XDR-F1HD replacemet recommendations

Best bang for my buck Ive had in 47 years of hi-fi and audiophile listening. There was a huge difference in listening soley to the HD signals in my local area, especially classical. Starting about 4 years ago, tried to get Sony to 100% confirm why they stop making them and got nothing but BS and can-of-worms responses.

Mine went poof at Christmas.

Looking for replacement recommendations. Realize I cant get the same quality for $89 like the F1HD, but definitely want HD. This isnt a thread to open up debates about analog vs HD FM listening tastes, or about vintage analog tuners.

KKnight said:

SNIP

Mine went poof at Christmas.

SNIP

Click to expand...

So why not send it to Mike Williams (Punker X) and let him revive it and update it? He literally turns a stock sow's ear into a state-of-the-art silk purse.

He's modded two of them for me.

As always, YMMV.

If you are looking for a new HD tuner, as far as I know only McIntosh makes one. Cheaper to get yours fixed.

Vinyl Rules! said:

So why not send it to Mike Williams (Punker X) and let him revive it and update it? He literally turns a stock sow's ear into a state-of-the-art silk purse.

He's modded two of them for me.

As always, YMMV.

Click to expand...

Wrong. Thanks, no. Talked to punkerX years ago and the kind of money he wanted for his mods were ridiculous. Just not worth it. Surely there is a suitable, affordable, new replacement alternative to the old F1HD.

There was at least one Sony table radio (with speakers) that had basically the same tuner. It had a "tuner out" port too.

I thought it was pretty good looking too but I can't remember the model number.

Denon close out tuner

There was a close out on a Denon multi-input tuner for about 400 bucks recently - this unit has four "slots" to take either multiple AM/FM tuner modules , XM/Sirius module or a HD module in any of it's slots. idea was you could send different programs to separate rooms in the manse. My guess is you'll still have at least 500 bucks into this thing to get it with HD module. I've owned some pretty good tuners over the years (Marantz 10B , the Top of the line Tandberg -can't remember the model number ?) - in terms of DXing - nothing touches these little Sony's - part of this is simply antenna placement luck (high ridge) - but I reliably pull in stations from Madison , Green Bay and Chicago from slightly N-W of Milwaukee ,Wi.
The performance of these is simply stunning at pulling in distant stations - build quality - ah ,hmm ,eck -OK -not very impressive. Loaned my second Sony to a buddy who keeps trying to get me to sell/trade it to him and I keep explaining to him that these are not all that well built and I anticipate going thru one and needing it's replacement. Suggest Punker X repair/upgrade/replacement is the only route to go once you've had one of the little Sony's -yer probably spoiled for life -whether you know it now or not.

See the Denon TU-604CI thread. You can obtain the unit but the ACD-HD tuner card is no where to be bought or found so far.

And, after all these years. no one has a direct source to Sony exactly, specifically why the F1HD was discontinued. I know "Sony repair" in Tx was the absolute worst and were making any kind of excuse possible to not repair any of them for any reason, at any time.

I wanted to get a HD tuner, and i realized how IMPOSSIBLE it is to get one that is reasonably priced and is a standalone component tuner (i.e. not in your car or in your massive HT receiver). I do not understand why literally no one makes them.

Anyway, getting the Sony was too expensive, so i bought a Sangean HDT-1X, listening to it right now actually. Put me back $150 on eBay. On ebay because the Sangean is discontinued as well. I think it's worth it, its a good tuner.

KKnight said:

Wrong. Thanks, no. Talked to punkerX years ago and the kind of money he wanted for his mods were ridiculous. Just not worth it. Surely there is a suitable, affordable, new replacement alternative to the old F1HD.

Click to expand...

Doesn't have to be modified to be fixed and I suppose I should just work for free.

I was wondering if you were going to chime in.

Punker X did some mods on my Sony a while back. I thought his work and prices were well in line.:thmbsp:

Not sure what kind of pricing you were expecting but PunkerX/RadioX pricing is in line with any other reputable repair/restoration/mod service provider.

Although, he hasn't serviced any of my tuners, it's only because I have someone local which precludes me from having to deal with shipping. Otherwise, his reputation would warrant me to use his service.

