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Astonishing Sony XDRF1HD Tuner

pbda

pbda

Super Member
Astonishing Sony XDR-F1HD Tuner

As a committed vintage (and radio) enthusiast, I never thought that I would write a post like this, but I'll overcome my astonishment to report the following...

A good friend of mine, who is very much into audio, recently suggested that I demo a Sony XDR-F1HD (HD, as in "hybrid digital") tuner. This is a tiny, black plastic box with a digital display. He said that its reception and sound blew away his (very expensive) vintage tuners. The Sony is available for less than $100.

I received the tuner from Amazon yesterday. I hooked it up to my system, and I am very, very impressed. Both the sensitivity and selectivity of this unit are phenomenal. I was A-B'ing it with the tuner section of my Yamaha CR-2040 receiver (which has been worked over by Merrylander, and which has an excellent FM section), and the difference was clear. The Sony consistently pulled in stations with far less noise, and was able to clearly tune stations that the Yamaha couldn't even find (both in analog and HD modes). Weak station next to strong station? No problem. In initial listening I feel that its sound is at least as good as - and possibly better than - the analog tuners in my receivers.

I'm stunned that something so small and cheap can be so good. I have been always a committed luddite when it comes to stereo equipment, but I have to say that this little unit has caused me to rethink what modern technology is capable of producing.
 
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Much has been discussed on the little Sony. It does redefine what to expect out of FM. To quote Brian Beezley, "on stereo FM the sound quality is spectacular and unprecedented".
I think many get caught up in the politics of HD radio and miss the fact that this little tuner does wonders for analog FM. DSP processing of the analog signal has many advantages. It is very quiet and kills multipath. Long distance pulling power is superb.

As far as HD many will say it sucks since it is low bit rate much like poor MP3. Well MP3 is 20 years old now and newer codecs work much better and are more efficient. Let your ears be the judge.

HD can sound superb if and this is critical, the station broadcasting cares about sound quality. When they do care, as many stations in the N. Ca. Bay Area do, it smokes analog in a number of areas.

HD is linear and extended in the low end and not the phase shifted mess that analog FM is. High frequency response extends out to 20 KHz where it is 2 or 3 dB down.

The shocker though is dynamic range on HD where many stations are not running compression on the HD signal. If you like dynamics HD is a big plus.

Best results are with a rooftop antenna and very low capacitance patch cables between the Sony and your preamp.

thanks,
Ron-C
 
Thanks. You're confirming a lot of good things I've read about this.

One step closer to getting one.
 
OK, so much positive buzz about the little Sony that I too bought one last month. It is indeed a great DX tuner.

That being said, I also have a Delphi Roady XT XM receiver, which was free with prepayment of a years subscription, same cost as the Sony. It picks up signals from much further away:), never has noise or selectivity issues, offers a much wider variety of music, no commercials, and outputs about the same less than stellar audio quality which is adequate for background music.

Moral of my story: the Sony gets returned which pays for next years XM subscription, my Magnum Dynalab, Citation, Yamaha and Harmon Kardon tuners stay hooked up for the FM programs which I actually want to listento.

Your results may vary.
 
Well yes, the XM receiver does pick up signals from much further away; 22,300 miles - the altitude of their geosynchronous satellites. Plus those signals are relayed from an earth station so in fact the signals travel about 44,600 miles. My Sony XDRF1HD receiver would be hard pressed to receive 0.25% of that range. But we're comparing apples with fishsticks here. The XM is a pay service, HD is a free service. HD has commercials; XM not so much. XM, more diverse programming; HD, still free.
It's a tradeoff, you get what you pay for.
While I've used (and enjoyed) XM in rental cars the real beauty of it is that it brings quality programming to rural areas (but is sadly lacking in the farm reports and local activities). HD, well it's still free.
JimB
 
The girl friend picked up the Sony for me and it sounds great on the 8080db as well as on the sx-780 and the Luxman. Unfortunately some of the Hd stations have that mp3 edge that sounds like bad cd's or low bitrate but still better than XM or Sirus. It's a very sensitive little receiver and there are several mods going around to customize as well as keeping the clock up and running during power outage .

-Mike
 
That 'low bit rate' edge is not totally the tuner but the poor implementation at the station of their HD broadcast, in my opinion. If KDFC, KLLC, KQED, KKSF, and KFOG are clean and clear why are the other stations weird and wiry sounding?

Thanks,
Ron-C
 
ron-c said:
That 'low bit rate' edge is not totally the tuner but the poor implementation at the station of their HD broadcast, in my opinion. If KDFC, KLLC, KQED, KKSF, and KFOG are clean and clear why are the other stations weird and wiry sounding?

Thanks,
Ron-C
Click to expand...

