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.

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!

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.

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.

I usually stick to major brand names when it comes to electronics like Sony, JBL, Panasonic etc. but Insignia nailed this one BIG TIME!! They are one of the very few companies to make an HD radio and they put a lot of thought into the design before they did it. First of all the radio itself is built very solid. Has weight to it and very stable on any flat surface. Second, the sound coming out of it's own speakers, although they are small with very little bass, is extremely rich. Just like listening to a CD. Once you use the headphone jack and hook it up to a higher end speaker system you will not believe the clarity of the sound across the entire frequency spectrum, bass and all. I got this on sale for about $35 but had I heard this in the store I would have paid full price. The only thing Insignia should have done was add some kind of equalizer to it so that you could enhance the base and treble to your taste. Other than that this is the way to go for a basic portable HD radio. On the HD stations the sound is very pure and there is no static whatsoever!!

I got this for my elderly mother so she could listen to her HD2 classical public radio station in Maine. I was able to successfully program it and she is able to use it based on a two step process. You cannot turn it on to an HD2 station. It always turns on to analog (regular band) first, even with pre-programming set to HD2 stations. The print on the control buttons is very tiny and difficult for a normal person to see. The buttons are also small for older fingers to use. There are no pre-set buttons so you have to scroll through all your pre-sets to get to the one you want. The slim shape is nice. It was affordable and produces nice sound. I only wish it were "senior friendly". It is a much better option than her continuing to be angry at Maine Public Radio for creating HD Classical and then not having a regular station in her area. Nobody wants an unhappy 83 year old mother!

I can’t recommend this radio at all. It does a poor job of pulling in both analog FM and FM HD Radio signals. When found, HD stations were clear, but occasionally dropped out (even when the signal strength indicator showed a strong signal). Analog FM stations often had a fine hiss or buzz. One unique feature on this radio is that it has a signal strength indicator, however, even when the indicator shows a strong station signal, if often fails to find the HD radio signal for the station. I have an older inexpensive tabletop HD Radio that is able to find many HD stations in my area, this HD Radio wasn’t able to find many of the HD stations my older radio could find. I tried adjusting the antenna of this radio to possibly improve the reception, but no matter how I adjusted it, reception performance never changed. This radio also feels very fragile.