Tammy told me yesterday that KUT is now broadcasting KUT3, an all jazz channel, over the radio via HD Radio. If you know me, you know one of the few things I miss about LA is KKJZ, one of the few all-Jazz radio stations. So this plus my ambivalence about my IH9 radio led to hunt for an HD Radio system.
And it looks like Best Buy has a winner with this system. It has everything and the kitchen sink in a relatively attractive package. An ipod dock, CD/DVD player with video out, HD Radio, USB. The only thing it doesn’t have is Bluetooth or ethernet/wifi for Internet Radio.
I read a bunch of “reviews” online which were nothing but nice platitudes and a few pictures of the thing in box. Please. Here’s my real opinion of it after using it for a day:
- It’s sufficient as an alarm clock. It’s got one alarm with a basic sleep function. No weekend support and you can’t pick the function to wake up to.
- The remote is reflects the insane amount of functionality as it’s got a ton of buttons. The system has an annoying lag of a second to respond to button presses, even something as simple as volume up/down. The remote isn’t terribly ergonomic - on a large remote you usually want the volume buttons to be in the left middle so they naturally fall under the thumb when picked up.
- The HD radio reception is WEAK. I live in Central Austin maybe 5-10 miles from the KUT antenna (at the top of the A in Austin on this reception map) and the stock antenna would not pick up the HD channels. However one very good point is that the FM antenna connection is standard coax so I plugged the system into the room’s cable connection and this gave it enough metal to pick up the station.
- The speaker wires are prefitted with connections. Nice touch. However they are hardwired to the speaker. Not good for those of us with cats who love to snack on electrical wiring.
- The stock EQ is extremely bass heavy. I set it to -4 Bass and +6 Treble before it sounded relatively flat. The sound is great and fills my bedroom, no problems.
In short, this thing is great. It’s got a few quirks but nothing that is a deal breaker. It’s about $30 more than the IH9 but in my opinion there’s simply no comparison. The separate speakers give much, much better sound and true stereo. The ability to replace an existing DVD player is great and makes for a nice, inexpensive all-in-one bedroom system. If you are considering a new micro system, give it a try!
2 responses so far ↓
1 Don // Feb 7, 2009 at 9:29 am
Agree with your review; great little package. But be warned. The remote provides the only access to many system functions including high def. radio mode. My remote failed and I can’t find a replacement. You could end up with a lot less functionality than you bargined for!
2 Mike Perham // Feb 7, 2009 at 9:34 am
I’m a little more unhappy with the system these days. I find the system really slow - it takes 10 seconds to boot up, takes 5 seconds to switch functions.
I find the alarm annoying because I still don’t know how to cancel the alarm! Every Saturday I get woken up.
In short, it’s got a ton of functionality but does none of it very well. I’d look for something else these days.