Accurian by Sangean?

[700WLW]

My S350 (a late model, just before the DL was introduced) doesn't exhibit much drift at all. In fact, after it's been left on a half hour or so (and the internal temperature stabilizes), there is very close to zero drift. But the tuning "lock" IS a mixed blessing. It tries to "lock" before you've reached the frequency you're after. So if you're trying for 580khz, and it locks on 583, the only option is to give the dial a quick turn to unlock it, then tune back until you get it right. A PAIN! Once locked, though, it stays that way.

Early models got the unfortunate nickname of "S Three Drifty". Probably deservedly so.

Of course every analog radio drifts. Most just don't have a digital frequency counter to show you how much!

The S350 id definitely not for everybody. You either love it or hate it. It IS very sensitive to weak shortwave and am signals, and does sound quite nice (with bass and treble controls, plus dual bandwidth). But if you don't like the way it tunes, you probably never will. I don't mind it so much. I can live with "quirks". Radios have 'em. People too. It's part of what makes us charming. I enjoy my S350 so much, I've considered buying an S350DL. Even with the same speaker and amplifier, it should sound slightly better as the slightly larger cabinet will allow ever so slightly better bass response. Not enough of a difference to spring for now. But in time I will. In time I seem to buy most every popular radio out there. I'm a radio junkie!

Now, about those Sangean HD radios! As they say around these parts "them sure looks purty!"

My understanding, is that with analog, drift can never be totally eliminated, but I didn't know, that there was such a thing as analog PLL (is this what the S350 has ?). Grundig should have put some sort of time-delay, before the tuner locked on. I do admit, that the S350 has excellent audio, where as obvioulsy, my Sony is only good for talk/news. That is what happened to me, with the S350 - I saw it in RS and "fell for a pretty face" (not the first time that has happened). Obvioulsy, my understanding of radio is limited, but the RadioIntel review of the Sony stated that they guessed, it has the same receiver chip, as the more expensive Sony digital PLL radios - not sure, what that means. It is a real shame, because the quality of SW receivers today, doesn't seem to be anywhere near the old DX-440 and Sony ICF-2010 (both, of which I had at one point, darn). I'de have a closet full of radios too, if I could, but my wife wouldn't understand. I have gone through a bunch of different radios, but the Sony just reminds me of the 1960's transistor radios - kind of nice, listening to WABC Saturday Night Oldies, with a transistor-type radio, again.

 

[Mike Walker]

700WLW I wish I had room for more radios. I have several "boat anchors" (Trans Oceanics, Zenith Table models, Hallicrafters) and have recently turned to collecting classic transistor radios. Now a half-century since the first transistor radios appeared, they can actually be considered "antiques", and many of them, though occasionally rough in appearance, STILL WORK!

Perhaps the key to your radio collecting "fever", 700WLW, is to think small. As in pocket sized. You can put a bunch of 'em in a sealable container from Wal Mart, then hide the container at the back of your closet. Afraid the wife will find it there? Move it from time to time. Think of it as the "audio porn collection" you hope she never finds

 

[700WLW]

700WLW I wish I had room for more radios. I have several "boat anchors" (Trans Oceanics, Zenith Table models, Hallicrafters) and have recently turned to collecting classic transistor radios. Now a half-century since the first transistor radios appeared, they can actually be considered "antiques", and many of them, though occasionally rough in appearance, STILL WORK!

Perhaps the key to your radio collecting "fever", 700WLW, is to think small. As in pocket sized. You can put a bunch of 'em in a sealable container from Wal Mart, then hide the container at the back of your closet. Afraid the wife will find it there? Move it from time to time. Think of it as the "audio porn collection" you hope she never finds

Lucky you - that's cool, collecting classic transistor radios ! May I be so self-centered, and post a link to the transistor radio, I had back in 1967:

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...s?q=realtone+1871&svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8

Do you have a link, that you could post to your collection ? Actually, I am embarassed to admit, that I ordered a handful of the $10 Sonys from J&R Music, and was going to give them out as stocking-stuffers, but like the radio so much, I decided to keep them, and have them hidden on a shelf under the TV !

 

[hipporadio]

Ever since Sangean stopped making the excellent RS DX-440/Sangean ATS803A, their products have been Chinese-made junk...

"Sangean radios digital front panels mess up sooner than most other brand
name radios...Only way I would ever own any Sangean radios (I have owned two
of them before, I sent that Sangean JUNK back to Bob Crane too) again
would be if somebody gave me one for free and then I would either sell
it or trade it for something I like better."

