Herculodge

Fear of Regret Often Compels Us to Buy Extended Warranties We Don't Need

Fantastic piece on today's All Things Considered about how we agonize for months for some huge electronics purchase only to be face with 15 seconds to decide if we're going to buy the extended warranty or not. 

Dan Ariel, author of Predictably Irrational, explains the psychology behind our fears that fuel too many unwise extended warranties. 

The Degradation of Musical Sound Quality in the Digital MP3 Age

Today's New Year's Eve edition of All Things Considered explains how we perceive digital MP3 music in its compressed form and makes the convincing case, as readers have made on this blog in the past, that the iPod degrades sound quality. 

Catalog Under Apex Performer: Sony TFM-1000 Bidding on eBay

Some readers have told me the Sony TFM-1000 is one of the great AM/FM performers you can get. This one is described in good working condition with a current bid of $17. 

GE Super Radio I and GE Scout Radio in One Bid

The GE Super Radio I and GE Scout radios are selling in one bid. It would be nice to do a side-by-side comparison and see just how "super" the Scout is. 

Huge Radio Bid of 2009: RCA Transistor Lab Radio from 1953 Bids for $5,560

Ed has apprised us of this monster radio bid for the RCA Transistor Radio Lab Demonstration Model. You could buy a used Nissan Altima with that money.

The Radiophile's Impulse to Tinker Is a Good Thing

(Re-post)

The radiophile can be distinguished by his constant hunger for not just a better radio but for creating the ultimate "radio system." In his quest to maximize sound, reception, and ergonomics he will compulsively tinker endlessly, never satisfying his finicky standards. 

Here are some "tinkerings" that readers have described:

Example #1: Use the aux out on a Panasonic RF-2200 and connect it to a Boston Acoustics Horizon Duo. This will effectively give the Duo a MW gyro antenna, and sound great. Or hook up the RF-2200 with a stereo plug to the PR-D5 with a mono cable. 

Example #2: Establish a wireless connection between two radios: Plug a "rebroadcaster", ie FM transmtter, into a Panasonic RF-888. Tune the Duo to the transmitter's FM frequency and, voila, you have the best of both worlds. 

Example #3: One reader writes: "Back when 570 KLAC and 1110 KRLA played music (these are So. Cal. stations, and that's the old rock oldies KRLA) I "patched" the audio from a Sony CFS-6000 into an NAD 7400 receiver. The CFS-6000 had AM stereo and an extra wide AM bandwidth setting for extended high frequency reception. I think the tuner was the same as the SRF-A100 you posted a while back. With this setup I enjoyed not hi-fi but mid-fi audio and neither Sony or NAD were harmed. Some might think it a sacrilege to feed the input of a hi-fi amplifier such as the NAD with a plastic boombox of a radio and then listen to AM!"

Example #4: Another reader writes: "My Sangean WR-1 is the usual occupant of our piano as well. I like the looks of the black Tivoli there, but my wife likes the Tivoli in the kitchen. It is elevated higher than the WR-1, due to a "brick" that it lives on. The brick is there to improve the bass response of the radio. I built a nice wooden frame around the brick, then painted it to match the radio. The bottom-facing bass port sounds less boomy with the brick. My wife likes it, as the added height makes the radio easier to hear when there is clutter on the counter."

Example #5: Another reader writes: "I got much of the drift out of my Tivoli by lubing the 5:1 tuning gearbox with WD-40. My Tivoli drifted badly, and was a bit stiff to turn. Now, it is quite smooth to turn and doesn't drift much at all. You could see the thick grease around the shaft that goes from the 5:1 gearbox to the actual tuner. Perhaps they put the stuff in to dampen things, but I didn't like the feel."

Example #6: Another reader writes: "Tecsun R-308 arrived a few weeks ago. Speaker audio sounded a bit flat, I thought, so I changed from a Radio parts shop here in Oz. It's 8 ohms like original. Power rating is 10w vs 2w original; seems to be just as sensitive/efficient though - the low power radio amp distorts at highest volume anyway. Replacement was simple - plenty of room in the large cabinet to work in. A Phillips head screwdriver was required to remove speaker and a couple of circuit boards. The new 4 inch speaker has the same standard square shape and mounting holes as the original. So it was a simple matter to replace speaker and screws, then solder wire. The magnet on the the new speaker is, however considerably larger in diameter (and weight), so I had to neatly cut away a section of the battery compartment to refit the rear panel (cabinet is just deep enough to accept speaker depth). Batteries fit easily now. Otherwise, the whole operation was dead easy. And the result is a spectacular improvement in sound quality. The rolled cone surround and whizzer cone has greatly broadened the frequency range. Lovely warm and bright balanced sound, particularly on FM (AM is OK, but I wish the radio had a more comprehensive tone control)." 

