Since I can't stand tinny radios, I did this setup for my two Grundigs, the G5 and G8. The boombox is a Sony CFD-G700CP which sounds great. I fabbed a couple of brackets out of solid wire to hang the radios on the raised handle of the Sony and ran the radios into the MP3 input. The thing propped up diagonally is an old Zenith Transoceanic antenna from a parts radio in the sweet spot to get my jazz station (WRTI/WJAZ 91.7) in this super fringe area of central Pa. I clip it to the G8's whip and it is a very capable FM setup which beats every other setup I have including the RF2200 and ICF-5900W.
Not "communications receiver style" but it works great and is very pleasurable to listen to for hours.
BTW, the G5 is great on just the whip for the SW stations I listen to-Voice of Russia, Voice of Greece, and Radio Makedonias along with Radio Australia and New Zealand in the wee hours. G8 is the pits on MW, mediocre on SW, and wonderful for FM *with the 5 foot Transoceanic whip.* Not so wonderful on its own too-short whip.
The radio in the boombox itself? Don't bother... not worth a crap. I use the Superadio II for AM anyway.
Don't let the pic fool you-the Sony is a monster but I've never had a better sounding setup! <g>
Rich (Dorpmuller on the blog comments)
Cool! Looks like a Transformer Radio or some kinda alien tecno-beast. I like it! Bet it sounds great. Good work, Rich.
Posted by: Ed | October 01, 2009 at 06:15 PM
Yes, it's a Radio Beast. I like it too.
Posted by: herculodge | October 01, 2009 at 06:27 PM
How do you run both radios into one input?
Posted by: aplayingwithfireproduction.blogspot.com | October 01, 2009 at 07:27 PM
I would suppose he just swaps the connector from one radio's earphone out to the other.
Posted by: Ed | October 01, 2009 at 08:25 PM
That looks cool. Every now and then I'll tune all my radios to the same station and place them all over the room. If it's a SW station, there may be three different frequencies I'm using (while one frequency is dipping in strength and volume, others are strong and clear at that point.) The muffled E1 is complemented by the crisp high end on the G5, the S350 adds nice bass, the G6 adds nice midrange (though it's headache-inducing by itself,) and the DX-398 adds more volume (never liked the speaker on that one.) Haven't tried adding the YB 300PE to the mix. It has the nastiest, shrillest, most tympanic membrane-piercing noise I've ever heard from a radio (and with 5 kHz tuning steps, no tuning knob and only one filter width, the selectivity is so poor I don't even use that one with headphones.)
Posted by: Terry, the Old Transistor Fart | October 02, 2009 at 03:58 AM
I've heard on the internet that particular Sony boombox is a monster sound-wise. Unfortunately, engineers today cannot design proper eq circuits, and as a result it has the typical "rock, pop, jazz, etc." presets. Even so, I've considered adding this Sony to my mostly old-skool collection only because most modern boomboxes are a low-powered jokes. The JVC "Kaboom" was probably the last of the really big ones (the AM/FM section sucks on the Kaboom too).
Posted by: Moogbass | October 02, 2009 at 06:36 AM
Rich, looks weird as hell but I'll bet it sounds great. Some technically inclined person should just build a Frankenradio using the AM tuner of a Superadio, the FM tuner of a G8, the shortwave tuner of a G5, a nice long antenna and boombox speakers.
Keith B.
Posted by: Keith Beesley | October 02, 2009 at 11:00 AM
I'm sorry to report that after about a year, my Grundig G-8 went belly-up. The display went blank. I assumed it needed fresh batteries, but when I put new ones in it, they became extremely hot very quickly. I had to remove them immediately.
There's modern radio quality for you!
Posted by: Ed S. | October 01, 2010 at 02:50 PM