When I bought my Clubman in '08, HD radio was a $500 option, IIRC. Since I was getting Sirius, I saw no point. In addition, my research mentioned spotty adaptation of the technology by stations, the questionable future for the service, the US tech being inferior to the EU version(s), etc. I also read about small stations being crowded off the airwaves by bleedover from HD stations that broadcast at higher wattages than prior to HD. All or none of that may still be true, but either way, I didn't get it. So, I had no experience with it.

Until I was put in a loaner Coupe with HDR, but no Sirius. I had about a 2.5 hour round trip, so I started playiing with the HD stations. Well, I'm more than a little surprised.

First, it's still only a subset of the broadcast stations that have bought in. They also seem to under-utilize the features. It's more likely that you'll hit a station that has RDS ID than one that provides all the data to their HD feed. So, you don't get genre information, for example. But every music station I found did have artist information; you just have to go to the HD "list" to find it. That seems like an error in execution to me.

The sound quality is excellent. On FM, the dynamic range exceeds Sirius by a noticeable amount. The highs and lows are both better. It did seem that the volume level was lower for most stations, but it sounded better turned up. HD AM sounds like good FM. I don't know if it's stereo, as I didn't listen to music on AM. But talk sounds much, much better. I know this because...

HD comes and goes. That's the only downside that I found. Just like normal broadcast radio, the range of FM stations is greater, so you notice the HD dropping out more on AM, and in places (low areas, for example) that FM doesn't. But FM can be intermitten as well. Also, like Sirius, the radio has to "acquire" the HD signal, so there can be an annoying delay when going from a normal preset station to an HD one.

Would I pay extra for it? Probably not, if I was still going to get satellite radio. The difference I guess is that HD gets you on the front end, while satellite gets you every month. So, since my Countryman has HD, I'll be enjoying that when I get bored or aggravated with Sirius.

 

In DFW area I'll hear a subtle change in my radio and its from going from standard to HD , there is a time lag as well, digital delay. But yes the sound quality is great. Glad mine came with it.

 

In my Mini, the HD radio does indeed sound better than Sirius/XM. Satellite radio almost sounds like it's being broadcast thru a cave. That said, satellite is the way to go when traveling outside the city.

 

I read somewhere about the reasons that some satellite radio transmissions were not or were no longer "CD quality." It certainly doesn't sound as good to me as when I added it to my VW many years ago. But for trips, it keeps me from getting homicidal when I'm in the boonies and local radio bloze.

 

I think hands down HD is better for sound quality. The way I understand it is HD radio is digital while XM is not. Which I thought at first was strange. I would have thought XM would have been digital...but I guess not. Good thing around here is that a lot of FM stations are going HD.

 

+1

 

XM and Sirius are digital. The sound is degraded from heavy compression of the audio data (just like an mp3 file can be resampled at a lower rate to create a smaller file, at the expense of sound quality). The heavy compression allows XM to squeeze many radio channels into the same data stream.

The same could potentially happen to HD radio. Local stations can choose to broadcast multiple subchannels on the frequency they own. They would have to split the total data capacity among the subchannels using data compression, degrading the sound quality like XM and Sirius. However, HD radio has never really caught on, so local stations haven't been motivated to create many subchannels. For the foreseeable future, you'll probably continue to get good sound on a small number of subchannels rather than worse sound on many subchannels.

 

That's good info. Its a good thing around here more and more radio stations are going the HD route. Im all for sound quality. I am very happy with HD radio. But XM has its pluses as well

 

I continue to be impressed by the music quality and the voice clarity of HD. The intermittent signal at the end of the station reach is annoying, but not a complete negative. If I hadda choose, I'd keep satellite, because of the channels I get, and that I get 'em everywhere, but since I don't have to-I'll enjoy them both.

 

I am mid way through a full audio system change. I have a 09 r57 that now has a Pioneer 9600 head unit, Polk MM Series 6.5" Components in the doors and Polk 6.5" 2ways in the rear qtrs. Ended up changing amps as the original polk one I picked out is on back order plus changed to a 12" sub in a custom cabinet which will go where the bottom rear seat was.. Even with only the head unit for power sound difference is huge. HD Radio sounds fantastic but oddly enough Bluetooth streamed audio sounds the best. Sub, box and amp not going in till next week but will be going from 50wx4 to 150x4 600w to sub, should be a mild upgrade