Just had to post this. The car I ended up with for my trip is a Hyundai Sonata.

The analog radio is just excellent! It's got a very aggressive DSP that mitigates multi-path and processing issues on the high end to a degree I didn't think was possible.

I'm in a high multi-path area and this radio managed to maintain near peak FM bandwidth the entire time, while also keeping multi-path artifacts well below the average sound level of the program material. let's put it this way. I had to work to hear fuzz, and what fuzz I did hear was not prominent at any time. Damn cool, IMHO.

It's just sweet, and speaks well to many of the "what if we used DSP?" discussions we've had here.

IMHO, this radio is totally competitive with the best digital radios out there. The trade off in return for the lower FM analog peak bandwidth, is zero compression artifacts, within the limits of the broadcast medium.

(Yeah, so poor quality audio is still poor quality audio.)

Didn't get a chance to try the AM portion of the radio. I'll do that on the drive, and check out fringe analog FM too.

Audio controls are well thought out, include a midrange setting, which really makes the difference where broadcast FM sound contouring for your ear is concerned.

Highly recommended. This is the best, manufacturer radio experience I've had in a long time. I'm going to write them, when I have some time and let them know that radio mattered.

Very Nice! Does the DSP introduce a noticeable audio delay, when compared to an analog radio?

I'm glad Hyundai has improved their radios. My 96 Elantra radio stunk...in reception and sound...but the actual car ran the best I've ever had...289K before I traded it in for my current Corolla which has a great system.

Have we had a thread before regarding the best stock car radios??

Don't think there has been since i've been here.

Toss in for consideration:

GMC factory equipped BOSE System! Best stock stereo i've ever had! The Bass is phenominal!

"The facts on Hyundai's HD radio announcement"

"Promoting the idea that HD radio is for the elite (which is exactly what these announcements do), and as an option-only for that elite, will do little to make 800 million radios into HD radios in your lifetime or mine."

http://www.hear2.com/2007/04/the_facts_on_hy.html

"At Hyundai, Branding Is Job 2"

"Despite receiving high marks for quality, the carmaker has struggled with stalled sales. Marketing guru Steve Wilhite has to sell drivers a new story."

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_21/b4035069.htm

Another loser association for the loser/stalled HD Radio !

Somebody show the troll the door, will you please?

Well, the AM section is *ok*. Better than some newer cars, but not really solid. Decent for talk. Having a midrange control really helps make up for the pretty lousy audio contour in that AM section. I would not want to consider other program types on AM with this radio however.

Come to think of it, I've not bumped into a really solid AM radio, produced recently. Seems they don't apply the DSP at all, on the AM side of things. That's stupid, given it's just a software deal. Some light processing and impulse noise reduction would have transformed what is a marginal AM radio into a decent one.

Fringe FM is very good. Fringe AM ends up a bit messy, far earlier than I would expect from a decent car radio.

MP3 capable CD player is top notch. Reads entire disk, will parse folders, display file names, ID3 tags, and handles up to 320 kbps mp3 files. Will differentiate between 16Khz bandwidth mp3 files and 22khz ones as well.

Not one skip, and decode artifacts were the bare minimum expected for a given encode rate and type.

Does not choke on joint stereo, or high quality LAME encodes either. Will play an incomplete mp3 file without a hitch, just ends and moves to the next one.

Does not cross-fade, blend, or otherwise transition between tracks. It plays one, then reads the next and plays it too. That's it.

Can't really find a fault with the mp3 implementation. It's really great, fast, no skip, and very good audio quality --up to CD quality, encode permitting. On mp3 files with wide dynamic range encoding, it responded very well.

I like this radio generally.

Missing_kskd said:

"Seems they don't apply the DSP at all, on the AM side of things."

That's disappointing, the DSP chipset that we yacked about a few years ago (from Motorola) worked for FM and AM.

http://www.motorola.com/mediacenter/news/detail.jsp?globalObjectId=1573_1221_23