‘700... I feel compelled to come to the defense of the fine Sangean Company! They are among A VERY FEW Pac-rim consumer electronics companies that pay more than just passive attention to the radio sections they engineer and build into their product. For most of its life, Sangean was an “OEM manufacturer” who quietly built products for other brands including Radio Shack and the former Lafayette Radio. Recently, they began marketing their name—first in the general communications (short-wave) market—now they have three of the top-five general-purpose radios on the market, including the “Wooden” WR-1, the new WR-2 (which I will soon have a very positive review of at Amazon), and the C Crane CCRadio. They have the two best Walkman-style pocket radios—the DT-200 and new DT-200VX. Their ATS-909 remains a shortwave favorite.

By-and-large Sangean’s manufacturing has remained in Korea—despite higher labor costs. They may have “outsourced” some product assembly to the PRC—but their operation seems content to contend with the disadvantage of higher-cost Korean labor in the interest of maintaining a synergy between design and production.

As of this post, I cannot verify that Sangean is building the RS Accurian... They ARE marketing the FIRST HD Radio home component tuner, and the display is similar to that used in the HD Accurian—but that display may merely be a “part” they purchase elsewhere and incorporate.

Sangean has a VERY close relationship with the C Crane Company. They build Crane’s consumer Part 15 FM transmitter (near best of a dingy class), Twin-coil AM antenna (a best-of-class), and the popular CC Radio Plus—all in collaboration with Crane’s (former) Chris Justice. After five years, the superior “C Crane AM and FM chips” are now making their way to Sangean’s AWESOME WR-2 table radio that sports a furniture-grade wood case, 7-watt amp, and premium ported speaker. At a mere $155 this radio kicks the $500 Bose radio to the curb! It’s a broadcaster’s “dream come true”

Yes—the DX-440 is history—so is the McIntosh MR-78 and Marantz 10B... That’s just the operational paradigm of the contemporary consumer electronics biz. Sadly, no product hangs around forever! As for Sangean’s “disappearing display”—in 80-percent of the cases this can be corrected by resetting the unit’s microprocessor with a simple push of a paper clip!

I cannot agree with you more that Radio Shack is “toast”... Sad—VERY SAD! Nowadays, their primary interest seems to be in Verizon cell activation—and they generally screw that up

 

[700WLW]

I was just being a jerk, by quoting SWLs from rec.radio.shortwave - most of them do not like the Sangeans. Personally, I had the DX-440 and Sony ICF-2010 (sold them a while back - stupid move), but after many trips to RS over the years, to look at different SW receivers, just seems like the quality has really gone downhill - I guess, we live in a throw-away society, and everything is plastic, now.

 

[Tom Wells]

I bought a ATS-803A in 1990 or so, and it has taken a beating and drop or two, but still works.
I use it daily to verify zero-beat on frequency operation of my part 15 AM compared to WLS at 890 for bfo-reference.
It is sensitive enough to satify me, but I find the audio all-smashed-up and can't really listen to it for long.
Even in wide-if setting, I am unhappy with 1-kc steps for tuning.
And this model has a clock-keypad data noise in the speaker, and a generally noisy floor anyway, due to digital byproduct peskies.
A good reference radiio, I wish it had a faceplate-off hardwired switch so we could REALLY hear what it is capable of.
The audio amp is fine as are the tone controls, and wide/narrow option.
There's just something funny like a hissiness in all the audiio that just gets to me.
I've heard 1 or 2 GE superradios, which must be using a differnt type of AM detection, much more linear and pure.

DO these later Sangeans have background hiss/whine in the speaker even with volume down?
And is there a little extra hiss in every weak AM signal you try to receive, or a "graininess"?
I would hope it's something they chased out of the design.

 

[Mike Walker]

700WLW I don't have any photos (yet) I can post of my radios. God they're everywhere...in drawers, on shelves, in sealed containers. My house runneth over with radios. And my wife is VERY patient.

Tom, my ATS909, and ATS606a (both from Sangean) have no "whine" at all. The 909 does have a slight problem with volume mistracking (between left and right) when using stereo headphones (probably 60 percent of portable stereo radios do also). Both are great radios.

I had the ATS803A, but gave it to a friend (my sidekick/newsman on the morning show I used to do) about 10 years ago. I never thought the 803A was as good a radio as everybody made it out to be. Certainly adequate, but I've had radios I enjoyed more.

My only other Sangean is a DT110 pocket "walkman"-type am/fm stereo. Great little radio, but slightly prone to overload from the 100kw blowtorch fm in my county (which I also produce for).

 

[hipporadio]

Lucky you - that's cool, collecting classic transistor radios! May I be so self-centered, and post a link to the transistor radio, I had back in 1967:

*link deleted ‘cause it’s 10-miles long

‘700... THANK-YOU... THANK-YOU... THANK-YOU (for being so self-centered)! I promise NEVER to pass judgment on your penchant for unearthing obscure links at Google! You really struck Gold with this one. I was able to find my very FIRST radio...

http://www.transistor.org/collection/rca/rca18.html

The RCA RGM29E (one of the first with FM)... My parents purchased it as a Christmas gift for me in 1964. I had been asking for “one of those six-transistor pocket radios” for well over a year. Turns out they really “splurged” and went for the newest thing—a slightly larger NINE transistor with better reception and sound PLUS that "new" FM band. Their economic situation didn’t allow them to buy me a much-wanted portable the prior Christmas in 1963. Back then, these new-fangled radios were fairly pricey... In today’s dollars—they could be considered nearly the equivalent of an iPod. In simpler times, kids didn’t warrant such an electronic embellishment!

