Insignia™ - Tabletop FM/HD Radio - Black

This radio is not an easy one to use. Complicated.

I always tell people, never buy a portable FM radio unless it’s an HD radio. If you live in a major market/city where every FM station has an HD Channel, but this radio. Many of their HD Channels rebroadcast their AM signals and/or present special programming, like 106.7 KROQ in LA has their ROQ of the 80’s format. KOST rebroadcasts KFI, and K.Earth 101 rebroadcasts KNX. When they originally released this particular radio, it was...ok. Insignia, a Best Buy brand, did a great job with upgrading this radio, fixing issues they had with their old one. For an example, when tuning into a save station on the presets, before you would have to start at the beginning every time. With the new and improved version of this radio, if you’re at a station that you’ve saved in preset #4, when can continue from to move forward to the next station or backward. Play with the radio, and you’ll love it.

At the time, I was looking for an AM/FM radio, and I failed to look at the fine print. If this is what a customer wants, it certainly appears to be a good quality receiver for the price. I wish the description was in bolder print on the carton prior to purchase, as I have little use for this FM-only radio. I would not recommend the radio due to its limited FM reception.

Disappointed in the display for a couple reasons - one is the lack of characters displayed at once admins the other is the way artist/title and RDS messages are handled. Annoying way of scrolling partial messages. The radio decodes HD though and for many of us that is a great feature making it worth buying while on sale. Haven’t had it long enough to comment on battery life.

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.

This HD radio has solid reception of standard FM and HD signals. I live in the DC metro, so signal strength is strong, but even distant stations come in surprisingly well. It's a true stereo unit, with two speakers and a "stereo" indicator on the display to indicate the presence of the stereo pilot signal. Sound quality is about what you would expect from a unit of this size and price -- that is, it does not exhibit deep bass and warm tone that you would expect from a higher end radio or Bluetooth speaker. Audio is clear without noticeable distortion, even at relatively high volumes. This small radio, however, might not fill your large room with sound. Tuning and presents are easy enough to operate. The control buttons, located on the top of the unit, offer a sleek appearance but may be a bit confusing in initial use since they all look the same and are labeled with relatively small typefaces. Just a few downsides I've noticed .. - the piano black type plastic on the top front of the radio looks sleek when clean, but is a fingerprint and scratch magnet - headphone/earbud users might notice a background noise, when playing audio at low volumes, that seems to be caused by the unit's LCD display (the noise changes according to what's being displayed). This background noise is not noticeable when playing through the speakers. - I've had no luck powering my radio with rechargeable NiMH batteries, possibly because their voltage is lower than regular alkaline batteries. I've not had the radio long enough to comment on battery consumption.

I was looking for a simple AM/FM HD radio for the office. Choices are very limited so I took a gamble on this purchase. I live about 20 miles from the major communication towers location. At first I had trouble receiving a signal but I moved the radio to a higher location in my office and the radio began receiving HD radio. Placement is key here. Don't try to blast the music and the sound will be fine.

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!