With size of Grundig G4000A, Sony ISF-F10 has very distinguished sound compare with same size radio. Receiver has very pleasant sound especially for jazz classical music and talk. Portability make easy to move radio from one place to other that I can’t do with my big radio. Buttery live is amazing! Sony claim 200 hours from two A buttery. It is very noticeable for everyday listening. FM reception is average and local stations reception is very clear without distortions or fade of a signal. AM sensitive enough to get even weak stations but near buy strong signal station kill selectivity. In good location Sony has very pleasant result for receiving AM signal. Sony ISF-F10 is bargain. Definitely is amazing receiver for $!
Val
I, too, just bought a Sony F10 about a month ago and am very pleasantly suprised with it. For a whopping $14, it offers a nice well-rounded tone and slightly above-average reception. It may not be the ideal DXing unit, but it can hold its own. I like to run through the dial late at night and see how many frequencies it can pick up; quite enough for average radio listening. And again, the tone is quite nice for both music and talk radio.
I get great enjoyment over such old-fashioned radios that lack all the modern bells and whistles. There's something satisfying in the irony of a radio this "cheap" nearly matching models many times its price. One day, before I die, I imagine myself tossing out every $200+ digital multiband radio and just enjoying the simplicity of a silly little radio like the F10.
Posted by: Tim | March 17, 2013 at 05:32 PM
I love reading this. I've long been an advocate of even serious radio collectors/hobbyists finding these simple radios that do a good job. I have quite a few expensive rigs----yet my cheap little Emerson radio that I keep in the bathroom is used daily----and does a great job. I bought it a few years ago for around $20.00. TV band no longer receives because of the switch to digital----but Weather, AM and FM all perform well. It's a solid little radio that has taken some abuse (splashing/high humidity/even baby powder in high quantities) and you'd never know that by its performance.
Posted by: Angelo | March 18, 2013 at 10:38 AM
I wonder how it compares with the ICF-18. It has the same specs and looks almost identical but for some reasons costs a few dollars more; one would assume there was something extra. Specs for obscure Sony radios are hard to find.
Posted by: Ulysses | March 18, 2013 at 11:41 AM