news and talk format. And, input/output and headphone jacks allow easy connections to your audio system (& from your cell phone, if need be). So. Yes, I am glad to have found this item, and would definitely buy it again.

I picked up one of these for $40 on sale, with a $20 reward coupon, knocking the price down to $21.19 with tax. The reception is pretty good when using the included wire antenna that plugs into the back. For the size, the sound is pretty good. The reception of HD channels depends largely on your area, and how well you pick up FM stations in the area of your home you'd be using it at. In my kitchen near the sink and window above it, I get all my local HD radio stations, at a range of 40 to 60 miles from the broadcast towers. In my parent's house next door, it does not receive as well in their kitchen, only 104.3 came in with HD. (Detroit, MI market) If you're thinking of trying a stand alone HD radio, this one is very reasonable - when you can catch it on sale. It gets between 6-8 hours of battery life depending on if you use alkaline or rechargeable batteries, and comes with an AC adapter. You can use it as a speaker, as it has an aux in jack, however the radio does not recall the last mode it was in - if you last used it on the Aux input, it will default to the last radio station it was on when you turn it on.

Not much available for HD radio. So I bought this. But very soon it develop the switch problem which controls the station settings. It's jump to any station. So radio becomes useless. If you get to the right station by chance than it work good.

I had been looking for a HD radio ever since a few years ago the classical station in Milwaukee went of the air and the only way to get classical music was on a HD sub channel of WPR. This is the lowest price HD radio I could find anywhere including the web and Amazon (same model was listed on amazon but for a higher price then Best Buy) This little Insignia™ - HD Radio Tabletop Radio gets great reception, I use the pig tail antenna which is quite long and can be adjusted as needed. The sound is pretty clear and not bad for such a little radio. I read some reviews complaining about the sound but this is not a stereo unit and for what it is I thought it very good. If you want better sound you can get a little FM transmitter (Got one for a few dollers on line) plug it into the headphone jack and transmitt to any system with a radio receiver. That's what I tend to do when on a music station and have it play through a Bose wave radio (which does NOT have HD). Best of both worlds that way, HD reception on the Insignia radio and better/stereo sound on whatever it is transmitted to. The only other thing I noticed is that it needs batteries in it to keep presets after being turned off, sort of made sense after thinking about it, also without batteries mine needs to fix on the main station first before being able to tune to it's HD sub channel. Overall I am very happy with it. This was the second one I bought so I did not have to carry the first one around.

I am pleased with this radio. I paid $52 for it, and I would say that it is a bargain at that price. I wish that it included AM and had a sleep timer, but I guess you can't expect everything at this price. You will not notice much difference in the sound quality in HD, but what you do get (at least in larger cities) are many additional "stations" as most stations broadcasting in HD have at at least one one extra channel. One HD station in my area has 3 extra channels. In my case I get excellent reception of a local AM station which I like and which I cannot otherwise receive at night, as the AM station is carried as one of the extra channels on a co-owned FM HD station and has the full quality of HD.