Many will scoff at these tinkerings as eccentric or geekish, but I argue this impulse to tinker is the same impulse that sent man across the Seven Seas and to the Moon. It is the same impulse that produced the car, the airplane, and, on a more pedestrian note, the microwave oven. It is the same impulse that developed a vaccine. To tinker is to innovate and to explore and such explorations are the result of curiosity. When we lose our curiosity, we are no longer alive. 

Comparing my Boston Acoustics Horizon Solo and C.Crane CCR-2 As Bedside Radios

 

In many ways I miss using my Boston Acoustics Horizon Solo on my bedstand. Its tiny footprint and excellent FM reception made it a compelling bedside companion for over a year. Through the headphones there was no background noise on FM, including the weak 89.3 KPCC. 

But AM was generally weak. 570 had ugly background noise. 710 had a birdy all night. 830 required that I rotate the radio just so or I couldn't even hear it, even at loud volumes!

 

So about 5 months ago I stuck the Solo on the living room couch side table and put the C.Crane CCR-2 on my bedstand. Superior AM became immediately evident. While the speaker sound is big, it's not as warm and rich as the Solo's. But since I listen to AM through my earbuds all night, the CCR-2 was the bedside pick.

Another advantage of the CCR-2: Separate bass and treble controls. Through the speakers, I enjoy the treble turned all the way up. It brings more life to the sound. But through the buds, I have to turn the treble all the way down to minimize background noise. For some reason, between 9 P.M. and 1 A.M. or so, 570 AM gets compromised reception and I have to minimize the background noise.

Same on FM with 89.3. No matter how I fiddle with the antenna, there is a hiss through the buds. Funny, through the speaker 89.3 is loud and clear. But I assume the buds reveal more reception weaknesses. So it's good I have the treble controls.

If I wasn't a big AM listener, I'd go with the Solo. Smaller footprint and no background hiss on the much-listened to 89.3 would make it the compelling choice. But for all the AM I listen to, the CCR-2 is the clear winner. 

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."

Matt Reviews the Sangean PR-D8. Verdict: Mixed Bag

(Re-post)

We've been eager for a first review. Matt steps up to the plate:

I picked one up my Sangean PR-D8 from Amazon. It's a bit of a mixed bag, but I'm keeping mine. Sound quality is just a bit better than average (nothing to write home about), it only supports ONE timer, and at times feels like two completely separate devices shoved in the same case. 

All the radio controls and display are on the right, and the recorder/player controls and display are on the left, and there really isn't any crossover other than 'Sd' displayed when the recorder is active where the frequency is usually displayed. The tone switch (normal, talk, music) is best on normal. 

Music is thin, and talk is too boomy. FM reception seems pretty good, much better than average. I don't usually do AM, but I'll record some Coast to Coast just to see how it does for you AM nuts. 

It does have line-in/line-out and headphone ports, so you can easily use it as a recorder/receiver/mp3 player hooked to a better set of speakers, like a nice set of JBL Creatures. Input/output is stereo. 

The 192kbps is sufficient for FM. With good headphones, the limitations of FM (hiss, loss of higher frequencies) are far, far more obvious than any digital compression artifacts, of which I heard none. Sangean says it will use big-boy SD cards: up to 32gb, I believe. I've got a 1gb in mine. It does have stereo mics, if that's your thing. And you can record from line-in, too. The record timer will work for all inputs, too: radio, mics, and line-in. But for me, being limited to ONE timer is the biggest drawback. I had intended to set up a schedule, and just grab the SD card Monday morning and listen to weekend NPR programming at work, but that's not possible. You set a start and stop time (not date!), and flip the TIMER switch on the side. It's a bit aggravating because the radio knows what date it is, but you can't set record date, too. 

Recordings are broken up into one hour chunks. One hour at 192 kbps is 80-something megabytes. It seems to be firmware-upgradable. It lists the firmware at power-on, and since it has an SD slot, I'm hoping we'll see an update that allows date setting for the timer as well. It's a nice _appliance_, but for a Zen-like listening experience, it doesn't match the WR-11.

European Reader Gives the Sangean Lunchbox the Thumbs Up

Addressing some questions about battery power in a previous post, Flor L writes:

I have a Lunchbox now for 2 years and it's great. It has very good reception and a very good sound quality. Much better than most worksite radios. It's very compact and really rain-resistant (jis4), most other brands don't tell you in detail about this (!!??? makes you wonder..). It has almost 3 metres rubber cable that can be easily rolled up on the back. To the question of Ken K.; it works on AC and batteries (4 x C size). On average volume it plays 4-5 working days on these batteries. The Lunchbox is my buddy at work. Happy New Year from Europe.