Customer reviews for HD Radio Portable Player
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HD Radio Portable Player
When you're on the go, listen to your favorite HD and FM radio stations using this portable player that features a belt clip for easy portability.
Overall rating:
3.8
/ 5
(325 reviews)
Rating breakdown 325 reviews
5 Stars
136
4 Stars
89
3 Stars
29
2 Stars
32
1 Star
39
73%of customers recommend this product.
(
238 out of
325)
Customer reviews for HD Radio Portable Player
Review 41 for HD Radio Portable Player
Posted by: NorthTexan
from Decatur, TX
I bought my radio online since I don't have a Best Buy near me and when I got it, the reception is awesome for 60-70 miles! I also get HD radio from Wichita Falls which is 79 miles away. Even though I kept hearing about the AM HD and the earphones, but the radio is a very tight opening.
What's great about it: Reception, RDS, the difference in quality
What's not so great: No AM HD, Armband, and the earphones
I would recommend this to a friend!
Sound Quality
5
Durability
5
Review 42 for HD Radio Portable Player
Customer Rating
1
Poor signal reception, Sporadic sound output
on July 15, 2012
Posted by: Kennybee5
from Puyallup, WA
My first issue was with reception. I had a short auxiliary cord in the car. plugged it in and only received a few HD channels and not the one I was particularly interested in. Since the headset./auxiliary output cord acts as the antenna, I tried a longer one. That worked better. But the cord had to be draped up around my rear view mirror to get adequate reception. This was not satisfactory. While using the unit for the first 10 minutes, it automatically re-booted, even clearing the pre-sets I had programmed. After some time the re-booting stopped for a while. But then the audio would quit. Even while the signal was strong. I would have to cycle the station for the audio to resume. Needless to say, I returned it to Best Buy the same day. No questions asked.
What's great about it: It's a great idea
What's not so great: Unreliable
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Review 43 for HD Radio Portable Player
Posted by: Workaholic31
from Denton, TX
I love this radio it works awesome for a radio at work but only for about 3 month or just over 90days. Unfortunatelly I am about to exchange it for my 4th one in all cases it ceases to recognize the headphone jack, luckily I bought the extended warranty. Maybe by the time my warranty runs out they will have fixed the problem with these, as since I initially bought this I have seen SEVERAL others with the same problem..
What's great about it: Portability
What's not so great: Durability
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Sound Quality
5
Durability
1
Review 44 for HD Radio Portable Player
Posted by: Twiceburned
from Milbury, Ma
Purchased first one April 2013, it stopped working (no sound) in June 2013 and got a free replacement under the 90 day warranty. The 2nd one just stopped working (no sound) after 2 months. I should have read reveiws before I purchasd it which said many folks have experience the same failures after a month or two. I'm disappointed in that Best Buy would carry this radio give it's poor quality track record.
What's great about it: Presets, digital tuning, reception
What's not so great: Doesn't work after 2 months, no sound
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Sound Quality
4
Durability
1
Read Comment (1)
Comments (1)
tg01
Miami, FL
Additional information about tg01 could not be loaded.
Sound stopped after the 90-day warranty
September 20, 2013
I loved my radio until the sound stopped. I and others have found the radio to be unriable.
0points
0of 0voted this comment as helpful.
Review 45 for HD Radio Portable Player
Posted by: jemiller226
from Western PA
First, what the unit does well:
It doesn't take up much space, it has an aux jack so you can use it in the car, and the screen, while obviously cheap, is easy to read.
What the unit does poorly:
Has worse reception than anything more expensive than a clock radio and doesn't hold a charge to save its life. I have to charge it before I use it every single time or the unit won't even power on. That's just *awful*.
Bottom line, if you want HD radio, don't do it on the cheap, or at least not this cheap.
What's great about it: size, price
What's not so great: everything else
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Review 46 for HD Radio Portable Player
Posted by: syrwhizzy
from Syracuse, NY
This radio, by far has the best reception of any HD radio I've used. It also has better reception than many analog radios.
