Thursday, 28 July 2011
Digital Tuner - portable radio, coby
i needed an AM radio to listen to while at the office and my first choice was the popular SONY ICF-S10MK2 which is a popular purchase here on Amazon.com... that radio was old, clunky, had a huge antennae, poor AM reception, a manual tuner dial so if you touched it you'd lose your station, and had a mono headphone jack so you could only hear sound out of one side (i verified this with 3 different sets of headphones).
the Coby DX-90 on the other hand was $2.00 more, is smaller, sleek, completely digital (no knobs or dials), has a stereo headphone jack (again verified this with 3 sets of headphones), comes with earbuds (that are not very good, but at least they tried), has an internal antennae, and has awesome AM reception.
get this radio, it's more than worth the money, don't get suckered into buying the Sony brand name like I did, you'll regret it. Coby CX90BLK Digital Pocket AM/FM Radio, Black
I wasn't expecting much from a radio that's sold for such a low price, but I was pleasantly surprised.
VERY good reception on both the AM and FM band...above average to say the least. I'd even go so far as to say it's comparable (almost as sensitive and selective) to the (well known to long distance radio enthusiasts)Sangean DT200VX AM/FM/TV Portable Pocket-Size Radio at about 1/4 the price.
It's only drawback in that regard is it's lack of a FM mono/stereo switch for fringe aria reception...a small flaw worth overlooking.
It's audio is a bit better than you may expect in this price range(when using a decent set of headphones, of course), but it's nothing to write home about...I'll just call it "sufficient" (i.e. not unpleasant or harsh at all). It also has enough output power to drive a set of larger headphones without any problem as well as flat out rock a set of sensitive buds. Of course the earbuds that come with it are awful..but that's to be expected
All in all I'd say it's a great radio and worth every dime if not twice as much. A real bargain that performs quite well. Don't let the price or the brand name fool ya as it's nothing short of outstanding....especially for it's price class.
This is a very good little radio in every way EXCEPT: it eats batteries at an alarming rate. LISTEN-UP HERE, I'm trying to help you... if you put new batteries in... use it for a few hours...put it down for a few days...the batteries can be very low...or dead. Yes, its true.... trust me on this... switched "off" this radio is still eating the batteries! I had to remove the batteries every day to get reasonable battery-life...HOWEVER... when you change the batteries... the memory settings erase!...so, you have to re-enter it all every time you change batteries...and... as I mentioned "this thing is hungry for batteries...like no other I've ever seen". Also...the lowest volume level is very loud ! really... WAY TOO LOUD ! at the very first level(BLASTING for my earbuds).
Memory-scan function only goes from low to high...When you go thru the pre-set stations of the memory you must scroll thru all memory settings to get back to a station you just passed. You could 'scan' back..... "scan-function" goes bowth ways (up or down frequency). If you want to switch back & forth between 2 stations... it is not possible w/ the 'memory-scan' function...you must 'scan' back to the other station.... or scroll thru all other memory settings to get back. OR you could enter only those 2 stations into the memory settings(impractical but possible).
I was looking just for a little am/fm radio (the size of a small mp3 player, BUT a RADIO not a mp3 player) to take with me when I jog... I like listening to talk radio which is why I wanted both AM and FM. I don't know why more companies DON'T make both AM and FM - after an exhaustive search on the internet it looks like only a few companies even bother with AM anymore... I bought this little radio not sure what to expect, since the reviews other people were leaving were lukewarm to warm at best... I have no idea why. My radio works great, reception is great, it's plenty loud even on the first volume level, perhaps it's not symphony quality - but even when I tune in a rock channel it comes through loud and clear, certainly the same quality as my car factory stereo.... It did take me a few minutes to figure out how it works (it's pretty simple really) and how to set all the channels... I have already gone out running with it and I have absolutely no complaints. It performs better than I had expected (of course I wasn't sure exactly what to expect but for the price I decided to take a gamble)... If you're looking for what I was, then this is the radio for you!
After being badly burned by a previous portable am/fm radio whose manufacturer shall go nameless I found this to be a pleasant upgrade relative to the price. The reception on each modulation and sound quality are more than sufficient and configuring the presets can be done with zippy ease. The only gripe I have is that I wish I could get more bang for my buck out of the AAA batteries' longevity; with frequent daily usage I seem to have to replace them in approximately three weeks which in these tough economic times puts an unwelcome strain on my pocketbook. - Am Radio - Am-fm - Portable Radio - Coby'
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