Sangean HDT-20 HD Radio/FM-Stereo/AM Component Tuner Black

10 reviews for Sangean HDT-20 HD Radio/FM-Stereo/AM Component Tuner Black

1. 

   5 out of 5

   ElkRiverJohn – March 24, 2020

   I have been using tuners and radios for many years. This unit is the best tuner I have ever heard and used. This unit is as good as the radio in my Toyota Tundra! I tried this tuner because WVU switched from a locally owned radio network to IMG Sports and the powerful local stations no longer carried Mountaineer sports. The FM stations that broadcast WVU sports has spotty reception in my area even though the stations are only about 20 miles away. I even have a powerful FM antenna but the radios I had did not get good reception on these stations in my family room and these are not cheap radios. I need a radio separate from my audio system because I use a delay device to sync the radio broadcast with the video from various networks via Direct TV. This tuner solved my problem. The AM reception is excellent also. The only complaint I have is that the tuner does not remember the date and time setting following an outage. The pre-sets are remembered. I have another place up in the hills on Elk River where I have a similar setup and will buy another tuner for this location. Reception there is truly marginal and I expect similar good results. Update 10/28/17. As I said above, I purchased a second HDT-20 for our place on Elk RIver. This house is in a gorge similar to, but not as deep as the New River Gorge that is about 30 miles away. The hills are about 700 feet higher than our house and feature lots of rock cliffs. I began using an omni directional antenna like the one I use in Teays Valley but the reception was garbled, probably due to mulit-path distortion. Needless to say, I was disappointed . I then installed a yagi FM antenna and oriented it toward the broadcast antenna and the reception problem was resolved. This radio serves my needs and I still recommend it.

2. 

   5 out of 5

   Amazon Customer – April 23, 2020

   WoW! I can’t stop playing with this great tuner. I was originally looking at component level tuners from brand “N” and “Y” and took a chance on this Sangean, being familiar with several of their portable radios and rep for quality. Here’s the summary:Pros:* $100-$200 savings vs. competing tuners that lack HD feature and much more.* Came with a remote and batteries. Several other high-end tuners do not!* Superb quality sound through my amp esp. compared to my use of portables that I “thought” were “good enough.”* Many controls such as display dimmer, volume for headphones, and even alarm clocks.* Big tuning knob and 10 direct access memory presets for each band, AM and FM. 20 total* Excellent sensitivity. Just getting started with antenna placement but with dipole I’m picking up all the challenging stations that were vexing all of my “high-end” portable tuners. I’m in a low area around Denver suburbs which has been frustrating as an avid radio listener. I believe my problem is solved. I’ve not yet tried AM band yet.Cons:* Believe it or not, I’ve not found any yet and I consider myself a picky radio guy. Happy listening!

3. 

   5 out of 5

   BMW1 – July 12, 2020

   As a result of the pandemic, many of us (me included) were required to work exclusively from home. I decided to make the most of it, so I hired a professional crew to remodel my spare 2nd bedroom and turn it into a stunning new home office. Since I knew I would be spending a good part of my weekdays working at the computer in that room, I decided to install an audiophile-quality stereo system with a beautiful sounding Marantz CD6006 CD player and AudioQuest (Evergreen-1M) RCA cables. I also bought an exquisite pair of Klipsch Reference Premier 8000 floor speakers (glossy piano black finish) and the NAD C 316BEE Integrated Amplifier connecting to this wonderful HD Tuner by Sangean via Blue Jean RCA cables. This HD Tuner has a flawless sound quality, and it is a rare bird since I did some thorough research online to make sure I bought the best one on the market. This HD Tuner was much nicer than its competition in features, sound clarity, appearance, remote control, and build quality. Now I can listen to my classical music station (WRR 101.1 in Dallas) in HD at low volume while glancing up at the screen on the Sangean HD Tuner to see who wrote the piece (i.e. Mozart or Haydn or Bach) and the name of the piece being played. Some things in life are a “must have”, and high-end home audio components will always fall into that category for me. I am very pleased with this wonderful product. P.S. I also own the Sangean HD Tuner (Portable Radio version) for my new Master Bathroom. It is an excellent product and very attractive.

4. 

   5 out of 5

   Jeffrey HJeffrey H – August 22, 2020

   I bought this tuner for my home because i couldn’t find a receiver that picks up HD radio. I’ve had this tuner for a few days now and I like it.What it comes in the box:-Power cord-Remote control with batteries-FM dipole antennae with 300ohm coax converter-AM loop antennaePros:-Dimmable display backlight (High, medium, low, off)-Low power consumption (mine uses 1.5 watts when the backlight display is on full — that’s about 15 cents a month with 24/7 usage — and 1.3 watts when the backlight display is off)-Signal strength indicator-Great sound quality-Digital outputs-Sleep function-When switching between stations, the sound fades gentlyCons:-When you power it off, it remembers what frequency you were tuned to, but it doesn’t remember whether you were tuned to analog or HD on that frequency

5. 

   5 out of 5

   Stephen H. Orel – September 5, 2020

   in terms of FM reception it significantly outperforms my old NAD 7100, which is an impressive feat. sound quality is very good. only complaint is the number of presets — 10 is not nearly enough. My old NAD had 14 and that is a 30-year old component. The tuner is good enough to receive around 40 FM stations which is amazing. AM reception is useless, not in same league as a $10 transistor radio. However, several of the AM stations I would listen to are on their FM counterparts’ HD+ channels, and all the sports talk I once listened to on AM has moved to FM where I still don’t listen to it any more anyway. . I would not miss AM if it were completely absent and do not downgrade the tuner on that account.

6. 

