Premium Radio w/HD question
 

I'm working on options for the brides new GT. So, I need some opinions from those driving the '18 already, or have knowledge of the radio systems in these cars. I'm seriously considering the Premium Radio with HD, and I'm wondering if the difference in the sound is worth the $895 price tag. Your opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Jim

I'm disappointed that they aren't standard today. Would be like still offering a big'ol fat CRT TV as an option. My new '17 doesn't have HD. When I started my search, I was looking forward to getting it thinking that it was standard on every single vehicle.

I agree Woody. One would think at a price of 50K for a Mustang the premium radio would be standard. But, I understand profits when it comes to a corporation's bottom line. Or as the saying goes, "If you wanna play, you gotta pay". :)

I just hope it worth the price of admission.

Way overpriced, and in some instances not as good as the aftermarket units.

I went with the factory HD radio, Nav, Sat Radio, subwoofer, apple car play ect and have been very happy with it. The HD radio does improve the sound for sure. I didn't want to get into pulling the dash and things apart to get options that were available from the factory.

Can you sneak away long enough to go down to a dealer and listen to one? Sound's pretty subjective.

I can't speak to how much better the premium radio itself is going to sound, but for me difference between normal FM and HD radio isn't mind blowing. I have it on my Pioneer head unit and you can definitely hear an noticeable improvement when it locks onto the HD station, but I wouldn't expect your normal radio stations to sound like a CD or even bluetooth quality in some cases. And it depends on the radio edit of the song and the station itself. I've heard some songs come on the HD station that sound about as good as bluetooth if you don't turn it up too much, and others sound like they've been butchered compared to the MP3 of the same song I have sitting on the thumb drive.


I hear ya, Especially on a lot of these newer cars, everything is so integrated. I put a Pioneer deck in my '06 and it was pretty much plug and play with the free installation kit I got with it. For the '13 Focus I had as a commuter car for a while, I needed an extra $200 in adapter boxes, and still lost some features like SYNC and speed controlled volume. And the dash didn't look nearly as good as the original one.


It depends, you price out a good aftermarket HU with car play and android auto? They're up around the $700-1000 mark if you want a good one. You can cheap out and get one for between $400 and $500 but in my experience they're laggy as hell. You really've got to try both the factory units and the aftermarket ones in person.

I mean really, do you want to listen to HD radio anyways? Just roll down your windows and listen to the roar. ;)

In my previous '06 w/Borla Cat-back, whenever I was alone at a wide open empty stop sign or light at night, I'd turn off the radio, roll down the windows, and just listen to the music from outside, regardless of how cold it was when I got going again.

It's not so much the HD radio as it is a radio with a little more power, and more bass with the sub. I have the HD radio on my F150, and with the sub the HD does have a much better sound quality than standard radio. But, the sub adds enough bass to make the downloaded music sound really good. I'm not an audiophile by any means, and quite technologically challenged, but I do like the sound of the Sony system in the F-150.