[BC] Re: HD Receiver

[Robert Orban]

At 07:06 AM 2/15/2007, Rich Wood wrote:

>You're fortunate in living where all the big box stores have jumped on the 
>bandwagon. Within 100 miles I have one chain of stores that used to carry 
>multiple receivers. Radio Shack carries their own and the BA Receptor 
>which I've ruled out as deaf as a post. I thought one might have been bad 
>but I've discovered all are the same and the one I actually bought was 
>defective. To be fair I tried a number of them in various locations. The 
>one store that did carry multiple brands no longer does. They're now 
>special order items without the ability to play with one before you order 
>it with a 20% non-refundable deposit. Since Polk spiffs salespeople it's 
>the only IBUZ receiver on display. It isn't even plugged in and not 
>important enough to connect to their outdoor antenna. The price tag with a 
>brief description touts the ability of the Polk to work with an iPod. Same 
>with the Accurian at Radio Shack. It's generally displayed next to the 
>iPods. The AUX input is referred to as an iPod input.

I compared the Polk and BA with exactly the same antenna. The BA got more 
HD FM stations than the Polk did. My BA is definitely not "deaf as a post"; 
I get somewhere around 20 HD FM stations solidly with my BA, albeit via a 
big rooftop antenna. OTOH, my BA is worthless on AM because of the 
proximity of a 1550 kHz TX to my house, which overloads the BA. I don't 
know if the rumored "BA v2.0" was ever released to fix this problem.

I am still waiting for the Cambridge Soundworks receiver to be delivered; 
it is still backordered. Once I get it, I will compare its RF performance 
with the BA and report to the list.

Bob Orban