Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Benjamin, who writes:
I recently started looking into smaller HD radios and most recently have been looking at the HDR 14 and 16. In the process of doing my homework it looks like there was a very recent change to the HDR 16 that is a major pro.
The new version now has the MENU and INFO keys sharing a single button and the former INFO button now being remapped as a PAGE button.
Just like the HDR 14, the new 16s have a total of 40 presets 20 on AM and 20 on FM. It looks like they may have also changed the back light but it is hard to tell on the video that I saw. It makes me wonder if there were any other changes made under the hood that could affect either positively or negatively the HD reception as well as analog.
Here is a link to the YouTube video that I found the change through.
Thank you as always for all of the wonderful information you provide on your blog. I will be curious to see if there are indeed any other differences to this radio and maybe somebody else already has one that can comment pro or con about it.
Thanks, Benjamin for sharing your findings. If you’ve recently purchased an HDR-16, please comment!
Ask me any questions you may have on this model. I am enjoying it for everyday listening.
Did they modify the backlight so it does not constantly stay on? It is so bright on mine it makes it impossible to fall asleep with!
I bought mine in the Fall of 2020. The backlight turns off after about 5 seconds.
How would you rate the sound? Also if you’ve used it on batteries what was the battery life? Lastly I live about 2 miles from a strong 100,000 watt station. Have you had any experience with how it deals with strong stations?
For what it’s worth – I live about 5 miles from a wetlands area in the northeastern US, where numerous transmitter sites (mostly medium wave) are located. In contrast to the “wide open front end” design used by Tecsun, Degen, etc; none of my Sangean sets (including 3 HD models) has significant overload problems from strong local RF.