A portable digital radio designed to work with the DAB digital radio technology standardized in the UK and Europe is nothing special, and easily found in any number of electronics stores in those parts of the world.
US Digital Portable Radios
A portable digital radio compatible with the HD technology now being implemented by some thirteen hundred American radio stations and based on the technology from iBiquity is nonexistent. The closest thing is the 9 Radiosophy Mainstream HD, which can be moved from room to room, or even used in a car or boat with an optional 12v adapter. The drawback is that in order to move it, you have to disconnect the receiver from its speaker base, rendering it mute until it is connected to a speaker system in another room.
The other digital radio option available in the US is satellite radio. Sirius and XM have managed to accumulate a combined fifteen million subscribers to their services in the past eight years, but the vast majority of those subscribers enjoy their digital radio from the confines of their automobiles.
In order to wean more of the listening public away from both analog and HD radio, both Sirius and XM have put considerable resources into developing portable radio receivers. And each of them has come up with an option. XM, in fact, has come up with three.
XM Portable Digital Radios
The XM2Go system first appeared in 2004, with three models of portable digital radio. But XM had outsourced the design of the three different digital radio receivers to three different companies, resulting in a complete lack of standardization for those needing optional parts.
The first XM2Go portable digital radio [http://www.digitalradio-review.com/Articles/Digital_Radio.php] to get to market, and the one which has remained the best selling model, was the Delphi MyFi. Retailing at about 0, it has remained the most expensive of the three models. The Delphi MyFi, Air Ware, and Giant International Tao XM portable digital radios all have a wide variety of optional accessories; each can be upgraded with an amplifier and speakers, remote, and charging station. But each set of optional accessories will only work with the portable digital radio for which it was designed.
Sirius Portable Digital Radios
Sirius did what XM had failed to do in developing their portable digital radios, and created a choice of receivers and antennas which are compatible with any of their optional add-ons. Because of this, the same Sirius portable digital radio receiver can be used in a automobile, connected to the user's stereo system, or even transported around like a portable analog radio. The standardization of Sirius portable digital radio receivers means that Sirius subscribers are spared the need to hunt for the correct add-ons for their receiver model.
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