Insignia™ - Tabletop FM/HD Radio - Black

For the price, this is good value for money if you are specifically looking for a radio that can receive HD Radio signals. I also like that even though it is battery-powered, the external power supply is included in the box. This radio also has some modes that aren't documented in the manual that make it VERY useful for test/engineering purposes. Split mode: This mode is used for calibrating the time-delay alignment at the transmitter site. Because of the interleaving, FEC, codec, buffering, and other processing delays in the digital audio path as compared to the instantaneous nature of the analog path, the digital path is delayed. It is thus necessary to delay the analog audio by a suitable amount at the transmitter so that as the reception varies, the radio can switch back and forth between analog and the digital simulcast seamlessly without any listener discomfort or annoyance. The NRSC-5 specification states that the difference between the analog FM audio and the HD1 digital audio simulcast shall not exceed 68 microseconds. This mode allows you to calibrate this by putting both signals on one output that you can record with a computer and then visualize the waveform (and relative delay) in an audio editor program To enter split mode, press and hold MEMORY and HD SEEK (-) at the same time. After 3s, "CH:Normal" will appear on the screen. To toggle split-mode, press MEMORY again. "CH:L-HD R-FM" will appear on the screen. RSSI, manual gain, CINR, SNR: This mode has to do with measuring the strength and quality of the incoming signal and overriding the automatic gain control. This can help you fine-tune the antenna for tuning in radio stations that have a weak signal where you are located. To enter this mode, press and hold MEMORY and HD SEEK (+) at the same time. After 3s, "m>XXX rssi:xx" will appear on the screen. To change the gain control, use PRESET (-)/(+) buttons. To see CINR/SNR, press MEMORY. "C:XXX Snr:xx" will appear on the screen. PBlock, PBit, P3, P2, P1 packet counters: This is used to verify that the radio is or is not receiving digital data from the transmitter, and if so, which programs it is receiving data for. This mode is likely most helpful for the people who wrote the firmware, but could also be helpful for tuning in weak stations. To enter this mode, press and hold MEMORY and VOLUME (+) at the same time. After 3s, "PBlock:xxxxxxxxx\ntot:xxxxxxxxx" will appear on the screen. To cycle between PBlock, PBit, P3, P2, P1, press MEMORY. Total packet counter remains on the screen at all times. Clear presets: Press and hold MEMORY and SOURCE at the same time. After 3s, "Restart ...." will appear on the screen. The device will clear all stored presets. Exiting any of these menus to return to normal operation requires a soft power-cycle by holding down the power button. It is NOT necessary to remove the batteries or unplug the power supply.

The best part of this radio is that it gets the HD digital signal, so as long as the signal is strong enough you get "perfect" sound. Also, you can get lots of extra stations on HD subchannels. The problem is: that matters most when the signal is weak enough that analog FM doesn't sound great, and if the signal is that weak, it's right about the same level that's going to have a hard time getting the digital signal. Generally, with a wire added to the antenna, I can keep a 20 mile away station locked on to HD. When it is, the sound is great. When it switches to analog, the audio is much hissier than other radios (like an FM station not tuned in quite right). The worst part of this radio is all the identical looking and feeling tiny buttons on the top. Just adjusting the volume is a challenge, since the labels are tiny and you have to either squint or know by feel which two are volume. Otherwise you hit a tuning button and it goes off-station and then you have to get it tuned back in. Also, there are plenty of presets, but they're only accessible with preset up/down buttons rather than it having some buttons on the front with one button dedicated to each preset. So, a pain to set, and a pain to recall, but better than nothing (and how most digital radio interfaces are, it seems, these days). So, that was a deal killer for my elderly parents in addition to being an annoyance for me. Oh, and sometimes it "crashes" either completely, or just can't hold on to the HD signal, and you have to reboot or hit the aux button twice to reset it. Worth it to me for the digital sound and (occasionally) extra stations. No bluetooth input, just an AUX jack. Easy to get a separate BT receiver for that jack, but BT should have been included.

I owned the previous generation of this Insignia radio, and overall this new model improves upon the design. If you're looking for an affordable FM radio for a small room or bathroom, this is a nice option. The sound quality is good, and it's probably the lowest priced HD Radio you can find. The sound is notably directional--meaning it's loud and clear when the unit is directly pointing at you, but the loudness drops off to the sides. This is a change from the previous model, but it's not necessarily a bad thing since you can direct where the sound is going (good in an office), but if you move around the room you may need to change the position of the radio a bit. This radio is best for news and talk radio, or music in an office, it probably won't fill a room with sound. Tuning stations and adding presets to the memory is simple and works well, they improved the flow for adding stations to memory. The reception seems to be very good in the big city where I am located, easily picking up HD-1, 2, and 3 stations where available. The design and build quality are solid. The unit is a little heavier than you might expect, but it seems to be well constructed and the quality is good for the price. It operates on battery or AC, I keep rechargeable batteries installed so I can move it from one room to another when needed. The AUX jack is convenient to hook up a phone to listen to music or podcasts, etc. It would be 5 stars if the sound was a little more room-filling. Overall I'm happy with this updated radio, and I recommend it for radio fans on a budget!

