HDT-1X: No, not quite CD-quality sound, but a decent digital radio tuner

[First update: May 23, 2008. I will add some clarifications at the end of this review.]

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This tuner (and digital radio in general) is advertised as providing original-source quality in FM. If you expect that you will be disappointed. It might actually deliver on the promise of analog FM quality in AM digital, but I wouldn't know; the only local AM digital station is either talk or country, and I don't listen to that stuff.

Even so, this tuner does sound better than any radio I've heard before.

I have a pretty good stereo system. It sounds better to me than any home system I have ever listened to. Most people comment on that. I'm sure you could put together a better system, but probably not at the price I paid (a total of around $2600 before tax--Jeez, I never added that up before; just bought good components one at a time over a few years). Among hard-core audiophiles I would not be considered an audiophile.

Anyhow, if you have a crummy stereo, this tuner's output may sound as good to you as your CDs or unworn tapes & records. But if you own a truly clean amp, good speakers and everything along the signal path has a high signal-to-noise ratio, you won't be fooled.

In digital mode with the supplied 75-ohm antenna (a T-wire), the carrier-to-noise ratio (a nice feature you can access on the pretty LCD screen through the Info button) varies between about 58-64 dB, while the signal-strength meter is almost at the top. Stereo separation is better than any other FM radio I have used. The detail is tolerable, too. But something still sounds flatter and more compressed than my CDs. It's a matter of a facsimile of the music or an impression of the music as opposed to the music itself. A good facsimile--but a facsimile nonetheless.

The up side of this tuner? Again, digital FM is better than ordinary analog FM. A digital station can broadcast at least three separate signals, so even if you don't like one of their programs or an ad comes on a commercial station, you can hit the remote to get something else. It sounds as good as any satellite radio but you don't have to pay a subscription. You have the choice of RCA-out jacks or a digital link. It looks nice. You can save more pre-set stations than you likely have in your town. There is neither any static nor any picket-fencing nor any multipath with a digital signal.

My unit doesn't do a couple of things that the manual claims it will, in that the screen won't show the bit error rate or allow me to mandate mono. Instead, it says "Invalid." But I don't really care about that. I bought this tuner to listen to music--not to play with all the buttons.

The tuner does a creditable job with standard analog FM. It also has a feature that I find rather bizarre; I'm not sure what the point is, but you can set it to get digital out of the left channel & analog out of the right one. Since most stations do not synchronize digital & analog broadcasts (true of television, also) this can create some strange echo effects. Depending on your taste and the acoustics of your room, you might actually like it.

Overall, for my 200 bucks I'm satisfied. For several years now the only time I have listened to the radio was when the alarm went off to wake me up. This tuner will afford me more variety in listening. Sometimes I'd rather just sit there than have to pick out some CDs & load the changer. But if I hear stuff I really like on the radio, if I want to get into it and play it loud, I'll go buy a copy to get the sort of depth, imaging & soundstage to which I have grown accustomed. In that respect this tuner's output falls short. I cannot say whether that is the fault of the medium (the MP-1 broadcast format) or the hardware (my tuner). It might be possible to re-shape & enhance the output by running the line-level-outs directly into an equalizer before delivering the signal to the amplifier.

If you check around on the web, there are some guys who have taken these things apart & run bench tests on them, with all kinds of slick graphs & stuff. Good info if you can understand it. I'm not quite that far into it.

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Update 5/23/08: After using this tuner a little more, I have discovered that:

1) If your amplifier is already powered up when you turn this tuner on or off, expect it to produce a mild thump. But any thump is bad thump--and not the mark of a true high-fidelity component. The HDT-1X is an improvement over the HDT-1, but the addition of some internal capacitors and a slow relay would be even better. There is certainly room inside the case, which mostly surrounds air.

2) Not all the info-accessible features work across the board. Functional in analog but not in digital: forced monophonic reception; functional in digital but not in analog: carrier/noise ratio in dBs; hybrid mode. Described in the instruction book but not functional at all: bit error rate.

But these are minor nits to pick. I'd still say that for 200 bucks this thing is okay.