It's a really nice radio for listening to normal popular music genres, like jazz, pop, rock, or talk radio, etc because they are dynamically compressed and do not have quiet passages. Classical music, however, has quiet passages, and this causes the noise filters to turn on and off to filter out the noise that becomes audible when the music gets quiet. The filter turns on and off like a switch, responding to the music signal level, and it's not a gradual transition between filter on and off. In Beethoven 5th Symphony adagio it turns on and off many times through the quiet passage, so you hear hiss turning on and off with clicks. So it is very obvious and distracting. So I give 4 stars for everything else, but the noise gate is too distracting for listening to classical music.This is the best way to get HD radio at home on your stereo or hifi system. You will need an FM antenna at least to get the best reception. Sound quality is good but not as good as really clean FM signal. Still this provides your FM stations and all of their possible HD stations you wouldn't normally receive with a standard FM radio.Great sound better than standard FMI have enjoyed the local HD radio stations for years now on my old HD radios, including the one in my car. I did not fully appreciate the sound quality, however, until I purchased this HD receiver and hooked it up to my stereo amplifier. The sound I get from this is fantastic! Unbelievable clarity! I truly feel like I am listening to the music live in a concert hall! I love classical music and have a local station that plays classical music all day long on HD-1 and HD-2 channels. I listen to the station at work and in my car and in my workshop downstairs. But now I am listening to it all day long in lush high definition!With antenna on roof that is rated for low VHF and FM frequencies this unit is great. My antenna was purchased at Lowes for about 100 dollars. The FM antenna that it comes with is very good if you live within thirty or forty miles of broadcast mountain in your area. I live about forty five miles away from Mt. Wilson broadcast mountain in Seal Beach, California with four to five bars on all stations with my "Lowes" FM, low VHF and UHF all in one antenna. The FM tuner sounds very good and has headphone jack so you just need headphones to use this (volume control on remote). It has all the connections in back of unit, stereo RCA, Fiber Optic "SPIDF" connection, Digital Coax connection for audio out too, and for antenna it has coax connection or 75 ohm connector which is a standard size for coax cable. The AM tuner is also good but not digital. It has several country standards of frequencies to tune in and was able to get a station bellow 88.1 FM at 87.70 even though it was a foreign station. It only has ten presets but if they are spaced from low to high frequencies then you can easily navigate all frequencies. The display has dimmer and also they are two alarm settings. I am happy with my purchase. I couldn't turn off HD radio to receive analog station unless it was just an analog station only like FM 96.3 in Los Angeles, California. A few AM stations broadcast on Digital HD substation like KFI AM 640 is also HD channel two on 103.5 FM in Los Angeles, California with much better sound than AM. The unit it self is a standard size that fits with other audio/video equipment like a receiver.Having digital audio outputs on a digital radio is such a revelation, however where is the bitrate/sampling indicator?The matrix LCD display is clear/easy to read even at somewhat wide angles (better from under than from above eye level), however so much more could have been done with it, i.e. the option to show the signal strength in dBµV, show frequency units (kHz/MHz), simultaneously show the current time, other program data.The tiny rounded buttons leave a lot to be desired, for example the device is not usable in the dark despite the backlit screen. They are hard to press and a separate standard three row numerical pad would have been much preferred. The remote is better, almost essential for using the device, gives a more direct access to features.This HDRadio is missing the obvious function, the ability to manually turn on/off the HDRadio decoder. It sticks to the HDRadio mode when the HD stream/audio degrades without switching back to analog.RDS (RDBS in the US) is great, but the ability to search for programs based on PTY is not there. The front panel doesn't even show the RDS logo. It also strangely doesn't even show the model name HDT-20.Having the ability to record, pause, and timeshift programs on a USB drive/SD card, including the program metadata would have made this a true all-in-one radio. Would have also given it the ability to upgrade the firmware. Alas, it does not do any of that.Like the large tuning knob (rotary encoder), it has step detents, however pushing it to select requires a bit too much force, pushes the whole unit back, may pinch the cords/toslink fiber. It helps to weigh the unit down. A free-spinning mode on the knob for fast tuning would have been nice. A continuous scan/preview mode would have been useful as well.The number of available presets and the lack of auto-presetting are both disappointing.Needs an AM stereo decoder like older models had, wideband mode for AM, high and low blend stereo mode to reduce