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I first want to start out by saying that I’ve been waiting for this unit since I ordered it in October of 2005. My expectations were set high as I awaited Radiosohpy’s “Shipping Status” change over the past 19 months. When I saw it say shipping now I called right away to make sure my order was in.

As a quick aside: I called in and gave the person on the other line my credit card number. I was promised I’d have my radio by Friday. On Thursday I got a call from the person I spoke with and she said that she lost my order and credit card number. Appearance it made it’s way to the shredder.

I received the radio on Tuesday and plugged it right in. I used an external antennae in my house that I run up to my attic awaited it’s arrival. After scanning through the dial for an HD signal I only found one. When I did I read the song and artist info scroll by. When I tuned to the station’s HD2 signal the same text was scrolling along. I found out later on that the HD2 channel was not sending any data out. But why was the text still scrolling? I have a JVC head unit in my car. When there is no data being sent it says “NO TEXT”. This ensures there is no confusion.

On some stations I was only able to pull in the station call letters. The radio showed “false” calls on some stations. I noticed call letters like “KCRO”, “KCRP” and the like. Since I live on the east side of the Mississippi I figured it had to be wrong.

After fumbling my way to find out how to set the time (which wasn’t in the manual) I left the unit alone to bring in my car for the ride to work.

On my way in I used a power inverter to power the radio. When I plugged it in the wrong time was displayed. That means it didn’t hold the time I had set the day before. I used the internal antennae to see what stations I could pull in while driving. I mention this because on their web site Radiosophy sells a power supply that plugs into a cigarette lighter and audio adapter to plug into your existing car radio. This would mean they intend users to listen in the car.

Well, good luck trying to get an HD signal in the car. Unlike a house, which is full of insulation ladened with foil which hurts reception, a car should supply a better environment for pulling in a HD signal. I compared my in-dash JVC unit with the MultiStream™ HD Radio. The JVC pulled in many signals while the Radiosophy got none.

Since I work at a radio station I tuned into my station. I was stopped at a light about a mile from my station’s transmitter. I was close enough that I could see the tower. I pointed the internal antennae right at the tower and did not get the HD reception. Only until I was right on the entrace to the college where I work that I got consistent HD reception.

When I got into the office I tried using the external antennae provided and could not get any HD reception.

So I did not hesitate to call to Customer Service to get a return. The person on the other line was more than receptive to my concerns and ended the call with “I hope you’ll keep checking us out, I’m sure we’ll have a radio you’ll like.” While I’m waiting on that I’ll be happy with another radio that actually works.

written by tom