   5 out of 5

   Lou J. Anschuetz – September 6, 2020

   We live just north of an area considered to be radio free [essentially no AM/FM/TV/Cell]. As such, getting any radio station from our location is difficult at best.The HDT-20 did better in our location for FM than any previous stand-alone or rack mounted FM receiver, hence the 5 star review. But, it should be noted that this was only with a 6 foot high gain vertical antenna. The provided wire antenna did nothing for us.Alas, there was no success whatsoever with the AM receiver portion, which was kind of expected. This was true no matter how high or distant the supplied antenna was placed. I’m not holding this against the receiver as no radio has ever been able to pull in any AM station in our area.The HD portion of the radio works fine, but the GUI is a bit confusing in it’s communications. Blinking suggests that you should tune up to the HD 1 version, but doing so always turns off HD, which is on and fine despite blinking if you just leave it alone. This may be my reading error of course and your results may be different.Sound quality is quite reasonable with the radio re-producing the heavily low mid sound preferred by FM stations for decades. I’m easily able to hear the poorly adjusted compressor on one of my local classical stations, so detail is well presented.The remote is OK, though the power button seems to be a bit hit or miss. It suffers from the usual too many identical buttons performing different functions, but that is sort of the “norm” these days.All in all it seems a good deal for the price point and I would recommend it.

7. 

   5 out of 5

   ferrels – September 17, 2020

   There isn’t much to say about this product except that it performs just as advertised. Since it’s the only HD FM Tuner on the market, it wins by default so I was a bit concerned that it might be more cheap junk from overseas. I was pleasantly surprised. It’s easy to use, sound quality is fantastic and the build quality is top of the line. I noticed several people complaining about the display being too bright, but come on you knuckleheads, the screen brightness is adjustable. Another reviewer also complained that whenever he turns the unit off that the tuner won’t be tuned to his last listening station when he turns it back on. He either has a faulty unit or he’s plugging the unit’s power cord into the back of a 110v outlet on the back of his stereo amplifier. If you do that, the unit loses all power when you turn your stereo amplifier off, and yes, then you lose the last station…..so for goodness sake’s, just plug this unit into the wall or a power strip so that it doesn’t get power cycled every time your turn off your stereo amplifier.

8. 

   5 out of 5

   emptywait – September 29, 2020

   Wow, this is better than I had hoped! I was assuming I would have to send it back, but this is a keeper! I’m a DJ at both our classical and rock stations, so it’s nice to be able to hear my shows off air. The problem is that I live in a fringe area probably 50 miles from the transmitters and I have a hill nearby between me and the transmitters. The tuner in my Onkyo receiver (only analog of course) has enough noise on most stations to render them unlistenable. I was really skeptical that this Sangean HDT-20 would be able to get enough signal to lock on to the HD signal of these stations. It is locking and staying locked to the HD signal on pretty much every station!HD radio was never meant as an audiophile format. It’s limited to 96 kbps, which is quite paltry. (For reference, a good mp3 is 256 kbps and a lousy mp3 is 128 kbps. Full, uncompressed CD quality is 1411 kbps.) And stations that have more than one HD stream have to split that 96k among them. Still, the whole point is to eliminate the hash and picket fencing that you get from all but the most robust analog signals. As long as you aren’t listening carefully or using good headphones, it sounds just fine once that HD signal locks in. The Sangean is a powerhouse. And that’s lucky, because it is the only component sized HD Radio in existence.

9. 

   5 out of 5

   Andrew Witmer – January 11, 2021

   I bought this HD radio to add to my high-end stereo system. It was the only stereo component HD radio available, that I know of. I was a bit reluctant to buy it as it was under $200.00 Then again, at the price, I figured it was worth a try.As far as sound quality, this thing blows away my NAD tuner that costed me about 6 times more money about 15 years ago. It only weighs about a quarter (or maybe even less) than the NAD. It does not quite have the sensitivity of the NAD, but sound quality is awesome.I have had several Sangean products in the past, and have always had good luck with them.I DO however, have one request: SANGEAN, if you happen to read this, PLEASE make an audiofile version of this tuner. Something with more features, more presets, a memory for when power is lost, and something built to last 30 or more years. Something that weighs about 20 Lbs. I would have no problem dropping $1000.00 or more for the right HD tuner. You seem to be the only manufacturer of home HD radio, so please make something absolutely incredible, and let me know as soon as it is released.

10. 

    5 out of 5

    Francisco J. OrtizFrancisco J. Ortiz – February 18, 2021

    I spent a lot of time trying to find a HD Radio Receiver for my study. The Sangean HDT-20 is the best way to add HD Radio to your audio system. Yes it is a component, so you have to use it with some sort of receiver. For those of you looking for Audiophile one piece solution get the Outlaw RR2160 stereo receiver (I have one in my work office).HD Radio is AWESOME and popular in Car stereos (Pioneer AVH-W4400NEX in my car… LOVE IT) but hard to find in home stereo options! Unfortunately music services and internet radio dominate with most home stereo manuf. What I LIKEAny output supported: Analog, Dig coax, OpticalHeadphone jack with volume control good enough sound for my Sennheisers (i use this a lot when working at night).Nice Big Display How it could be better (but seriously… buy this before options are gone)More presets: Only 10 presets… why not 20 or 40?Better Optical data: Sounds like 3.1Mbits (unconfirmed) wish it was 125MbitsHINTS:I used the 10 presets for the primary HD radio stations example: set preset to 92.5 HD1, then to get to HD2 just push the right arrow.Use the Analog out to your receiver for warmer sound. They seemed to have put a very nice D to A converter in this unit. I have found that the RCA sound into my receiver sounds warmer than the Optical input. But some may prefer the cymbal friendly sound of the optical connection.