I’ll never forget the joy of finding that under the tree at 5AM. I turned it on to find 77 WABC coming in very nicely (my father remembered it as my favorite night-time station with Cousin Brucie when he was loading the batteries before retiring). I remember the ID... “This is 77 WABC and 94.7 WABC-FM New York” followed by a “Merry Christmas” jingle and the Chad Mitchell Trio’s “Marvelous Toy”... And OH MY—wasn’t that ever a marvelous toy in my mind! Not only was it my first radio—but it was the FIRST FM RADIO in our small house that worked. The naïve tyke that I was, I turned right over to FM to see if my favorite station was on that “new band” also—NOT in the Midwest. I remember that our town had one FM that signed on at noon.

That radio served me faithfully in my small room after school and dinner; by my bed pillow; summers on the Jersey shore listening to WIBG Philly and at Boy Scout camp—even in a winter Klondike Snow Derby campout during a snowstorm in December of 1969. Finally in spring of ’73, I casually aimed it at the trash when my new-and-improved Panasonic portable came along sporting its cutting-edge FET and IC circuitry. What a stupid move—but by then, I had beat it up badly! I still have the Panasonic though... It works well!

Thanks for the memory, 700!

 

[hipporadio]

Right after my prior post, a small dose of "Today VS Yesterday" dawned on me as I'm home for the holidays a scant mile from the old home where I celebrated my first radio Christmas 42-years ago. This year Mom and Dad's gift was a Tivoli Audio iPAL... Unlike that ancient and very simple RCA 9-transistor which easily brought me WABC on the early-morning of 12/25/1964... Today's favorite Tivoli Audio toy of the iPod generation fails to even faintly reveal the WABC signal... My how times change... And over 42 years, technology doesn't ALWAYS improve!

 

[700WLW]

‘700... THANK-YOU... THANK-YOU... THANK-YOU (for being so self-centered)! I promise NEVER to pass judgment on your penchant for unearthing obscure links at Google! You really struck Gold with this one. I was able to find my very FIRST radio...
Thanks for the memory, 700!

Well, you are certainly welcome ! Kind of nice, finding one's first transistor radio ! I too, listened to WABC (from Camp in New Hampshire, in 1967), and heard the Doors for the first time ! Well, as you know, the rest is history, with Classic Rock (and, everything that came along with it). I am really glad, I could help you find it. WABC has some really smart producers/programmers, bringing back Saturday Night Oldies, for all the baby-boomers, with supporting blogs on their website ! Just remember, you can't complain about my searches/links, anymore !

 

[Mike Walker]

I have a Tivoli PAL (the "iPal" without the ipod white case). The FM is great. AM...not so much!

 

[hipporadio]

I have a Tivoli PAL (the "iPal" without the ipod white case). The FM is great. AM...not so much!

Mike... I got my first Tivoli "Kloss" Model One as a Christmas gift a few years back... Then a second for the office on my birthday this past summer. I noticed that external AM antenna terminals were added to the latter version. AM remains much the same on both--NOT sensitive to any but local or very strong stations, but VERY GOOD in demodulated audio quality (wider bandwidth, a full low-end, and much lower in distortion). It lacks that often-typical and irritating narrow I.F. filter "crackle" you hear on a lot of AM radios... No doubt one of the benefits of its terrific "retro" analog tuning. I'd own these radios for the tuning feature alone! The M-1 can be "heated up" with a Terk "AM Advantage" loop... Then, it becomes a fine AM section. I guess I'd rather have to assist it with a better antenna then have to suffer all the intermod "whistles" and overloading common with some more sensitive tuners.

I just received the iPAL as a Christmas gift. It's a nifty little box. The same awesome FM reception and good AM audio quality (from the M-1) has carried over to the PAL. Surprising how good it does with only the 24-inch built-in whip on Class Bs 50-60-miles away! The AM is similar to my second M-1, but I wish it were more sensitive due to its portable nature.

TWO QUESTIONS... (1) Does your PAL tune all the way up to 1700kHz (the gear drive on mine physically stops at about 1670)... 'Seems like a mechanical (not an electrical) defect... Also... (2) When you run your unit off the supplied AC supply, do you get a noticable hum on the AM band? I suspect a defective "wall wart" or a problem with the internal battery recharger on mine.