This is not too bad for an HD radio if you buy it on sale. Sound quality on HD stations is quite good for a radio in this price range. But somewhat mediocre on regular FM.And there no AM at all, which is a downside. Controls are tiny buttons with tiny text along the top of the radio. Hard to see and use. HD tuning is fine. FM tuning is slow and clunky. Preset controls are next to useless. Always defaults to the highest number preset so must go down, one at a time, to get to preset one or up through all the empty presets (20 in all) to roll around to preset one. What idiot thought this was a good idea. Works great with AC or batteries, which you must provide. AC adapter is included. Has odd option to use it as a wired auxiliary speaker with other devices. Source button on top lets you switch between radio and Aux. Looks OK but shiny black sections are fingerprint magnets. Small enough to be easily portable. Blue backlight on digital tuner is easy to see and auto dims after a few seconds. Sound will get quite loud but suffers at higher volumes. Harsh highs. Somewhat distorted lows. Would have rated it four stars if the preset controls were better.

I have the older model of this radio, and since some of the buttons on it occasionally stick, I thought I would upgrade to this newer, presumably improved model. The newer version is slightly larger with more heft and an overall solid feel to it, and it sits securely without any wobble at all. The display is fine, though the characters are smaller than on the previous version, but the text is perfectly readable. The big downside for me is the fact that it doesn't have a very good tuner, which really makes it very ineffective at its only job - tuning in radio stations. I placed it in the same location as the older model, and it couldn't lock onto half the stations that the older radio managed with ease. Even the strongest HD stations seemed to present a problem for this radio; though the tuner did manage to lock onto the station, the RDS info was, in a word, "spastic" - it would attempt to display the station and other info, but it jerkily flashed off and on, and was of very little practical use. A side-by-side comparison revealed that the newer model had a fuller, louder sound to it, which is all the more disappointing, since its tuning capabilities cannot match its older brother. 4-star sound, but 2-star tuning, so unfortunately, I had to return it to the store.

I got this for Christmas for my HD radio collection. It's a great FM portable HD radio, with a aux input, but what I can do with this receiver is receive local and distant HD radio stations from the telescoping whip antenna, but cannot hook up an outdoor antenna. It reminds me of my other portable short wave radios I got, but this one does not have AM / SW or LW not even DRM for decoding digital SW signals, but it would of been great if it had come with the AM broadcast band for HD radio and also a bluetooth receiver, but since it does not have those, I have connect or buy a extra bluetooth receiver to add along with it to listen to various audio sources and also internet radio from the phone or tablet. It comes with it's own AC adapter with a big ferrite bead to keep the interference down. I hope in the near future they come out with another model that has the AM broadcast band and bluetooth and also FM and aux input. So with the aux input you can connect it to your laptop, and even a portable walkman or CD , or mp3 player. Now back to the HD radio, I have bought my first HD radio before from Best Buy, and it was very small than this one, and the best thing about this new one is that thank goodness I can take it out with me and it runs on AA batteries and not some recharageable battery, and also the reception is much better than the small portable one, and the local FM HD radio stations lock in better than the small one. I know that this radio is going to last long than the small one I owned years ago.

The preset buttons don't work like every other radio in the world. Once programmed, 'up' and 'down' don't behave appropriately. Example: 5 preset stations: 95.1 97.3 99.5 101.7 103.9 Imagine you are currently tuned to 99.5. You'd expect the 'up' button would take you to 101.7 right? No, it takes you to 103.9 (the 'topmost' station.) What if you hit 'down' on the preset button? It takes you down to 97.3 right? NO SILLY! Of course, it takes you back to 103.9, the topmost station. Best Buy did not contract with a good factory, did not open the box at any point to test the design, and just didn't really try here at all :( The real sad part is the sound quality is great for the size and the reception is pretty decent. Volume is fine. Only buy if you plan on leaving it on one station or if you desire to reward basic incompetence in user design and experience testing. Best Buy will be getting this back tomorrow, and as usual for things like this, I'll have to go to Amazon to find an appropriate solution. Bummed out.

I purchased the original model of this radio last year and returned it after I discovered the RBDS didn't work at all in analog mode. Other than this, I would have kept it. Slight glitch...I do notice the RBDS works on this new model (thank you for fixing this) but the radio tries to scroll the text of the station name in analog mode on the left side of the screen and it doesn't get a chance to display the full text of what the radio station is trying to say because the radio is flipping every 5 seconds between the station name that will not fit in the far left side of the screen before the song information on the right. It starts to scroll but gets interrupted because the radio thinks it needs to show the full name of the station in rotation. Need to have it scroll just like it does in HD mode. In HD mode it keeps everything on one line and scrolls just fine. This is not enough for me to return it. The radio sounds fantastic. Battery life is great. Reception is great. Looks nice. Buttons are perfect. Let's you load your HD2 and 3 stations into memory. Feels nice and looks expensive.