Sony XDR-F1HD first impressions as a DX machine on a budget

crooner

Tube Marantzed
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Intrigued by this post By fellow AK'er Bastek, I bought this little guy last night at my local Fry's for $99 plus tax.

The smaller footprint is ideal when space is at a premium. My rack is already populated with tube gear, digital rig and turntable. Didn't have a spare shelf for a full sized component.

I was able to place the Sony on top of my subwoofer and still have plenty of space for the remote controls and the PC powered speakers that I use for DX 24/7 monitoring.

The XDR-F1HD was connected to my outdoor APS-9B antenna which is raised approximately 35 feet off the ground. I also have an infrared wireless remote controlled Channel Master rotator on the mast.

First impressions are very positive. This little radio is a marvel for DX work. It features RDS, helpful for ID'ing distant stations. It also offers extremely sharp selectivity due to the DSP engine based IF curves. Unprecedented at this price level.

Adjacent channels can routinely be received with no splash or other kind of interference, even with powerful local stations.

Sensitivity is also above average, with DX appearing in previously empty frequencies.

The Marantz 10B, a DX champ in its own right, was also capable of receiving the same amount of adjacent channels. Except for 91.5 KUSC, a classical station from Los Angeles. It could barely get it, but with tons of interference from a local powerhouse at 91.7. The Sony was able to receive it quite cleanly.

In selectivity, the Sony is comparable to the Onkyo T-G10 (T-9090II) in super narrow mode. But without the increased THD caused by conventional narrow ceramic filters.

In the heavily congested FM spectrum of the San Diego area, it is not infrequent for cheap tuners and radios to crossmodulate or create images of the strongest local stations. Not so with the Sony. Again, unprecedented for $99.

The Sangean HDT-1X which I previously talked about in an older thread, also had excellent selectivity due to the DSP IF filtering, mandatory for HDRadio reception. However, the price of $250 wasn't the greatest value out there. The big box, empty inside, also dissuaded me from keeping it.

The little Sony is quite attractive with DX performance unheard-of for such a low price. It has minor quibbles, like the lack of a stereo indicator for analog. Also, you cannot switch manually to analog from a HDRadio signal. The unit runs a little warm, like an older TV cable box.

But I can't really fault it, for all the good things that it offers. For the DX enthusiast, it is without peer, specially at the price.

If you are looking for a nifty, modern, little tuner for 24/7 DX work, this is it. Mine's a keeper!

.....Oh, and in regards to sound quality, I haven't hooked it up to my main rig yet. I am no expecting great things in this department. But connected to my little PC speakers, it sounds very pleasing and detailed.

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Update:
Just picked up a low powered College station from West Los Angeles. It's KXLU 88.9 from Loyola Marymount University. Never heard this before.

The coverage area for this station is quite small according to Radio Locator, barely a few miles short of Huntington Beach.

I'm 140 miles away in East San Diego county!!
 
Hi,

Even if you don't like HD and need a decent tuner on a budget, this is a nice buy. A broadcast consultant engineer bought one and brought it over. It's sensitive, selective and has decent sound quality. Many of these will see air monitor service in broadcast facilities. A good buy!
 
Hmm, sounds very interesting. What does it have for outputs, digital? Or just analog? Have you peeked inside the box to see if there's any possibility of component upgrades? I'll bet everything's micro-miniature and SMC's...
 
Yeah, it's all SMC, as expected, so the chances for modding are small. The main RF and digital processing circuitry is enclosed in shielded modules.

There's no digital output, just regular analog.
 
As mentioned in another thread, I have had one of these for a couple months. It has a 13 dB high frequency roll off at 15kHz for weak signals, which is part of the bag of tricks to help with weak signal reception. Certainly it's OK for reception, but I found, after a while, I just couldn't listen to it in my main system. I guess if you like logging DX stations, or use it for low level background, (or don't listen closely for sound quality) it may work great. It is pretty good for 100., but I'm not using it to replace other better sounding (to me) tuners. All the analog FM signals go through a digital processor then a digital to analog converter. There are some odd digital artifacts present in the analog signal bandwidth, and the ultimate signal to noise ratio is substantially less than top vintage tuners.
But for 100. pretty decent.
 
The adaptive digital domain NR technique certainly helps to clean up very weak signals to allow ID when DX'ing. A boon for us DX FM freaks.

In the past you had to use high-blend which was somewhat effective depending on the tuner's implementation of the circuit or simply switch to mono.

For hi-fi listening this is certainly detrimental. In such a case one should use a tuner with high quality MPX decoding, capable of maintaining good stereo separation and phase integrity with weak signals.
 
Thanks for the review, Crooner. That makes me want to go down to J$R tomorrow and pick one up. Even if i' m not happy with it in my main rig, it will be a great bedroom radio with my powered ARs. What's $99 today, a tank of gas?
 
Yeah that's true. That's why I was particularly eager to try this unit. DSP processing of the IF (intermediate frequency) used to be reserved to communication receivers costing thousands of dollars. And this was only a few years ago!
 
Flash Update!!

Hooked up the tuner to my Marantz tube rig tonight. Used a regular cheap RCA cable. Nothing fancy.

