#16
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You said it! Those cheap AM-FM-FM stereo radios have almost no stereo separation whatsoever because the speakers are so close to each other. (In fact, the word "stereo" used to describe these sets means nothing; it is probably more of a selling point than anything else--and the stereo decoder, almost certainly a cheap integrated circuit, is probably as BOTL as you can get.) The only way you could hope to get anywhere near decent stereo separation from these sets is if you used them with headphones, and even then I'd have my doubts about the sound quality. I presently own two AM/FM/stereo FM radios that don't sound bad (the FM on one quit about ten years ago), but the radios are still nowhere near large enough to provide adequate separation. My Panasonic boom box is perhaps a foot or so long, but I am sure the stereo separation leaves an awful lot to be desired. I owned a Sanyo AM-FM-stereo FM boom box in the '80s which had the same problem, only the speakers were even closer to each other than my Panasonic's are--mainly because the Sanyo was in a squarish-shaped box, and the Panasonic boom box is in a much longer cabinet. I still wouldn't call the Panasonic box hi-fi, though.
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Jeff, WB8NHV Collecting, restoring and enjoying vintage Zenith radios since 2002 Zenith. Gone, but not forgotten. Last edited by Jeffhs; 05-09-2015 at 07:57 PM. |
#17
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As I walk through BJs Wholesale or Walmart .Its sad just looking at those big oversize radios with 6 plus speakers that have no or alittle stereo separation.Nevermind adding the tuners suck too.Atlease they can add a stereo-wide switch to make it sound better.I probably have those Sanyo's and Panasonic's in my boombox collection. Today people are now more interesting with those streamboxes or Iphone boxes which I see next to those so called stereo sets on the store shelves. I have a sad feeling we will here in the states will end up with digital radio like Norway sooner or later. |
#18
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I have a Sony Dream Machine AM/FM Clock Radio and several GE AM/FM Clock Radios all from the early to mid 1980s that have excellent tuners on them for what they are, they have nothing but line antennas for the FM Band and they are all able to pick up clearly stations that are 30-60 miles away from where I live, so I would have to say that not everything made within the past 30+ years radio wise was "cheaply made".
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#19
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I would agree that analog tuners such as those on Sony's dream machine continued to improve well after digital was an option. I have one of those Sony's in a bathroom as the house alarm clock and I got it in 1986. It's sensitive seems to pick up whatever the e-skip favors - owing to a crowded FM band and the short monopole antenna I added long ago to replace the 24" wire hanging out the back. I also had an AM-FM/casette walkman that had an crude but fantasic tuner.
On the flip side, we had an Aiwa portable CD-casette unit with a digital tuner, detachable speakers, etc. With a cheesy dipole or outdoor antenna, the selectivity was awful, unheard of in a digital tuner. after casette, then the CD part failed it was exchanged for a tiny Emerson CD portable with a good ANALOG tuner.
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"When resistors increase in value, they're worthless" -Dave G |
#20
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Audiokarma |
#21
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It seemed, areas near a Target store, there was a lot of Emerson products around. |
#22
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Yeah but GE and Sony for sure were some of the better clock radios during the 1970s and 1980s as far as picking up reception goes.
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#23
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It's some people that don't care about good reception and tone quality, just something to wake them up and listen to the local news and weather.
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#24
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I found a 2002 Supersonic 5 inch TV/AM/FM radio,flashlight and fluorescent light in its box during my daily walk. It needs work in the power reg circuit as I see with the overloading.It has a one chip radio IC in it.
Last edited by centralradio; 09-24-2015 at 12:03 PM. |
#25
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My "Windsor" branded AM-FM clock radio has about the worst tuner and audio quality I have ever heard, but it doesn't bother me since all I use it for is to make noise to wake me up in the morning. The selectivity is so bad that the local stations from Cleveland come in almost one on top of the other; a station about ten miles from here is so strong it almost drowns out a Cleveland station one MHz up the dial, but again, that's due to the poor selectivity factor.
