• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

To HDR16 or not

So it seems to me that this radio is on par with a lot of car stereos. This radio kills the prd9. I'm definitely not letting anything happen to this radio. I wished I would have had this radio much sooner. I have been DXing for 10 years and finally found a good radio. plus for once this radio has both good AM reception and sound quality. NO more muddy AM for sangean!!!!!!! This topic is probably going to be blowing up a lot from me so just an advanced warning. I can't say enough about this radio.
 
Oh yeah another thing this radio can do that all of my radios can't do? Get 580 WDBO from Orlando consistently here in Brandon. Had WPOZ in once again this morning. I have never heard that happen consistently here either. I can't put this radio down for too long. :) At night this radio becomes so much fun and even during the day. I'm just excited to take it to Altamonte where I'm not in an apartment so reception will be much improved.
 
austingrace said:
So it seems to me that this radio is on par with a lot of car stereos. This radio kills the prd9. I'm definitely not letting anything happen to this radio. I wished I would have had this radio much sooner. I have been DXing for 10 years and finally found a good radio. plus for once this radio has both good AM reception and sound quality. NO more muddy AM for sangean!!!!!!! This topic is probably going to be blowing up a lot from me so just an advanced warning. I can't say enough about this radio.
Click to expand...

Hi Austin. When you say 'no more muddy AM for Sangean', are you referring to its HD AM reception, or its regular AM reception?

Just curious.

Perhaps they widened the selectivity a bit to make for more pleasant AM band listening.

Glad to hear you are enjoying the radio. Sounds like you're really enjoying it.
 
Hello. i have no idea what HD AM sounds like. LOL The regular AM is not muddy so that is the one I'm referring to. even the PRD-15 had muddy AM. This radio beats the prd-15 it seems like. I also think this radio beats the 2e on both am and fm and this is a week playing with the thing. I'd say buy this over the CC2E but that is just my opinion. Not saying the 2e is a bad radio but I prefer this one for sure.
 
I entered my phone number with one digit off, so UPS could not call me to let them into the locked door of my condo building.
Rather than leaving it at a local UPS store and notifying me where to pick it up, they sent it back to my retailer.
They assured me that when it returns, they will re-send it with my correct phone number.

austingrace said:
Hello. i have no idea what HD AM sounds like.
Click to expand...
Do not expect to hear (m)any digital AM stations.
The "AM HD TURNOFF PACE ACCELERATES" thread on this board is up to page 139.
 
Last edited:
My only complaint with this radio is I wished it offered weather band coverage. Not everyone wants to set up the HD radio alerts thing.
 
austingrace said:
My only complaint with this radio is I wished it offered weather band coverage.
Click to expand...
That would have required adding a third tuner and would have jacked the price way up.
Think of this as a specialty radio.
And besides, how many home, portable, or car radios offer those seven channels?
What percentage of North Americans even know they exist?
They are a very well kept secret...shhhh.
 
Having moved to Bradenton, can you offer any opinions about WSLR-LP/WBPV-LP?
 
austingrace said:
Hello. i have no idea what HD AM sounds like. LOL The regular AM is not muddy so that is the one I'm referring to. even the PRD-15 had muddy AM. This radio beats the prd-15 it seems like. I also think this radio beats the 2e on both am and fm and this is a week playing with the thing. I'd say buy this over the CC2E but that is just my opinion. Not saying the 2e is a bad radio but I prefer this one for sure.
Click to expand...

That's good news. Although I've gotten used to the PR-D5's 4 kilohertz selectivity, it sometimes would be nice if it were a bit wider. Sangean must have set the SiLabs chip to a wider selectivity range, like 5 or 6 kilohertz maybe.

As digital AM may be the future of the AM band, a radio like this HDR-16 is probably a very good one to have. Glad to hear you're having fun with the radio.
 
Hello. I don't think I can get any of those here in Brandon. At least i have not heard them yet.
 
