OK, I've heard very few honest reviews of HD radio, so here's my $0.02 worth.
I tried out the Denon DRA697 CIHD with PSB B25s speakers. From my research, this is the only receiver with HD radio onboard. While nice to hear what HD radio sounds like, honestly, I can hear no difference between analogue and digital. One reviewer noted that HD radio sounds just a touch "flat" compared to analogue and I have to agree. I also thought the background noise would be zero with HD, but putting your ear up to the speaker on HD still reveals some hiss. The benefit I see is having access to HD2, HD3, sub channels etc. for your favorite stations. Interestingly, the HD2, HD3 sub frequencies sound not quite as bright as the main HD1 freq. Must be something with reduced compression/bandwidth on those sub frequencies. Signal strength has been no problem (Minneapolis metro area), and I was thinking it would be a problem. Unfortunately, the Denon CRA697 CIHD remote is very poorly integrated into the system (it really is obvious that they just tacked on an HD radio to the existing 697CI model, something others have noted, too), and you end up carrying two remotes around: the main one to adjust the volume, and the little zone 2 remote to simply use one button: "search" which accesses the HD2, HD3, etc. hmmfff. And despite this, Denon gets away with upping the cost from $600 (CI) to $900 (CIHD). That's poor. There's a sony HD radio out there (stand alone) that I'd be curious to couple with the NAD integrated amp. (725BEE I think), but who knows if I'll have the energy to do that. Fishin' here: anyone done something like this? The PSB B25 speakers are nice indeed. I just need a decent CD player at some point, and to get off my audiophile kick before I become total wacko. -Neal