[IRCA] Another Boston Acoustics Receptor HD Radio Review

["Rene F. Tetro" <rene@xxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

I've had my HD Receptor now for about a week and wanted to give it some
time before I sat down and wrote a review.

Let me begin by saying that this is a good radio, for what it is.  The
emphasis is on sound and not on "dx-ability;" meaning that it is not
extremely sensitive (either on FM or AM), although the selectivity is
acceptable for most situations.  The sound quality, however, is very
good - even with the small albeit somewhat bassy internal speakers.
When connected to a stereo, however, it's true audio performance comes
out.

Let's look first at the FM side.  This is where I first noticed that
sensitivity is lacking.  Even with an outside antenna it is difficult to
pull in anything but local stations.  For instance, there are several
rim shot FM's near Philadelphia that put respectable signals over my
location in Lafayette Hill at the WFIL/WNTP transmitter site.  I tried
two outside antennas: a standard crossed FM dipole, and a Diamond DX-130
discone antenna.  It worked slightly better on the discone, but even at
that, it was difficult to pull in rim shots like WPST, WBYN, and WJBR.
The Receptor also had difficulty pulling in the second HD multicast
channel on local WRTI, which runs less power than most of the major FM's
in town, but whose transmitter is located with most others at the
Roxborough antenna farm, about four miles away.  Likewise, when using
the radio an my home QTH in Lansdale, about 15 miles from Roxborough,
reception of IBOC even on high power FMs was iffy with an outside
antenna.  At home I used a Winegard crossed-dipole and a Dressler
ARA-2000 to test the Receptor.

On the whole, however, I have to say that the FM Iboc is indeed superior
sounding to analog FM.  When switching between the main FM analog
channel and its IBOC counterpart, there is a marked difference in audio
quality.  The high end is largely much brighter and cleaner.  There is
also none of the "swishy" artifacts associated with analog's 75
microsecond preemphasis.  

On the AM side, I was very disappointed.  I have several AM IBOC
stations nearby that I used for testing:  WIP, WPEN, WDAS, and WOR.
What disappointed me the most is that "static" and other noise is still
an issue on AM, even with IBOC.  (I would be curious is Scott Fybush had
the same experience with his).  

The audio on AM IBOC, as on the FM side, tends to be cleaner than
analog, but I am not sure if that is a function of the IBOC itself, or
merely the difference in audio processing between analog and IBOC
components.  As in FM, the high end is also much cleaner in digital.
These gains, however, seem to be negated by the noise and static that
still exists.

I will say this about the Receptor's AM section.  It is fairly well
immune from problems in high RF environments.  Here in my office I am 5
feet from WNTP's 50kw transmitter, 15 feet from WFIL's 8kw, and about 75
feet from our directional arrays closest tower.  Despite this intense
"RF-bashing" I was able to pick up all of the local Philly stations with
no problem, with the occasional exception of some bleed-over from WNTP
in the background.  I have found no other radio - even some of my more
expensive DX receivers - that are as immune to a dense RF environment as
the Receptor.

Listening at home, where RF levels are much less intense, the receiver
was able to pull IBOC from WOR in New York with no problem, as well as
locals WIP, WDAS (albeit weakly) and WPEN. I did not experience the
problems differentiating between 1480 WDAS' IBOC and WBCB (1490) and
WKAP (1470) analog.  The radio differentiated between the adjacent
signals well.  I was also able to DX WCKY 1530's IBOC signal before they
went to night pattern.  It was fairly consistent that night, with little
or no fading...which actually was disappointing because I was interested
in what poor propagation would do.

Overall, I would rate the radio as being adequate for local FM IBOC
reception with an outside antenna, and ok for AM IBOC as well.  I would
be interested if anyone else who has had experience with AM IBOC has had
the same experience as I with the continuing static and noise.  I
thought that digital was supposed to eliminate most of this, but it is
being demodulated along with the digital audio.  My gut feeling about AM
IBOC, now having experienced it, is that AM stereo was much better.

73,
René

Rene' F. Tetro,
Chief Engineer
Salem Communications - Philadelphia
WNTP-AM/WFIL-AM
117 Ridge Pike
Lafayette Hill, PA 19444
Voice:  610-941-9560   Extension 41
Fax:  610-828-8879
Email:  rtetro@xxxxxxxxx




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