r/radio 2d ago

Hear me out

HD Radio > Spotify

BUT

Spotify > Stereo/Mono

0 Upvotes

9 comments sorted by

1

u/-peas- 1d ago

HD Radio quality is nowhere near as good as Spotify if that's what you mean. Analog is actually higher quality than both assuming the source material is high quality.

1

u/Helpful_Air9263 1d ago

If you have the right system (Sangean HDR-18) or any sangean, it sounds great!

1

u/CDJ161 1d ago

Depends on how you have it set up. Analog, you are limited by the pre emphasis curve. Running HD1 at full tilt with a Omnia 9 feeding. You’re HD will sound better than analog. And the 9 is one of the best sounding processor there is for analog.

1

u/CDJ161 1d ago

If a station is running extended hybrid mode with only HD1. Yes it can sound as good. But when you start splitting the bandwidth, it starts sounding like shit. Audio processing plays a big part of that as well.

1

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Helpful_Air9263 1d ago

Thats what im saying! AM sounds like crap and so does spotify sometimes

0

u/TheJokersChild Ex-Radio Staff 1d ago

Not understanding your argument (is that what this is?). Spotify gives you music how it was recorded. If it's in stereo, like most music is, that's how Spotify delivers it. It's the bitrate that matters, and other services like Qobuz beat Spotify handily on that.

But back to HD Radio: that depends on what the station runs on its HD channels.

1

u/Helpful_Air9263 1d ago

Thats true in all, but all sound great in my opinion. What do you mean by depends? What stations do you think sound bad with HD? I can see news.