Battery life, on a fully charged system, lasted just over 10 hours for me, and I used it all day.
PROS
Great price. You can't beat $50.
Best HD reception I've ever seen in the home/desk market. It doesn't beat the auto HD radios, but, it's better than any tabletop one I've played with.
Great display of Song Title/Arist data of HD broadcasts (what's called PAD)
Support for Song Title/Artist data on non-HD broadcasts (what's called RDS). This was a HUGE surprise for me, because most HD radios leave this feature out for some stupid reason. Thank You!
Great Battery Life.
Works great in the car with an 1/8" to 1/8" cable to your AUX IN. Basically, you can treat this HD radio like you would an iPod or other MP3 player in that regard.
CONS
It doesn't display the Album information on HD broadcasts (or PAD). Many stations transmit it. Most HD Radios don't display it. This is a mistake. I'd recommend another display mode on an HD broadcast when you press the "Enter" button. Right now there are two displays, a large font one showing you just the current channels data. Another one, with a smaller font, that shows you all HD1, HD2, HD3 channels data. I'd want to see another one that used the font size the three lines for the current channel only. One for Title, one for Artist, one for Album.
I wish it had iTunes Tagging. With the USB cord for charging, add another button and you're almost there.
I wish it had more presets. 10 is too limiting given all the new radio stations you can hear (HD2 and HD3 stations). I could easily fill 15 of them, and I'm not in a major city.
On analog broadcasts where it shows the Song Artist/Title (RDS data) I wish the enter key would change the longer field, the RadioText, to the smaller font, and then did word wrapping across the three lines of text that would be available in that mode.
I found a bug in the receiver, for analog broadcasts, where the smaller field (called the PS, or station name) which is displayed next to the frequency, does not display properly if there is a space in first character of the field. It just shows blank. i.e, a station is allowed to send 8 characters to this field, and they often scroll the artist/title/station name in there. If they send "12345678" everything shows up. If they send "1234567" everything shows up. If they send " 1234567" -- NOTHING shows up, it looks blank. I've had my hands on a bunch of RDS receivers, and well, this is the first one to ever exhibit that behavior. Many broadcasters center this field, so if it's not 8 characters, they add spaces to the left and the right to make it look better on most receivers.
Earbuds supplied with the unit are too big. They hurt my ears and basically don't fit in. And I'm told I have big ears!!! I ended up using my iPod earbuds or other high end Sony headphones with this unit to listen.
I wish it had some MP3 capibilities. Perhaps a memory card slot for an SD card so the unit could play some MP3s too.
What's great about it: Great price, best HD reception, great battery life, supports song/title on analog broadcasts too!
What's not so great: No support for Album info, iTunes song tagging, MP3's. Suppllied earbuds uncomfortable.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Sound Quality
5
Durability
5
Review 47 for HD Radio Portable Player
Posted by: Dedalus
from Cincinnati
I bought this to listen to one specific local HD substation while at work, though there are 10+ HD radio stations within 10-15 miles of me. I am in my office right now and can SEE my favorite station's broadcast tower. I can SEE it. But do I get HD reception on this little radio? No. Not at all. Not even a little.
As a matter of fact, I cannot get ANY local channels in HD unless I am within 3-5 miles of the tower. One of my co-worker has a tabletop HD radio that clearly pulls on ALL the local channels in HD from here at work. All I can get from work with this Insignia portable is a few static-filled analog signals.
I would not recommend this radio unless you live next door to your favorite station and don't intend to move around much. =)
What's great about it: Small and inexpensive.
