Nice Tuner for a Great Price

I have used the HDT-1 for two weeks. The first impression was a very forward midrange and a very high output level on the audio cables. I have two professional tuners, Yamaha TX-950 and Kenwood KT-9900, from which the following camparisons are made.

First, for the price this is an outstanding unit - very nice selectivity and sensitivity. Many complain of the bluish-purple display - I find it to be very visible and pleasant. Operating in a metropolitan area, I found what some call a noisy background to be a slight overload which is completely correctable with an L-pad. The unit receives distant cities well with an external antenna - both in analog and digital mode. The stereo reception in analogue is not great but becomes very pronounced in the digital mode. At first, you are actually fooled into believing that there is a huge difference in the digital mode but upon comparison with other units, it is now actually providing the separation it should have in the standard multiplex mode. The digital mode is very quiet and has both extended treble and bass regions. The remote could be difficult to as it requires a great deal of pressure to depress each function. When stations first appear, they appear in analogue until the buffer fills for digital and the switching is automatic. The display indicates if this is channel 1 - if so then there will be other digital channels on this frequency. Most stations broadcast in MP-1 but some in MP-3 - all indicated on the display.

I really like the separate scan functions, one for every .1 MHZ, one for regular stations and one scan for digital stations only. I only receive one AM HD station and the quality is well above standard AM. There are many functions built into the unit like signal level in digits 1-18 and for digital also, RDS for station information, signal to noise level on all digital services etc. They are great to observe on various stations. I find the signal meter on analogue to be too sensitive with rapid fluctuations on distant stations which makes antenna rotor adjustments difficult.

What would I really like to see added? I would like an optical digital output, a built in RF attenuator and a better remote.

The HDT-1 is overall a great unit with really nice performance for a very realistic price. The multiple display functions are great for both the novice and professional user. I would highly recommend the tuner as it is the one and only dedicated component tuner presently on the market. Sangean has really set a high benchmark.