Oh I agree it's the format of quality their broadcasting in. There is a huge shortage of station engineers as many were fired in the 90's and then 1 guy would take care of 4 or so stations here in the Tampa Bay area. I love my Sony receiver I only wish it was bigger and came silver faced :thmbsp:.

-Mike
 
For the money it is a steal. There will be a whole bunch of HD tuners coming soon now that the basic modules that allow high sound quality are becoming available.

Thanks,
Ron-C
 
Mmike said:
It's a very sensitive little receiver and there are several mods going around to customize as well as keeping the clock up and running during power outage .
Click to expand...

Yes, installing a larger capacitor (or even a battery kludge) so that the tuner doesn't lose its up to 40 presets five minutes after losing power would be an excellent mod.
 
What About Musicality? What Does It Sound Like?

I know how you feel. Part of the fun of vintage the is heft of the ripcord in the moring and the pageantry of flying sparks and diesel smoke when you start them. I will probably never run vintage speaks but my source tastes all run to ancient technologies. What does the unit sound like? I loved the tuner on my Sansui G8000 but it was less detailed than my Nikko Gamma V tuner which has, for a digital tuner, a very nice analog sound signature. What's the Sony sound like? Does it remind you, in analog FM mode, of other gear from the ancient past?

Peter

pbda said:
As a committed vintage (and radio) enthusiast, I never thought that I would write a post like this, but I'll overcome my astonishment to report the following...

A good friend of mine, who is very much into audio, recently suggested that I demo a Sony XDRF1HD (HD, as in "hybrid digital") tuner. This is a tiny, black plastic box with a digital display. He said that its reception and sound blew away his (very expensive) vintage tuners. The Sony is available for less than $100.

I received the tuner from Amazon yesterday. I hooked it up to my system, and I am very, very impressed. Both the sensitivity and selectivity of this unit are phenomenal. I was A-B'ing it with the tuner section of my Yamaha CR-2040 receiver (which has been worked over by Merrylander, and which has an excellent FM section), and the difference was clear. The Sony consistently pulled in stations with far less noise, and was able to clearly tune stations that the Yamaha couldn't even find (both in analog and HD modes). Weak station next to strong station? No problem. In initial listening I feel that its sound is at least as good as - and possibly better than - the analog tuners in my receivers.

I'm stunned that something so small and cheap can be so good. I have been always a committed luddite when it comes to stereo equipment, but I have to say that this little unit has caused me to rethink what modern technology is capable of producing.
Click to expand...
 
PeterFCassidy said:
I know how you feel. Part of the fun of vintage the is heft of the ripcord in the moring and the pageantry of flying sparks and diesel smoke when you start them. I will probably never run vintage speaks but my source tastes all run to ancient technologies. What does the unit sound like? I loved the tuner on my Sansui G8000 but it was less detailed than my Nikko Gamma V tuner which has, for a digital tuner, a very nice analog sound signature. What's the Sony sound like? Does it remind you, in analog FM mode, of other gear from the ancient past?

Peter
Click to expand...

Actually it does echo a certain quality of older gear: lack of high end. Maybe it's what the stations are broadcasting, but my other tuners don't roll off as fast.
 
In the HD mode the Sony certainly does go out to 20k on my spectrum analyzer which no analog FM tuner will do. If the station screws it up at their end both analog and HD will be the same. The better stations are not compressing the HD signal as they would do on analog FM.

Thanks,
Ron-C
 
I think I'll take the plunge. The price is such that I'm willing to take a gamble. From what I've read on the reviews other than you guys, this seems to be a pretty sweet deal. With the antenna I have and the fact I can receive analog fairly decent even from DX areas I'm curious to see how this tuner stacks up against the TU-9900.

Not that I'm getting rid of it, I'm just curious :D
 
The Sony will not replace the Sansui. The Sansui will still be the great tuner it has always been. There will be stations that work on the Sony and sound better. Goes the other way to.

thanks,
Ron-C
 
pbda said:
Yes, installing a larger capacitor (or even a battery kludge) so that the tuner doesn't lose its up to 40 presets five minutes after losing power would be an excellent mod.
Click to expand...

I think I'll hook it up to a battery ups and work on the Sansui's in the mean time.

-Mike
 
PeterFCassidy said:
What's the Sony sound like? Does it remind you, in analog FM mode, of other gear from the ancient past?
Click to expand...

Early days yet, but my initial impressions are that it sounds at least as musical as, and possibly more than, the tuner in my Yamaha CR-2040. At some point I'll haul the Marantz 2600 out (which has the best tuner section that I own) and compare it.

My friend who recommended the Sony has a Sansui TU-9900. He feels that the Sansui has a slight edge in musicality, but that the superior tuning ability of the Sony more than compensates for this.
 
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