[BC] HDRadio

[Mark Humphrey]

The latest (August) edition of Nuts & Volts magazine includes a
three-page article on HD Radio you may want to read:  "Testing HD
Radio" by Louis E. Frenzel.   Mainly an overview of the technology,
the writer (who owns both the BA Receptor and Radiosophy receivers)
also shares his opinion of HD audio quality:

"... Bottom line, on AM I really cannot tell the difference between
the analog and digital versions.  It is not necessarily better or
worse, just similar.  I did not have the test equipment to make any
response tests, so I am relying on my ears to tell the difference.
Perhaps the main thing I noticed is that the audio sounded muffled.  I
suspect that this is either a function of the receiver's audio
response and speakers or caused by the compression.  Any time you
compress data that much it is difficult to recover it faithfully.
Something is almost always lost in the translation process."

"As for FM, the results are again similar.  Frankly, I cannot tell the
difference between the analog and digital versions of the FM signal.
Both sound good.  I can say that according to my ears, a CD still
gives better fidelity than analog or HD FM radio.  Again, I have to
say that my guess is that it is the compression that is killing the
fidelity.  I think iBiquity knows this given that they have changed
their compression algorithms several times during development."

His report ends with this invitation:  "If any of you have an HD radio
or get it soon, let me know how you like it."

BTW, the same edition of N&V has a fun-to-read article on a modern day
"clone" of the COSMAC Elf (cousin of the Altair 8800) which some of
you may remember from a Popular Electronics feature.  I was saving my
pennies in college to build an Elf, but spent the money instead on a
Dynaco FM tuner kit... oh, well...

Mark