HD Radio thoughts?

[92saturnsl2]

I'm replacing the head unit in my Maxima and considering a Kenwood DDX794 which has the HD Tuner.

I last used HD radio several years ago and was extremely unimpressed -- I came away feeling that the sound quality was worse than standard FM; the music sounded compressed as if you were playing a low quality MP3. I tried Sirius XM for a time, but it had the same problem, poor, compressed audio quality. The sound system itself was fine, CD and other inputs sounded great, it was definitely an HD radio issue.

Anyone know if HD radio has improved in this regard? The sub-channels are nice, but not if it makes the music sound like crap. On that tuner from years ago, I could never figure out a way to disable HD and go back to standard FM, or if it was even possible.

For those that are using HD radio, do you think the sound is comparable or better than standard FM tuner? Are you able to switch back to regular FM, or is it an all-or-nothing feature? Getting ready to pull the trigger, but seriously on the fence as to whether I want to jump into the HD arena again.

 

[Quattro Pete]

The bitrate used by each HD radio station/channel is up to the discretion of the station manager. Some of them are heavily compressed for a variety of reasons, especially if they are splitting it among several streams/sub channels in order to offer more variety.

In wife's car, you can choose between the analog or the digital (HD) version of a station. In my Charger, I haven't even tried.

 

[SZR48207]

My 2015 Tacoma came from the factory with a HU that supports HD Radio. For the stations I already listen to, the HD radio channel is a nice bump in quality. CD quality in most cases.

The other benefit is you can get HD Traffic and HD Weather over the same frequencies, assuming your unit supports it and your area has transmitters.

 

[eljefino]

I have a receiver at home but there aren't many stations here with it. There's a licensing fee they have to pay and have elected not to. The NPR affiliate has it and sounds great.

 

[Propflux01]

None of my stations are CD quality.

 

[Skippy722]

In my 300 HD definitely sounds better using the stock 8.4" uconnect system. Wouldn't say it's worth seeking out though.

 

[blupupher]

In my Santa Fe I have found the primary station sounds better in HD when in town, can get a little spotty when further away. The secondary stations, some keep the better sound quality, some do not.
But for comparison, I have no issue with most Sirius channels, I find a few that sound a bit weak, but for the most part, they sound fine to me.

 

[meep]

IIRC the HD specification can't quite achieve actual CD quality - it's like the everything else these days - near-CD quality by using improved compression algorithms. There are some stations here where it did sound better than FM to my ear - namely the signal wasn't as squashed and had more dynamic range, which also meant the volume seemed more quiet. We also had a couple that used a lower bandwidth and didn't sound good at all.

When I went back to just FM in a different vehicle, I did miss it, but not hugely. I think it's worth having if the price is not significant.