My first one was the Kaito 2100, which I returned to Universal Radio after 3 weeks when the radio went bonkers, the circuitry not communicating with the speaker so that I could barely get any sound.
My second one, an actual CSW, had birdy noise on 710 AM no matter how I tuned, fine-grained, or rotated the radio. Also, the speaker seemed unusually harsh. So I sold it.
Now I have a third one. I set it up while sick with bronchitis, and didn't pay attention to the fact that I was trying to set the memory presets with the memory toggle button when I should have been pressing the memory set button. I thought I had another lemon. But the lemon was in my brain.
I keep the third one in the kitchen next to the Boston Acoustics Horizon Duo. I can't help but compare these two radios. For pure reception the CSW fares better, not necessarily because the tuner is better but because of the telescopic antenna. But the speaker sound on the Duo is so vastly superior that AM actually sounds better. Music on the CSW is for me mediocre at best and cannot compare to the Duo's brightness. Also the Duo is much better on talk. Voices seem "in the room" and thick while comparatively voices are reedy and distant on the CSW.
However, the Duo has a FM wire antenna and the CSW has a proper telescopic one. For pure reception, CSW cannot be beat. Also, the CSW is the current "radio of record." This is the radio you have to have, a big table radio with a loud speaker than gets about the best reception in the business. You don't buy this thing for music fidelity. Get the Duo for that.
Some good news: I don't have the birdy on 710 AM. The bad news is the CSW models have a lot of variation and this speaks poorly about quality control. In any event, three times seems to be a charm. Let's hope this CSW doesn't go bonkers over the next weeks or months.
Update: The following morning I compared sound again and the Duo's sound is so superior that I doubt I'll be able to have both radios in the kitchen where they'll be side by side. The CSW will probably moved to the workout room where heavy training is better matched to the CSW's austere sound. If inclement weather ever compromises the Duo's reception performance, I'll simply use the CSW as an occasional pinch hitter.
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