CNET's review of the Boston Acoustics Recepter HD radio

Let's face it. My first choice would be to do a review of the the Boston Acoustics Recepter HD radio myself.But I've asked Boston Acoustics twice for a demo unit to review and they just don't answer me. Guess I'm too small a fish for BA to bother with. Having said, I did want to post a review, so here is what CNET said about the unit.

"We gave Boston Acoustics' original Recepter table radio a positive review last year, so we had high hopes for its new Recepter Radio HD. It shares the original's styling and rich sound but adds a new technology, HD Radio. This digital radio system comes with the promise of CD-quality sound, and unlike the original single-speaker model, the Recepter Radio HD is a two-piece stereo unit that ships with a tiny remote controll

"At this point, the Boston Acoustics Recepter Radio HD is available only in a silvery platinum finish--not the white and black options found on the earlier Recepter. The radio is pretty small, a mere 4 inches high, 7.5 wide, and 6 deep, while the second speaker is 4 inches high, 4.5 wide, and 6 deep. That speaker has a permanently attached 18-inch cable, and Boston Acoustics throws in a 10-foot extension cable. The large blue LCD shows the clock, as well as the AM and FM frequencies. When tuned to HD Radio, the display shows station call letters and song and artist info, not to mention additional data such as tidbits of stock quotes and news headlines, your local traffic, and weather--if the HD station supports those features.

"The radio comes with both AM and FM antennas already connected, but the FM antenna pulled in only a handful of the 15 HD stations available in New York City. Frustrated, we hooked up an FM antenna from an old Denon receiver and had better luck: the radio pulled in almost all of the HD stations in our area. Why Boston Acoustics didn't include a better FM antenna with this $299 radio is beyond our comprehension. On the upside, there's no separate HD antenna to install--just tune to any AM and FM station broadcasting in HD, and you get HD Radio,

"The Boston Acoustics Recepter Radio HD's sound is very bassy, but we're pretty sure most owners will like its rich sonics, and the little radio sounded satisfyingly full even when we played it at reduced volume levels. HD may be the big draw, but the radio's AM and FM reception was way above average; it pulled in difficult-to-receive college and public radio stations cleanly, with minimal background static.'''

The Recepter HD costs $300. That's somewhat steep for "just a radio," but the outboard stereo speaker (which isn't included with the $150 AM/FM-only Recepter) and free digital content more than ease the sting. We're looking forward to HD Radio becoming a standard feature in more full-featured models such as Boston's own MicroSystem CD. Until then, radio listeners who don't want to shell out $13 a month for a satellite-radio subscription will find a worthy alternative in the sweet-sounding Boston Acoustics Recepter Radio HD.

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