Radio Reviews

I bought this product for my 10 year old son. It looks pretty but the sound is awful. I can't believe I paid $90. for this boom box.

This is actually a review of Sony CFD-E75 CD/Radio/Cassette Boombox (Silver), exact thing except color. I "borrowed" this from my wife when I found I didn't have any cassette players (except in a car) and had to listen to a cassette. I was impressed by the sound quality for spoken word cassettes. Everything sounds normal like a human is talking! I've also listened to music cassettes and music CD's and am just amazed at how good this sounds. The "wheel" for selecting CD tracks is a great idea and is used for tuning the radio when in "radio" mode. That makes it easy to find your station.Speaking of which, this model has a "real" three section, rotating antenna, not a skinny little wire hanging out the back What won me over though was the FM AND AM reception on the radio section of this item. We live in an area where the big broadcast antenna are on a hill real close to our home so we've always had problems with radio reception. A good adjustable Bass with the Sony "Mega Bass" button does change the sound noticably. I like the styling and I keep the thing on the night stand next to my head so haven't needed the remote. I guess I'll let my wife keep that. HA HA

This was a good purchase. She swears she got ot for considerably less than the price shown. But even at the price shown, I think it's darn well worth it!
Highly Recommended!
John Row

This product is great for someone who doesn't have a lot of space for a big stereo. And having a remote makes it a lot easier too! Also its easy to get the cd in and out of so your cds won't get scratched.

I housesit for a lady who has this alarm clock. The creek sounds okay, but I never set it to "Birds of Paradise". It sounds like a war on Animal Farm. Otherwise, it works great and is very easy to use.

The size of the time readout is wonderful, especially to those of us who wear glasses. The nature sounds of the brook and the bird are very nice. My husband finds regular alarms too jarring; this is a pleasant alternative. The ocean sounds too much like static for my taste. I also enjoy the fact the am and pm are not part of this clock. Too many times in the past I set my clock for what I believed to be 5:30 am to find out I set it for 5:30 pm by mistake.

The size of the time readout was great,and if you wear glasses the readout will be wonderful.The nature sounds of the bird and the ocean sounds make you feel like you are at the ocean as the water is rushing in, and the brook makes you feel like the water is drippping on your body.The regular alarm will make you jump out of bed.And on this clock you can set the alarm for 9:ooam and you do not have to worry about it going off at 9:00pm.
It's a great clock to have.

Pros:
1. The sound quality is this radio's #1 best feature. Be prepared: once you get used to it, you'll never be able to tolerate an average clock-radio.
2. The time display is a blue background and white numbers, which I find to be bright enough to read but not glaring. As an added bonus it's almost like a nightlight.
3. Love the weekend skip! Second alarm allows me to keep the first alarm reserved for my "standard" wakeup and use second one for naps or schedule change.

Cons:
1. Pray tell, dear Aiwa engineers, what *were* you thinking by omitting volume control from the remote?!!
2. AM/PM indicator is too tiny to read from a distance so that setting an alarm via remote is tricky.

It would have been nice if the radio also included the feature of having the alarm increasing volume.

This radio is great! The remote control comes in very handy.
I have two complaints about this radio:
#1: the alarms may not be loud enough for a heavy sleeper.
#2: it is not possible to turn the volume using the remote.
The music comes through loud and clear.
I would recommend this radio to anyone.

I bought one of these about three years ago and bought two others when they were discontinued about two years ago. I'm surprised to see these still in stock, so perhaps the new batch is different from the one I'm reviewing.

The push-to-talk button will wear out after about a year of daily use. The buttons wear out in the strangest of ways. It appears to transmit but doesn't transmit the subcode unless you really press the button down. Not sure what was going on there.

I highly recommend the GMRS version of this base station. It's much better and has a "bonus" removable portable radio. We're replacing the FRS1000 with the new version as their push-to-talk buttons break.

The battery life is very decent on the FRS1000--it lasts two days which is excellent for any FRS with subcodes turned on.

The configuration sequence is horribly confusing and the icons don't seem to represent anything in real life, so the manual should be kept close by.

We are in a rather noisy environment, RF-wise, so passing aircraft and vehicles with business radios will cause the unit to break squelch and emit a loud 1/2-second long blast of static and white noise. This happens even if you set the subcodes. Some ranges of subcodes false break squelch more often than others.

Transmitting audio is accompanied by an AC hum. The newer GMRS version has a quieter hum but it's still there. The power supply appears to be the culprit, as I have used ferrite cores to try and clean up the interference a bit and it doesn't have much affect.

If it's cheap, like twenty-five dollars, grab it. FRS base stations are very rare products that are much more useful than the basic home intercom system.