As was mentioned earlier in the thread, these radios are not meant for high fidelity or razor-sharp selectivity, much less good RF sensitivity. However, I have owned worse sets. In the eighties, I had a Zenith integrated stereo with an AM tuner so bad I was getting short wave around 1110 kHz or so after dark, and my present stereo system, an Aiwa NSX-888 all-in-one, will pick up the local AM station, 1000 watts days/500 watts nights and five miles from me, at two points on the digital tuner: at the station's primary frequency of 1460 kHz, and 0.9 to 1 MHz down the dial (at 550-560 kHz) as well. (That station is a talk station I do not listen to, so the cross-modulation problem doesn't bother me.) I wouldn't expect such a low-power station to overload my stereo's front end at just five miles, but the way these things are built nowadays nothing surprises me anymore. The FM digital tuner is just the opposite, failing to receive certain Cleveland stations in stereo, but I'm not surprised. Some time ago, I read one review of this particular system that stated the FM tuner is meant for use in strong signal areas, not in near-fringe areas such as the town where I live (I am about 40 miles northeast of most of the Cleveland FM stations, so the signals here aren't that strong to begin with). In fact, extremely strong signals will likely overload the front end, resulting in the same type of cross-modulation I mentioned earlier; you just can't win. This type of stereo system would probably overload like crazy if I lived in a very strong signal area such as New York City or downtown Chicago, as most of the radio stations serving these areas transmit from one central location (the Hancock Building in Chicago and the Empire State Building in NYC) and, of course, the signals are extremely strong in the downtown areas of both cities. If you are close to either of these structures your radios will overload severely. VK member jstout66, in Nebraska, can relate to this as he has a 50kW AM station near his home that almost certainly overloads every radio he owns. TV signals in both areas are likely just as strong, as they are transmitted from the same towers as the radio stations. In the early 1970s, I lived in a Cleveland suburb whose local FM station was only roughly a third of a mile from me (I could see the tower and its red navigation lights from my third-floor bedroom window after dark). The station's signal, on 92.3 MHz, was so powerful that it came in on channel 6 on my TV, between stations on a cheap stereo FM radio I had at the time, and even on an Ampex "Micro 88" solid-state stereo cassette tape deck my dad had. He was trying to tape a concert at our church one night, but couldn't due to the tape deck picking up the FM station's signal on the speaker leads; this gives you an idea of how incredibly strong the signal was at that location.
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Jeff, WB8NHV Collecting, restoring and enjoying vintage Zenith radios since 2002 Zenith. Gone, but not forgotten. Last edited by Jeffhs; 09-25-2015 at 01:58 PM. |
Audiokarma |
#26
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I *HAVE* a GE (General Electric) clock radio/phone which has to have the worst tuner out there. I *NEVER* listen to the radio on it. We have a 50,000 watt AM station and it overloads on that, and the FM can only pick up like 2 stations. If it wasn't for the built in phone, I'd shove a Zenith *CIRCLE OF SOUND* clock radio back in there.
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#27
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Regarding the Windsor radios, they were give-aways at the bank, when you opened a savings account, around here, years ago.
They're always at the thrift stores. |
#28
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I tend to buy older Realistic, Panasonic, Sony, and other brand Japanese radios from the old days. I love finding old Multi-Band radios.
Most of the ones I have picked up get excellent AM/FM reception. It makes modern radios look like junk. I have never messed with those radio on chip pieces of crap they sell these days. I have no real "local" stations. I have a 6kW station on 96.1 in Lake Geneva, and it's transmitter is 8 miles from me, so even the worst radios get it. All they play is tween music, and stuff little girls would like. I have 95.1 out in Kenosha, it's 50kW and plays rock, and 30 miles away, I listen to them commonly in my car because it reaches so deep in to both Milwaukee and Chicago. I also think there is some religious station on 88.5 or something like that pretty close, but no one cares about those stations and no one listens to them. The programming is an abysmal so who cares. As for AM stations. There used to be 1550 in Lake Geneva. A little 1kW station with two directional towers aimed east/west. They came in great, and I got the pleasure of them coming back on the air in December last year, and they played classic music and Christmas music. I had them on constantly on a little 1946 Arvin radio I own, it was a delight. They signed off January 1st, and the WZRK call letters were turned in to the FCC, so the station is dead. I suppose for the best. The company that bought WZRK is a pathetic joke, they have another station in Milwaukee that plays only Gospel, and in my area there is zero market for such a station. I think they just killed it, and moved the transmitter up to Milwaukee for their crap station. As for other close AM signals? WTMJ, WISN WBBM, WSCR, and WGN from Chicago & Milwaukee are the biggest locally. WSM from Nashville powers in here at night, so does CHWO or whatever 740 from Ontario at sunset, as well. Both nice to listen too on vintage sets. I find a radio to be worthless if I can't hear Milwaukee on it in my house. It's made of amazing stuff if it let's me listen to Chicago in my house. |
#29
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One of the joys of moving out of Omaha, NE was getting away from the overwhelming signals of local AM. Unfortunately, there was a trade-off of QRM (man-made noise) from all the wi-fi equipment. Getting a strong signal, particularly at night, means going to great lengths to out-power or null out the noise. The cure has been large ferrite bar antenna (preferably amplified). I have other plans afoot to try alternate means to null out noise and increase gain. Some are cheap; others aren't. Also, I have to consider the whims of the atmospheric reflecting layers. Signal can be fickle!
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Rick (Sparks) Ethridge |
#30
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Not to get too far OOT, I bought a Jensen branded AM-FM desk clock radio, in the original box. It doesn't sound too bad on FM, but the AM can't be tuned to proper resonance. It's a synthesizer tuner and evidently it was designed for foreign countries, where the stations are 9KC apart.
It was intended for the US, 120 volt, 60HZ. Must have been rejects, as the were sold at the JC Penney outlet store. |
Audiokarma |
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