noise for distant stations, not just on/off. A ferrite antenna for AM would have been better than the supplied loop. A differential AM input would have been nice as well.With the nice outputs in the back, the 3.5mm plastic headphone jack in the front is a disappointment, does not belong on a Hi-Fi component, should have been 1/4" (or gasp! a balanced output). In that spirit a removable AC cord would have been nicer as well, but alas this is a consumer product made at cost.Overall I recommend it to everyone who listens to and cares about broadcast radio and encourage Sangean to aim higher.Works well.The quality of the HD Radio actually exceeded my expectations. Apparently, the Codec works well. It's better than analog FM, but still not as good as Audio CDs. There is a negative side to the reception though. When listening to the digital channels, if the signal isn't strong, there can be sound drop-outs, even though those have been managed by the circuits to result in little or no noise. Thus, don't expect to listen to a whole symphony without any glitches. This is happening to me in spite of my amplified antenna, which I provided myself.Also, the decision is often up to the station, to compress their narrative microphones more than they compress the classical music itself. I don't know why they do that. Or, if they offer more than one HD channel on their one frequency, they have to compress the channels more.I didn't bother to set up AM mode, and am satisfied overall. The impressive feat is high RF sensitivity. I get an FM station of some sort, on almost any assigned frequency I tune the receiver to, knowing that only odd multiples of 100kHz are assigned.Update: The problem with the sound drop-outs may have been due to one HD station I tune in to, because with that same station, the problem is not noticeably anymore.Update: This is one of those items, from which the buyer can select the HD 16 AM/FM, the HD 18 AM?FM, or the HD 20 AM/FM, at least in the Browser view. They are actually very different receivers. I only bought and use the HDT-20 HD AM/FM, and can therefore not vouch for the other items, that buyers can select out of the group.DirkBesides the memory limitation of 10 per band? I didn't bother to read the manual, since the print was small, and I could have looked for a PDF to verify this. Would be nice if a firmware update could be pushed OTA to increase the number of presets.Reception, well that's the reason you would buy a separate AM/FM component tuner and this radio pulls in stations the built-in complementary on board radio to my receiver that powers some desk speakers couldn't! So many HD stations being implemented in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario area but not all the media companies are on it, but your analog radio will be the default. Didn't try the AM, there's already most of the AM content on the second or third channel of the FM. There are some weaker stations that would be able to send a digital station out to a more fringe area with the right cables and signal boosters so if you want to be an early adopter you sure can.There aren't any digital stations in the lower band settings you can choose in the settings, so you will not get any analog audio from the tv in this market (most of Canada), so you'll only pickup noise and blow your speakers. Don't try that at home!El equipo cumple su función, sin embargo:- Le falta sensibilidad para captar algunas frecuencias en FM estéreo que mi sintonizador vintage de 30 años si puede.- Otro detalle que no es bueno es la falta de bateria de respaldo para el reloj interno.- La ubicación del boton de encendido esta un una posición no ergonómica pero ayuda el que éste tenga iluminación.If you have a non-HD tuner - that is, a tuner (such as a central audio controller) that cannot receive HD Radio signals - then this unit is the solution if you are looking to add HD Radio functionality to your system. It has an easy-to-use interface (including the ability to directly enter the frequency you wish to tune to), as well as digital audio outputs (TOSLINK and SPDIF) and an analogue line output (white and red RCA connectors). It has an 'F' connector for an FM antenna (I recommend using an external multi-element Yagi-Uda antenna, although a flexible dipole antenna is included with the unit) and two spring-loaded push-in terminals for an AM antenna (a loop antenna is included). Finally, the unit has a headphone output on the front so you can listen even if others in the room don't want to (the headphone output's volume is controlled via the front panel; this volume control does not affect the digital or analogue line outputs).Once again, Sangean sets a high bar and doesn't just reach it - they go above and beyond. They deserve a thorough round of applause for the superior quality, design, and performance of their products.HD20 has digital output so I can use optical or coaxial cable to connect to my 4k AV receiver lossless.it can remember last station you listened last time. Remote controller is handy.But seems HD-14 has better developed software/firmware version than HD-20: HD-14 can store more stations, has HD APS function. HD-20 only can store 10 stations at FM. But for both models, only way to sync time is you have to tune to FM94.1 in my area (GTA) and wait for a few seconds to 1min till time sync'd.