While my Grundig S350 gives me some bad background noise on 570AM in the morning a few days a week, overall I agree with Ken here:
I don't agree with that statement at all. The S-350 has been my backyard radio for 10 years now. It's got good loud sound for when I want to hear it while gardening, and I use to to listen to Baseball at night in summer. I've also gotten some very good DX from it while bandscanning outdoors on warm summer evenings around sunset.
And I still love its red Field Radio look. Its one of my favorite radios. True, it doesn't match my RF2200 or SR2, but its just fine for what I use it for.
I thought he was referring to the S450DLX as a noise bucket and compared the 350 to $10 Sony pocket radios. I could take that 350 comment as good or bad. I love my Sony ICF-S10MK2 ($10) and the 350 was just as good at pulling in weak signals and sure sounded a lot better with that big speaker. However, the drift on the 350 killed me.
I don't know how Ken listens to it gardening. I would get about 10 minutes into washing the car and it would drift off frequency so much that I would have to go adjust it and it did that all of the time. I use a Radio Shack 12-889 as my outdoor radio now and it is much better. It supposedly has a DSP chip in it but I am too lazy to pop it open and look!
I must have adjusted the tuning mechanism on the 350 10 times. It would work great for a few weeks and then the drifting would come back. I finally put it on eBay.
Of all the analog radios I have owned, the 350 was by far the most "drifty" though the Grundig Mini 400 was darn close. I ended up giving that radio to the thrift store!
If the 450 was even close to the 350 in reception and audio since it has no drift, I'd buy it in a heartbeat but all of the comments I've read about it (especially here) has kept me away so far.
Posted by: Jason | May 04, 2013 at 09:25 AM
One of my most used radios is my C Crane EP. But that has annoying FM drift too. One thing I've noticed though----is that I only have to adjust it once or twice----and then it's good for an entire session of listening----hours worth. Still, I have old radios of various makes, including some cheapies, that don't drift at all. The 350/450, I would only buy if there was some serious deep discount. I believe Radio Shack had a clearance on these a year or two back----and with an additional Rat Shack coupon, the price was silly----like forty bucks or less. I should have pulled the trigger. $100.00 isn't going to happen. I've heard too many negative things about the quality of these sets.
Posted by: Angelo | May 04, 2013 at 11:57 AM
The best way to determine the performance of a radio on the AM/WM band is during the daytime. Partially anything will pull in DX at night, and atmospheric conditions can vary quite a bit.
I'm not saying the 350 is a bad radio, just that it's not a top notch DX performer, though many have claimed it to be.
And yes I was referring to the Sony ICF-S10MK2 as the "$10 Sony". In a side by side test the little Sony slightly out performed both the S350 and S350DL. I could hear WWL out of New Orleans (in the daytime) from here in central Florida faintly on the Sony and not at all on either S350. I could also faintly hear WQUAM out of Miami (5KW). Again, nothing on either S350. The Sony could pull in 690 WOKV out of Jacksonville (with a fairly moderately strong signal on 680), and faintly pull out 940 WINZ out of Ft Lauderdale (with a moderately strong signal on 950)..and again close to nothing on 690 and nothing at all on 940 on the Grundigs.
Posted by: Drive-In-Freak | May 04, 2013 at 04:12 PM
Just addressing the drift issue. It's never really bothered me. The drift seems to be worst on SW, and I hardly ever listen to SW anymore.
On AM/FM, yes, I may have to adjust it once in the first 10-15 mins of listening, but I don't consider that much of an issue at all. If I'm gardening, if I have to adjust the radio after 15 minutes, well, I need a break, and time for a sip of iced tea or cold beer anyway..
Posted by: Ken K. in NJ | May 04, 2013 at 08:43 PM
Ken: I agree----no big deal. But I wonder, why do radios like my CC-EP (around $70.00) or the Grundig (can be $100.00 unless on sale)----why do they have the drift problem----while my $20.00 Emerson doesn't drift at all? Ditto, old Ross radios that I bought for fifteen bucks on E-Bay----Arvins, Lloyds, etc.? No FM drift, but newer radios costing many times more have this issue?
Posted by: Angelo | May 05, 2013 at 05:44 AM