Electronics Expo has already Emailed me a free UPS return label and is happy to replace the unit. I wanted to make sure this was a bad sample before I surrendered an otherwise nice sounding unit. I doubt I'll use it much in a fixed position requiring AC... And missing the last couple X-Band channels isn't the end of the world IF these are maladies common to all the PALs.

What's your experience? THANKS!

 

[hipporadio]

My excellent $10 Sony hand-held AM/FM radio is superior to the $100 Grundig/Tecsun/Eton S350 garbage:

http://www.radiointel.com/review-sonys10mk2.htm

'700 your "blast from the past" yesterday on vintage transistor radios got me to thinking... I've NEVER owned a good 'ole-fashioned "pocket radio". The RCA was too big and doesn't really count, and I don't consider a digitally-tuned PLL Sangean "Walkman" made in 2004 to be a classic-style "personal pocket radio"--I need to see an analog tuning scale to meet that need!

I was on Amazon spending some Christmas cash awhile ago, and 'guess what? I ordered two Sony S10mk2 radios at $13 per with free shipping. Granted--they're not from 1967... But they sorta remind me of one from that era. I should have them by Wednesday... 'Looks like a charming radio--and MANY good reviews too.

Now here's the "kicker"... TWO of the 5-star reviews of the S10mk2 at Amazon were by development engineers I knew back in the mid-90s for IBOC! HeHe... SWEET--what about this very small planet of ours

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

[Chuck]

If you like old transistor radios, check out this web site: http://www.transistor.org/collection/collection.html#TOP

 

[700WLW]

My excellent $10 Sony hand-held AM/FM radio is superior to the $100 Grundig/Tecsun/Eton S350 garbage:

http://www.radiointel.com/review-sonys10mk2.htm

'700 your "blast from the past" yesterday on vintage transistor radios got me to thinking... I've NEVER owned a good 'ole-fashioned "pocket radio". The RCA was too big and doesn't really count, and I don't consider a digitally-tuned PLL Sangean "Walkman" made in 2004 to be a classic-style "personal pocket radio"--I need to see an analog tuning scale to meet that need!

I was on Amazon spending some Christmas cash awhile ago, and 'guess what? I ordered two Sony S10mk2 radios at $13 per with free shipping. Granted--they're not from 1967... But they sorta remind me of one from that era. I should have them by Wednesday... 'Looks like a charming radio--and MANY good reviews too.

Now here's the "kicker"... TWO of the 5-star reviews of the S10mk2 at Amazon were by development engineers I knew back in the mid-90s for IBOC! HeHe... SWEET--what about this very small planet of ours

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Good move, Hippo - you won't be disappointed ! So, you never had a pocket-radio, back in the 1960s - wow ! I was reading, that the very first pocket-radios, from the 1950s, cost around $40 ! I am in Maryland, and although only 400 miles, was listening to Scott Sloan WLW tonight, clear-as-a-bell ! WWL New Orleans (1000 miles) was also very clear, as was Toronto, and WBBM Chicago (600 miles). The Sony is very similar to my old Realtone TR-1871, but obvioulsy, much more sensitive, and much better quality. Did you try J&R Music, or SonyStyle.com - I got my handful, at J&R for $10/each, including free shipping (maybe, the price has gone up, since Christmas). Well, if some old engineer buddies of yours gave it five stars, then you can't be pissed at me, if you don't like it ! Very handsome, manly radio ! Thanks for the link, Chuck ! HAPPY NEW YEAR, TOO !

 

[Mike Walker]

Hipporadio, my PAL does tune all the way to 1700khz, although there are no expanded band stations in my area, and as you point out, the PAL isn't one of 700's "dx machines" (without something like the Terk AM Advantage). I also don't get a hum on mine (the ac adapter is square, and white on mine, if that helps at all).

Have you plugged stereo headphones into your iPAL? I'd love to be there the first time you do. WOW! It's a hot rod, with stereo reception (with the internal whip) that would embarrass many component fm tuners with roof antenna and rotator. I know that sounds silly, but not to a PAL owner who's tried it! Lots of folks use a PAL as their fm tuner in good audio systems.

These days, mine is used largely as a headphone amplifier. I have the sound from my Accurian (and XM, through the Accurian's Aux input) "split" at the output, going both to the aux input on my Sony receiver that drives the bedroom stereo system, and to the aux input on the back of the PAL. My headphones connect to the back of the PAL, which gives me the opportunity of listening to HD Radio (analog am and fm too, of course) or XM through headphones while my wife watches "The Simpsons", or "X-Files" reruns! People spend silly money for headphone amplifiers, and don't get any better sound than the amp they toss in for free in the PAL! I'm looking forward to Tivoli's HD Radio. If it's as much of a hot rod for dx reception as the PAL (and other Tivoli products) are for analog fm stereo, it should silence any HD detractor WHO HAS ACTUALLY HEARD IT! That wouldn't include most of the ones here, of course