Three Months in the Kitchen May Have Tired Out My Sangean PR-D5's Speakers

 

Three months ago, I had to replace my Sangean PR-D5 because of a faulty power supply. Sangean sent me a new one and after 3 months the speakers are shot. This morning while eating breakfast, I toggled through some AM stations on my Sangean PR-D5, one of my top-rated radios in the AM department, and received some distortion twice at medium volume levels.

Three months of trying to fill the kitchen has fatigued the tiny dual 2.5-inch speakers. My wife ate breakfast an hour later and also noticed the distortion. An unsettling thought has overcome me: Did Sangean send me a brand new radio or a loaner stuffed in a box? No way of knowing. 

That made it official. I banished the PR-D5 to the baby room where it will be rarely played and even then only at low volumes. In the kitchen is the Sangean Sonido, which I reviewed a month or so ago. The Sonido's AM antenna is not as big as the PR-D5's, but its bigger speaker probably won't get so "fatigued."

Comments

[Tom Welch]

Jeff: I've read a lot of reviews on the Sangean PR-D5 and you are the 1st to report this sort of problem. I have noticed that the PR-D5 seems to sound a bit different depending on the surface it is placed on...wood works best for my loft apartment it seems.

[jeffrey McMahon]

It's on a wooden dresser now. If the distortion abates, I'll let you know.

[Tom Welch]

I now place my PR-D5 also on a wooden dresser.

[Tim]

Why not give the Sangean WR 11 a try? It certainly has more power than the PR-D5, though not the reception.

[Angelo]

Better idea: Say "eenie, meenie, minie, mo" with old Panasonics and Sonys. Pick any damn one of them. Many of them have been used in fire stations or by painters---played at loud volumes to make sound fill buildings, not kitchens. They're 35 years old. They've been abused. The speakers will not distort like this. It's a quality thing---China wouldn't understand.