So far, this thing rocks in the sound quality department as well. Specially on analog. The midrange is excellent with vocals nicely fleshed out. It has deep and tuneful bass. The image is on the narrow side but depth and localization of instruments is very good. These evaluations were made with KKJZ in Long Beach and KSDS in San Diego, both top notch Jazz stations.

The adaptive noise reduction appears to have been well designed. With weak signals it preserves stereo separation. Cymbals and other high frequency instruments are not muted, yet atmospheric noise and hiss are greatly reduced.

HDRadio is mixed bag. On some stations it sounds very close to the analog signal. On others it's full of wiry/fluttery MP3 like artifacts. I guess it depends on how complex the music is, and the skills of the station engineer.

Conclusion: don't walk, run to your local store and get one of these marvels. For $99 it's the steal of the year!
 
I didn't run or walk-I ordered one from Amazon; had it in 4 days. It's pretty amazing! I'm using an APS 13 aimed due east at NYC (45mi). I'm 70mi north of Phila. It picks up 90.9 (NPR) in Philly without re-aiming the antenna and I've found another station I didn't know existed before! My other tuners: Yamaha TX 1000, APS modified T85, and Pioneer F 91, all should be superior to this little/cheap toy, but are humbled by it's DXing abilities. Just amazing.
And now, WNYC (NYC NPR) has become 3 stations. Cool. I'm still continuing my pursuit of the holy grail: to receive 90.7 (Fordham U in the Bronx)very clearly in stereo. I'll install an antenna rotor and play around with Gafset preamps, but can honestly say that ABing against my other tuners with weaker signals, the Sony prevails. With a better signal, the other tuners sound a little lusher, but it's still a horse race. Phil
 
Hi Phil!
Glad to know you liked the Sony.

I've also discovered DX stations previously buried in HD self-noise or just plain interference from neighboring stations.
The unit uses digital NR technology to reduce perceived interstation "hush" but still manages to bring in a weak station. Amazing to say the least!

I was also able to receive my favorite Jazz station, KKJZ 88.1 Long Beach, in HD the other day. Pretty amazing considering the distance which is close to 120 miles. Regular analog comes in a little bit noisy at this point, so HD does represent an improvement.
 
How well does it handle high RFI environments? My office is next to the San Jose airport in a tall glass building. Every office suite has its own WiFi. My Toshiba SA-7100 and rabbit ears gets very few stations with a high signal strength background everywhere.

Also might try it at home with my roof antenna for KPIG over the hills.
 
How well does it handle high RFI environments? My office is next to the San Jose airport in a tall glass building. Every office suite has its own WiFi. My Toshiba SA-7100 and rabbit ears gets very few stations with a high signal strength background everywhere.

Also might try it at home with my roof antenna for KPIG over the hills.

Unit is well shielded, and in my high RFI enviroment (nearby WiFi squeezebox network player, plus all the neighbor's WiFi gadgets!) there are no signs of problems. I also have several FM transmitters in a 20 mile radius.
 
I understand that there is no way to defeat the HDR and force analog. I wonder if there is an internal mod to eliminate the HDR?
 
Omagosh!

I bought one and hooked it up at home using the supplied dipole. I was amazed the my "stretch" station, KPIG, came in loud and clear. This is a difficult station for me, one that I can only get with my roof-top, rotatorized, big antenna and then only with a marine layer.

I'm very impressed with the DX ability of this machine.

On my regular station, KKUP, with is beautiful sound quality, the Sony was a clear decrement to the Sony STR-5000F.

I brought it in to the office and will try it there but so far, its DX capability is impressive but on strong signals, the sound quality is acceptable but not competitive to my prime tuners.

The HDR capablity is a bug, not a feature. I get a few commercial stations and a jazz non-commercial station in HDR and find the sound quality disconcerting. It is definitely "digital" in character and has rather ugly breakup sounds and artifacts.

If I was interested in background music, it might serve but for sitting and listening, it irritates.

Yes, it runs hot.

I'll report on its performance in my my high RFI office environment later.
 
Having using it for a while, I'd love to have a way to select analog only.
I wonder why it makes so much heat-you'd think it was tubed!
And I wonder what it would do in a car's environment; with an omnidirectional antenna in that environment I'll bet it would pull some amazing stations--that would change every five feet!
 
Having using it for a while, I'd love to have a way to select analog only.
I wonder why it makes so much heat-you'd think it was tubed!
And I wonder what it would do in a car's environment; with an omnidirectional antenna in that environment I'll bet it would pull some amazing stations--that would change every five feet!

It generates a lot of heat because these first generation HD and digital processing chip sets require higher voltage, draw more current (compared to portable devices) and use extensive regulation. Just like the first generation CD players.

Samsung has just announced a low voltage HD chip suitable for iPod style portable devices, so expect future home models to use those as well.

The little Sony may become a classic of sorts. The first consumer tuner to have 100dB adjacent channel selectivity using IF filters packaged on high integration chips. A prediction made by Richard Modafferi, designer of the McIntosh MR78, in his RiMO filter Audio magazine article back in 1979. Took almost 30 years to finally come to fruition!
 
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