What's not so great: POOR reception. USB charging only.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Sound Quality
3
Durability
3
Review 48 for HD Radio Portable Player
Posted by: stuo
from austin tx
As I said I'm on my 3rd unit in 7 days. The first one developed a software glitch after 6 days. It lost all the presets. The unit went to 87.5 and would not tune or turn off. The second one I got tonight had the wrong buttons on one side of the unit. A set of the left side buttons was installed upside down on the right side. I took it back and got #3. I looked on the web and could not find another similar product from a different mfg. Too bad because I would buy someone else's in a heartbeat. Best Buy has been great. Too bad they sell this poorly designed and manufactured product.
What's great about it: HD radio in an Ipod size package
What's not so great: I'm on my 3rd one in 7 days
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Sound Quality
4
Durability
1
Review 49 for HD Radio Portable Player
Posted by: MochaRose
from Maryland
I've only had the radio for approximately 2 weeks, but so far I'm lovin' it! My reception and sound are great. The size is perfect. Love the armband. Nice product for the price, and a good choice to test out an hd radio.
I use it the longest on the weekends. Usually only charge it once a week. Good battery life. I only wish I could use something other than my computer to charge it.
What's great about it: Perfect size. Great reception. Affordable.
What's not so great: Wish I could use something other than my computer to charge it.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Sound Quality
4
Durability
4
Review 50 for HD Radio Portable Player
Posted by: EMack
from Baton Rouge, LA
Even though a small portable, I expected better reception. Outside is fine but poorer than I expected inside. Also, must be much closer to the station's transmitter than I expected.
What's great about it: Compact. Easy to use.
What's not so great: No ability to boost antenna reception.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Sound Quality
3
Durability
2
Review 51 for HD Radio Portable Player
Posted by: girlwalker
from Granbury, TX
I am a daily walker & this is just the perfect radio for me. I was not looking for anything fancy, just wanted a radio that would pick up my favorite station. The size is very good, fits in a pocket easily or can be carried in my hand easily, very lightweight. The sound quality is excellent! I like the fact that it is rechargeable. I highly recommend it!
What's great about it: Good quality
What's not so great: None so far!
I would recommend this to a friend!
Review 52 for HD Radio Portable Player
Posted by: gonefishing400
from St. louis
radio works well - good features - battery runs down when not in use.
What's great about it: great signal
What's not so great: battery
I would recommend this to a friend!
Review 53 for HD Radio Portable Player
Posted by: trunksy
from Los Angeles, CA
I give it very low marks for usability. It barely does what it says it does.
It does tune HD radio but the reception is pretty bad indoors (at the gym). I could barely get a radio signal on the second floor and a fat chance of getting any reception on the first floor at my gym.
One of the differences with HD Radio compared to analog is that it requires a second or two to buffer before it actually locks into the station and you hear any sound. Thus, it's not easy to search stations, especially when you're trying to check out secondary stations. That wouldn't be so bad if it had good reception which it doesn't. To add insult to injury, the worst problem with this product is that it doesn't save secondary programmed stations after you power off the unit. If you select a preset after you've programmed it, it will send you directly to the HD2 or HD3 station you've just programmed like it's supposed to but once you power off the device, everything defaults back to the HD1 station of that frequency. Even if you try to power off the device leaving it on the HD2 channel, when you power it back on, it will search for the station and throw you back onto the HD1 station. What's the point of programming if you have to reprogram and/or retune it every time you turn the product on? Bad design!
Speaking of using it in the gym, the arm band doesn't have any spandex in it at all and it's shaped like those blood pressure testers. If you actually have muscles, don't plan on having any blood circulating in your arm if you plan to do any type of exercising that raises your heart rate, let alone actually flexing your arm. The wide polyester arm band is completely constricting unlike most MP3 player arm bands which usually cover a lot less of your arm and will move (stretch) with your arm.
One suggestion or alternative might be to turn it into a necklace but the device is still a bit too bulky for that compared to popular flash MP3 players and it doesn't have a hole to be tied to a necklace anyway.
When you do get reception, it does show the artist and song title if the radio station transmits it but you don't get any features like iPod tagging even though you have to plug it into a computer to charge anyway.
