Val Has Tried Many Great Radios, But His Favorite Remains: The Sony ICF-EX5

 

I like Sony ICF-EX5, It is personal. Maybe because it is my first AM receiver and I had chance to see advantage of this tremendous radio to comparing with other receivers or because I using this radio receiver for over two years (this is my second EX-5MK2) but it is still my favorite. And I still like this radio than other receivers. I decided to compare my favorite to some other radios. Here are the results:

 

 

My friend who is crazy about radios like me lendt me his tremendous Panasonic RF-2200. Panasonic is one of the most successful receivers from the past according to many reviews. Like the excellent Panasonic RF-2200,  the Sony ICF-5900W was on the table and I had chance to play with each radio for a few days and evenings.

The two radios have similar features, advantages and disadvantages.  The Panasonic RF-2200 has tone control bass and treble, excellent scale with low and fast speed of tuning and gyro antenna.

Its big disadvantage is noise from power adapter. Overall though, it's a heavy like tank and features a big sound.

The Sony ICF-5900W is smaller and lighter has bass. Its treble tone control and very smooths tuning. It doesn’t have terrible noise from power adapter but doesn’t have gyro and fine MW tuning.

Both of the radios are apex of the pass and still out perform in the present time of many receivers made today. Provable many radio enthusiasts have desire to have this remarkable radios on the table for daily use or just for collection.

I enjoyed playing with both receivers. It is true, remarkable radio with useful features that help to catch some weak signal, decrease noise and enjoying good sound from speaker. Tremendous on the all bands the receivers made with excellent quality of construction.

 

On the picture with two the best receivers, My “Modern” Sony EX-5MK2 doesn’t have bass and treble or gyro. More than that EX-5MK2, it doesn’t have fine tuning. Synchronous detection and wide and low pass tone switch only features of Sony.

A possible weakness? Maybe some of the users of Sony EX-5 will complain of mediocre speaker sound.

However, for me hours and hours of listening doesn’t make you feel tired. Simplicity of tuning, light weight and near absence of noise from adapter and some air distortion represents quality hi- performance for thirty years of production of this unique receiver. It is made in Japan and only in Japan and still keeping quality in tradition for radio enthusiasts. 

Val.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IdlA2LO0Cg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVGe25mgnpk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISmHQyYZM5Y

Comments

[Huesby]

Val:
The Panasonic RF-2200 normally doesn´t make noise when plugged to the AC line, in fact it´s very quiet, probably your sample has a bad electrolitic capacitor.
Everybody says that the Sony EX-5MK2 it´s very sensitive on AM..is it as sensitive as the Panasonic ?

[Val]

Huesby
I had compare two radios and only different is outdoor performance. Sony had stronger signal reception than Panasonic, but reason could be age of old Panasonic.

[Andreas]

On SW my ICF-5900 performs a little better than my RF-2200, but...
... I only realigned my Sony (it was necessary as the prior owner misaligned the coils and capacitors you can reach from the back). I didn't touch the inside of the Panasonic yet.

I find the panasonic strong in SSB on the amateur radio 75m band (the Sony does not cover this band) and very pleasant in easy listinig to the SW powerhouse like BBC and Deutsche Welle. But with weak signals in the tropical bands the Panasonic sounds a bit muffled. It's not a matter of sensitivity or selectivity but a problem of the demodulator, I assume.

But as Huesby said: both radios are more than 30 years old and mine maybe passed through various hands - your mileage may vary!