A lot of people do that. LOL
 
OK. I feel like the audio of this radio has not been discussed much here. This thing has really good audio. One of the better sounding Sangeans I have heard. That is for both headphones and speakers. This thing sounds better than the EP on headphones and speakers. I'm still keeping the EP because it is a good radio but this hdr16 is a keeper for sure. I have had it for 2 weeks and love it more and more every day. I love both the sensitivity and selectivity. To give you an idea of how this thing performs, I can get the new translator from Clearwater on 106.9. Granted it's not too clear but this radio and the DT-160 can both get it. I think this thing has better selectivity than the the EP. Plus the best news of all is I paid 99 instead of 159. Plus another I personally like it you can't accidentally trigger the alarms or anything like that. I have no use for the alarms or clock because I can't see them. LOL
 
Thanks for the info on the HDR-16, Austingrace. Sounds like a good overall radio and a good DX radio too.
 
I am very pleased with the HD 16.Great audio and performs well on all bands. It would have been nice to have an internal charging system like the 15 and signal strength and battery indicator were on the screen simultaneously, but this may be the best radio I've ever owned...and I have had many.
 
Hello. I'm trying to figure out the menu. I found the mono setting but that' is it.
 
I can't comment on the pr-d5 but I can compare it to the pr-d15 and the am reception on this one seems a lot better.
 
My HDR16 has finally been delivered successfully and I have gone through the programming, meticulously.
Though it was not received with a users manual, I was able to find one here.
As this thread has included some flowering reviews of the receiver, I will take this opportunity to rain some urine on everyone's picnic.

Firstly, as both the bass and treble came set unusually high, I reduced them both to zero for flat frequency response, and it sounds OK for having such small speakers.
Next, I was surprised that the radio did not come out of the box in the usual American Exceptionalist mode, FM moved in half-channel increments, so this was the next thing I corrected.
As with many if not all other radios, changing the region erased all memory presets.

I have not found any local stations that would set the clock, so I set it and the calendar manually.
I do not believe it will change for summer and winter times, as there are no timezone settings
The manual makes no mention of and I still have no idea of what "Automatic Multicast Re-Configuration",
"Automatic Simulcast Re-Configuration", and Auto Ensemble Seek are, nor do I know what "No PS", and "No PTY" mean?
Yes, the display is extremely bright and it becomes illegible when viewed from the wrong angle. A photo sensor would be as big a plus as the Swiss flag.
Why do the two knobs on the right side of the radio have to be angled as they are? Neither of them can be gripped firmly.
As the radio can be set to scan up and down by rotating and pressing on the tuning knob, I see no need to have dedicated buttons under the display to duplicate this function.

The first major flaw happened as I was setting my area for "special alerts".
It took my zip code finely and it took my state finely, but every time I scrolled up through the counties, the radio would reset and lose its memories before I could reach my county.
I eventually resolved this issue by scrolling backward from the last county. Why does the radio need ten alert areas, though? "EA History" means "Emergency Alert History".
The instructions refer to being able to receive alerts in the standby mode, but what is the standby mode? I do not believe that means off.

Now for the big one, and I might not have gotten this radio if I had known about this.
Yes, the memories do remember which sub-channels to store, but not when the radio is powered off and on or the band is changed off of and then back onto FM.
All HD radios I have owned in the past, every one of them, would power up on the correct HD sub-channel, but not this one.
In fact, if you have a preset programmed on a sub-channel and you turn the radio off and on or change bands back and forth,
tapping that preset button will not, I repeat, will not cause the radio to leave the HD1.
You must either rotate the tuning knob up one notch or go to another preset and then return to the one you want.

This is unacceptable, inexcusable, and just plain funky.
To HDR16 or Not? Definitely, "or Not"!
 
Last edited:
Yikes, sounds like it has a lot of features I'd never use. Of course, I don't live in severe storm country.

You don't mention how the radio receives stations. Is the reception on AM, FM, and HD as good as the others say?

As for the 'angling' of the knobs, the PR-D5 has it also (the sloping of the knobs, and the 'loose' feel of the tuning knob), and it's something that I've gotten used to on the PR-D5. I've never thought of buying a different knob and putting it on, but maybe that would be a 'fix'.

One reason for preset buttons is probably for instant access to a favorite station, or to save wear and tear on the tuner mechanism. They do have a lifetime. I think the one on the DX-394 (probably a very similar tuner mechanism) has maybe 10-50K turns before it starts to wear out according to the specs for the mechanism I've seen online....

Thanks for the review, Ai4i. Hope you're able to get some enjoyment out of the HDR16 one way or another. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.
Back
Top Bottom