The conclusion based on my usage is that this device might be great for grandma who is looking to replace her old portable FM radio anyway, may occasionally browse onto an HD station AND barely knows enough about USB to charge with it instead of a regular outlet. For someone who's got an active lifestyle and is actually looking to add HD radio on the go when you don't have the time to constantly update the music in your MP3 player, this device is not ready for you yet. For me, this is going in my pile of useless gadgets that I've purchased and tried to use maybe once or twice.
I haven't tried Slacker yet but the reviews look a lot better as long as it doesn't break on you.
What's great about it: The only currently available personal HD radio product besides Zune HD (expensive).
What's not so great: Programming does not save secondary channels after a power off.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Sound Quality
3
Durability
3
Review 54 for HD Radio Portable Player
Posted by: Tekgeek
from Chicago, IL
We've all heard the commercials about how great HD radio is and that the sound quality is on par with cd. After keeping my eyes open for an affordable radio I saw this one on sale and the reviews were mostly positive. I did not try this with the in-box headphones but instead a much nicer set. At first I got about 3 HD stations in and the analog reception was just ok. I decided to try hooking it up to my receiver and I did get a couple more stations in but the reception was still poor (i made sure the cable was fully extended to get the best reception) and the HD stations did not sound any different than the analog ones. One station was broadcasting 3 different streams, which I received at first, but minutes later the 2 extra ones were gone. Not sure if the radio flaked out or if the station stopped streaming them. Overall i was very disappointed in the radio, and maybe it was just this particular radio but I was not impressed with the quality of HD.
What's great about it: Portable, and the cheapest unit I've seen on the market.
What's not so great: Poor reception and the HD quality on the channels that did work did not sound any different than the analog stations.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Sound Quality
2
Durability
3
Review 55 for HD Radio Portable Player
Posted by: RMore
from Highland, NY
I have owned a couple of radios in the past, and they have not worked like this. I attend school and this works great in and out of school. The only thing i would recommend is that you let the battery run to zero to charge it because i haven't and it shortened the Battery Life. Great Radio all in all. I would buy it again.
What's great about it: Great Sound Quality, Great Reception
What's not so great: Battery
I would recommend this to a friend!
Sound Quality
5
Durability
4
Review 56 for HD Radio Portable Player
Posted by: Will408
from Santa Clara, CA
After I spent an hour with this radio, I am convinced the 2 or 3 reviewers that gave it 1 or 2 stars are the smart people that actually understand the technology. The rest of them claiming the radio rocks have no idea what they are talking about or raving about.
HD Radio's transmission rides on top of analog FM signal as sideband noise unlike DTV which is transmitted on a different channel/frequency. As such, if you can't receive digital well, it falls back on the received analog signal seamlessly (using a synchronization technique). You think it might be on HD Radio but it's very likely on analog FM. HD-1 is a simulcast of the analog FM programming that is traditionally associated with the station.
The digital receiption of this radio is horrible compared to other more expensive desktop units. It has a hard time recoverying the digital transmission consistently. The firmware is also not well written. When the RF signal level recovers, it doesn't try to go into digital mode... At least it doesn't do that quick enough... Sometimes the HD Radio symbol is showing solidly (indicate it has a digital lock) but you can actually hear the analog inteference (indicate the radio has already fell back on analog FM).
The only way to truly test the digital receiption is to find a HD Radio station and go to the secondary channels, i.e., HD-2, HD-3, etc. Because these secondary channels are not simulcasted, there is no fall back to analog. You can easily tell the receiption cuts in and out as it blanks out... So bad that you can't really listen to the program.
Also, the auto seek function has such a high SNR expectation, if won't find you many stations. Instead, you should go to HD Radio website and find your local stations, so you can manually tune to them, so the radio gets enough time to recover the digital signal and switch to digital.