As for any tuner that's similar in performance or better than the Sony for $89, I can't think of any other than buying an older vintage tuner from the 70's or 80's, although you'd have to give up the HD aspect.

KKnight said:

Wrong. Thanks, no. Talked to punkerX years ago and the kind of money he wanted for his mods were ridiculous. Just not worth it. Surely there is a suitable, affordable, new replacement alternative to the old F1HD.

Click to expand...

John James said:

Punker X did some mods on my Sony a while back. I thought his work and prices were well in line.:thmbsp:

Click to expand...

+1 here.

KKnight said:

Wrong. Thanks, no. Talked to punkerX years ago and the kind of money he wanted for his mods were ridiculous. Just not worth it. Surely there is a suitable, affordable, new replacement alternative to the old F1HD.

Click to expand...

I sent my XDRF1HD last year to "punkerX" ....Yeh...All decked out was 150 clams.

BUT for me...Wroth every Penny.....:yes:

Sangean HDT-1 tuners at Shopgoodwill:

They have 3 of them NIB starting at $5 auction. No affiliation.

http://www.shopgoodwill.com/

Digital and analog AM and FM.

Day-Sequerra does make HD tuners now but they are expensive.

KiM3Ce said:

Sangean HDT-1 tuners at Shopgoodwill:

They have 3 of them NIB starting at $5 auction. No affiliation.

http://www.shopgoodwill.com/

Digital and analog AM and FM.

Day-Sequerra does make HD tuners now but they are expensive.

Click to expand...

Yours are the 1 series, not the 1X series, and worth ~$25 new or not. Scary the uninformed bidders are offering 3-4 times what they are worth already. The 36 and more issues with the HDT-1 is unacceptable. http://ham-radio.com/k6sti/hdt-1.htm

John James said:

Punker X did some mods on my Sony a while back. I thought his work and prices were well in line.:thmbsp:

Click to expand...

True that... and I haven't sent any work his way. Checked the prices and when compared with bench prices for general electronic work, his rates are quite reasonable! :thmbsp: Hey, gotta give props to a local guy!

I bought both HD tuners when they first came out ( Sangean HDT-1 & Sony XDR-F1HD )

The Sangean has never given me any problems and is very user friendly although I like the performance of the Sony XDR-F1HD far better,
sometimes the Sangean will have trouble keeping a lock on the HD-2 channels and will shift over to the HD-1 channel and sometimes the
HD signal will drift in and out of HD on the HD-1 channels.


Now my Sony HD tuner had a channel go out on me about 18 months ago and when I took it apart I found the RCA jack on the back of
the unit broke loose from the circuit board and lost it's connection, I was able to fix the circuit board and reestablish a connection and
that's the only time I ever had any trouble with it. The Sony pulls in stations way better then most tuners I own or have owned in the
past, it locks onto the HD signal and holds on it extremely well.

I have some very good HD-2 channels from the Collage stations in the area I live so the HD tuners are here to stay for me as long as
they keep broadcasting the great variety of non commercial music they do and I can keep these tuners in working condition.

Maybe your Sony XDR-F1HD can be fixed for a reasonable cost, it might be worth looking into it more, try to get multiple opinions on
what's wrong with your unit.

KKnight said:

Yours are the 1 series, not the 1X series, and worth ~$25 new or not. Scary the uninformed bidders are offering 3-4 times what they are worth already. The 36 and more issues with the HDT-1 is unacceptable. http://ham-radio.com/k6sti/hdt-1.htm

Click to expand...

Good luck finding those for $25...what makes you think they're so worthless? Those go for around $150 all day.

KKnight said:

Best bang for my buck Ive had in 47 years of hi-fi and audiophile listening. There was a huge difference in listening soley to the HD signals in my local area, especially classical. Starting about 4 years ago, tried to get Sony to 100% confirm why they stop making them and got nothing but BS and can-of-worms responses.

Mine went poof at Christmas.

Looking for replacement recommendations. Realize I cant get the same quality for $89 like the F1HD, but definitely want HD. This isnt a thread to open up debates about analog vs HD FM listening tastes, or about vintage analog tuners.

Click to expand...

IMO, pony up the clams to have PunkerX fix it and have him work his magic on it as well.......if he would still be willing.