Car HD Radio - best strategy for price and features?
Ohioguy
unexpected. We've decided to reward ourselves with an HD Radio for our car.
We actually purchased a Dual HD Radio nearly 2 years ago for about
$100 through Crutchfield. It had front USB, HD tuner, and about 8
station shortcut buttons on the front. However, we have a different
used car now.
Right now, the best deal I can find is on a JVC HD Radio at
Crutchfield. It is $99.99, but Crutchfield has a $20 off $100 coupon.
I can add a 70 cent item to my cart, get $100.69, then get $20 off that
for a total of $80.69. This also comes with free JVC speakers that I
could easily sell for $20, meaning my actual cost would be just over $60
for the radio.
Trouble is, this model does NOT have front USB or the station
shortcut buttons. I would really prefer both, because USB allows quick
access to my entire music collection. Also, the JVC radio looks like
I'd have to go into some sort of menu just to switch between stations.
I want to be able to do that ultra fast, without taking my eyes off the
road. With buttons, I can remember that a certain station is "third
from the left", and browse with my fingers, without having to look at a
menu.
I'd go with another Dual model, but there are a couple of problems
1) the price of a similar HD Radio with the features I want seems to
have jumped about 50% in the past 2 yrs.
2) I really hated that at times, signal would keep switching back and
forth between standard and HD, making it impossible to listen to that
station. I think a radio really needs an "HD off" switch, just like
many radios used to have a "mono" button you could push to pull in more
distant stations.
I suppose I could "settle" for the JVC - $60 isn't too bad for an HD
radio with front aux in. However, I'm wondering if these things tend to
go on sale in November and December, and maybe I'm just looking a month
or so early to get deals on the USB models?
Can anyone recommend a strategy for getting a model with HD tuner,
station shortcut buttons, and front USB for about $100 shipped?
Thanks!
m...@privacy.net
> We got a bit of $ back from refinancing our mortgage. Not much, but
>unexpected. We've decided to reward ourselves with an HD Radio for our car.
Question..... what advantages do you see with HD radio
and is there any DECENT programming to listen to? Or
just the typical talking heads blathering on analog
radio?
Also, can you listen to HDTV audio with HD radios?
Ohioguy
> and is there any DECENT programming to listen to? Or
> just the typical talking heads blathering on analog
> radio?
It's mostly additional programming choices. For example, evidently
they don't think there is a call for instrumental jazz in the area, but
they will carry it on the secondary station, which you can get with an
HD Radio.
In our market anyway, it comes close to doubling the choices on the
radio. I believe the issue is that they don't think there are enough
fans of certain genres to have a "regular" station, but since the
secondary station costs very little, they can have different programming
on that.
The one I wish they had on the air around here is instrumental
techno. (no vocals)