What's great about it: Good Price
What's not so great: Poor Digital Receiption
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Sound Quality
3
Durability
1
Review 57 for HD Radio Portable Player
Customer Rating
2
Missing AM Band, Only High Power HD FM's Received
on April 15, 2010
Posted by: JohnnyElectron
from Menlo Park
"Close but no cigar", as they say. I cannot recommend the unit as it is - BUT - it could be 'fixed' to get my recommendation. The Insignia Portable HD Radio does receive HD-FM broadcast stations that are LOCAL and have at least 50KW of power; suburban stations won't lock the HD signal. There is no AM band, no HD-AM; I would expect at least analog AM and even analog AM Stereo (C-Quam) on a tuner like this. I wouldn't mind having special headphones with the AM antenna built into it if that's what it would take to have AM on this radio. I like the RDS feature on the radio but the FONT SIZE for the text on the radio is 6 point or 8 point, and you can't read the small text at the bottom of the screen! They need a "large font" menu option. They should add a 'sleep timer' to shut the radio off after 1 hour of no button presses so you don't run the rechargeable battery down to nothing shortening its lifespan. Any Mini-USB charger works to recharge it, which is good. Audio quality is average at best - you need to add your own earbuds to appreciate HD radio sound. I would like the signal strength meter to be "on" all the time when I move around to find the 'sweet spot' where I can receive the station in HD. RDS info on other FM stations is average, but again, text is too small. If you want 5 stars, update this radio with AM analog, analog stereo or AM-HD, then allow for an external antenna connection, add the sleep timer, allow for larger text font size and increase tuner sensitivity, and keep the price under $50 and I'll be back to buy a dozen as Christmas gifts!
What's great about it: Color Display, Rechargeable Battery, HD from STRONG LOCAL FM stations, RDS on FM
What's not so great: No AM, No AM-HD, No AM stereo, No "Analog-lock" switch, TEXT Font TOO TINY
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Sound Quality
3
Durability
3
Review 58 for HD Radio Portable Player
Posted by: steelergirl
from Pittsburgh, PA
I was disappointed this is only FM. We have many HD AM stations in my town, I just assumed it would be AM-FM, my bad. I am going to return it and wait for something with AM.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Review 59 for HD Radio Portable Player
Posted by: Teerexx52
from Florida's West Coast
I bought this portable HD radio the first day it came out. After reading the directions and setting up my pre-set channels I'm pleased. The radio is small and easily fits into a shirt pocket or jeans pocket. Has plenty of volume and the display is bright and easy to read. The headphones sound fine but are very difficult to keep in your ear. I wouldn't recommend it for jogging. I do believe you have to use these ear phones as they act as an antenna for the unit. For the money its a good buy.
What's great about it: Reception, size, overall sound quality
What's not so great: Ear phones
I would recommend this to a friend!
Review 60 for HD Radio Portable Player
Posted by: Simba1994
from Tampa Bay, FL
I was excited that a portable HD Radio was available (especially at the price point), however this radio really disappoints.
The sound quality (with my own ear-buds -- not the included ones) was good. However, that was only when I could get a decent signal. Inside my house, signal was marginal-to-bad. Many stations would stick to analog, and when they did lock on HD, they would fall back often. There is no AM Tuner, so no AM HD stations.
I tried using the radio while doing yard work. It would get decent reception as long as you held it, or used the armband, but if you put in on your belt or in a pocket, the signal would disappear. Sometimes it depended on which way you faced. I love in a metro-area with plenty of HD channels, so I'm not impressed.
The color screen is washed out. Although still easy to read, for the price point, they could have opted for a better LCD screen.
It also lacks the iTunes tagging function.
This is going back. The Insignia lacks too many HD features and has far too poor reception. For the same price, you can get a nice MP3 player with a decent screen that plays the tunes you want to hear.
What's great about it: Lightweight, small, Easy to use
What's not so great: Reception is horrible, No AM Tuner (not even AM HD), Screen is washed out.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Sound Quality
4
Durability
3