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Ghost
06-28-2009, 02:16 PM
Sony XDR-F1HD

This new AM/FM tuner by Sony also does HD Radio and supports RBDS text info for analog stations. It has a retail price of $99. Don’t worry about dealer cost, there’s hardly any markup in this unit what-so-ever.
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665401984

It is fairly compact, measuring in at only 7 1/8” wide (this counts the chrome trim that sticks out 1/32” on each side – the body is only 7 1/16” wide), 2 3/8” tall, and about 6 3/8” deep (this counts the chrome trim sticking out on the front by 1/16” – it does not count the connectors in back).

The unit itself is made entirely of plastic; even the connection panel in back is plastic. This leaves very little in the way of shielding from RF interference. The tuners themselves are encased in their own little metal box inside but the rest of the boards are still unprotected. The only other shielding appears to be a board mounted above the main board with circuit foil on it (green as seen in the product photos I took).

The UL listing indicates 13 watts of power draw. Because of the digital nature of this device, it draws the full 13 watts all the time when on. So for 13 watts, it creates a lot of heat; plastic becomes very warm to the touch but not to the level of a cable box or satellite box.

There is no digital output, only a set of stereo analog outputs. ‘F’ style connector for an FM antenna, twin lead push terminals for the AM antenna. Power cord is not detachable and is exactly 60” (5ft.).

Remote has 23 buttons on it: 0-9 keys, ENTER, POWER, SLEEP, preset +/-, tune +/-, SCAN, HD SCAN, BAND, MENU, BRIGHT, and DISPLAY.
Product has 11 buttons on it. The power button is located on the front; all other buttons are mounted on top. Missing on the product is the buttons: SLEEP, 0-9 keys, and BRIGHT.
The brightness on the screen has 3 levels, toggled each time the BRIGHT button on the remote is pressed. It can also be adjusted in the MENU of the unit.

FM reception was OK. About the same as the stand-alone TEAC tuners are which is a little better than most cheap A/V receivers. AM actually tuned in several stations, which is rare (could have been atmospheric conditions however – so take with a grain of salt). HD Radio worked as did the RBDS; sound quality was OK (nothing to get excited about).

Overall for $99, it’s not a bad unit at all and you get HD radio. That makes this one of the cheapest solutions for HD radio on the market.

Now the rest of the story:
This is a perfect example of what could have been a great product, totally made useless by someone somewhere in its development. None of these things would have cost any extra money in the making of the unit, some idiot just didn’t care.
This unit does NOT respond to ANY of Sony's discrete power commands.
This unit has NO direct tuning. You either manually tune up & down to find a station or program it on a preset you can go directly to with the number pad and enter. This normally would be OK, except for the next problem coming.
This unit will NOT keep its memory with a power failure. I unplugged power for 15 seconds and all was fine but when I did a power failure of a few hours, it totally lost its memory. WTF!
And how much more money would it have really cost to make the power cord detachable and put a digital output on the thing. And why couldn’t the controls on the unit go in front somewhere (the top is just such a great place Sony – JA).

In the end: due to no discrete power codes, loss of memory on power failure, no direct tuning, and the few other things mentioned above; this unit is really not suitable for a whole house audio distribution system or main audio system. It would be more suited for a desktop system or local/visible bedroom system. But why would you need/want a separate tuner for something like that (just HD radio?).

Way to screw up a product Sony!!!

http://www.geocities.com/secrethideaway7/front.jpg

http://www.geocities.com/secrethideaway7/top.jpg

http://www.geocities.com/secrethideaway7/rear.jpg

http://www.geocities.com/secrethideaway7/inside.jpg

http://www.geocities.com/secrethideaway7/bottom.jpg

2ndRick
06-29-2009, 12:05 PM
It looks like the line-level-only equivelant of a clock radio...

I have a Sony CD clock radio that I use as an alarm clock, and it has the same stupid memory issue. There must be a decent sized capacitor to allow it to survive a really short power loss (like moving it from one outlet to another), but even 10-15 mins and the clock radio is flashing 12:00 when power is returned (and not waking you up in the morning)

At least my dollar store backup alarm clock has a spot for a 9v battery...

Also, the clock radio has an RF remote.