I just purchased the FRS-1000 Base station and I have to say I'm very pleased. It works fine with my BellSouth FRS Hand Held units. The station is small and compact, no larger than a standard intercom. The manual is a bit hard to figure out some of the functions but if you play with it, you'll get the hang of all it can do.
One function I especially love is it's ability to scan all 14 FRS channels, so I can monitor all channels for incoming signals. It also has a function whereby you can monitor two channels at once, if you have people using two different channels, you can hear conversations on both.

The NOAA weather function is a no-brainer, just press the button and you have instant weather information access. The unit also features a "Roger Beep", this is a short beep that is attached to the end of every transmission. (It can be turned off) I like it because it distinguishes when a transmission is coming from the base station. My hand held units do not have this beep so any transmission from base is clearly identified by this sound.

You can also sellect from 4 different "Call Tones". This allows you to define the type of call signal the unit emitts when signaling other units. If you have more than one base station this would be handy to differentiate them.
When they say "Two mile range" their not kidding, the unit belts out enough power to talk and listen somewhat beyond that. (a friend and I tested it, he on a bike with a hand held and me on the base!)
This unit could have many uses, I use it for camping and keeping up with friends hiking. It could be used in a factory too, or as a way to keep track of neighborhood kids. In fact, as I scan channels I often hear the neighborhood kids playing and talking. And with it's range, I hear other neighborhoods too.
I must admit it's fun to listen in on their play. Plus during the day I can hear workers who use FRS to talk to each other.
FRS is not as crowded as CB bandwiths, it's easy to find a clear quiet channel to use if you don't want distractions.
If you're looking for a unit to use for work or in a factory, I'd recommend you pick an odd channel like "3" or "6". Most units default to channel "1" when turned on and this is the channel that you'll hear the most chatter from the neighborhood.

The FRS-1000 is a great buy, it comes with rechargable batteries and they charge while the unit is on and plugged up with the supplied adapter. So you can use it portable or plugged in. It has a tall antenna that will swivel up or down depending on if you have it mounted on a wall or sitting on a table. The screen is backlit so you can easily read the display and you'll get used to the various display icons in no time. Look for other units like this to hit the market soon as FRS becomes more popular, this is really the way to go.

I did some research as the manufactuerers page didnt give much infomration.

Good -

1. Extremly chic looking
2. Digital compass
3. FM radio.
4. Thermometer.
5. Good GMRS range.
6. Water resistant (good for outdoor adventure use)

The Bad-
1. Costs 110$ for a pair.
2. No batteries or Vox kit included.

The ugly-
1. Batteries cannot be charged in the unit. Need a seperate charger and batteries!
2. The transmission power is fixed to 2 watts. Cant reduce it when required.

I got this radio to replace a motorola talkabout 250 which I used at work for three years and it works great and sounds good.
It has good range and I like the weather and fm radio.

I received the radio yesterday and I like its size and features. Unfortunately, the unit cane with a set of four AAA 650mAh NiMH batts whos general quality is extremely poor: on two of the batteries, the positive end is either not properly plated, or is already corroding. Worse, a third one is shorted and will not take a charge. I called warranty support to see if they would simply send me a set of new batts, but they refused. I talked to a supervisor, and she refused, I then talked to the supervisor's supervisor and she refused. They want me to return the entire unit (at my expense) for for repair/replacement (possibly with a refurb unit).

I put in a set of alkalines and all works well. I'm going to mail back the 4 NiMH's tomorrow and see what Audiovox does.

After using the FRS1000 base stations for a couple of years, this unit was an excellent upgrade. I am about to get another one when it goes on sale. The last time it was on sale it was less than fifty dollars--anything higher is just too much for a glorified intercom which is how I use these. The no-name NiMH batteries are useless, but don't throw them in the garbage--take them to the hazmat section of your local dump. The hand-held unit works great with new batteries.

The channels that are GMRS can each be programmed in low/high power modes but you have to manually do this for each channel. The unit sometimes takes a while to recognize CTCSS codes from other units (even the FRS1000 which is also by Audiovox) but this appears to be the fault of the signal coming from some of the other units rather than of this unit. The coverage is excellent and the sound is much better than other base stations. The antenna is shorter than the FRS1000 but seems not to make any difference. I wonder how the close-by hand-held's antenna might affect the propagation of the main antenna, but so far so good. No AC hum in broadcasting from this unit, either, like the older FRS1000 had.

I don't use the handheld terribly much but it is very basic carry-around that I use when working in the yard. If they made this unit with just a base station it would be a perfect product, but it's nice to have the hand-held right next to the door with the expectation that you will return it to the cradle when you get back inside. This is a major plus since you won't lose it! I don't recall ever hearing a low-battery alert and have returned from working long hours in the yard several times to find the hand-held unit dead on my belt.

Like another reviewer said the battery backup is just for the hand-held. Unlike the FRS1000, which continues to run the base station when the power goes out, the GMRS3000 does not run. You can be stuck without the intercom when the power goes out. If the hand-held is not in the charging cradle and the power goes out the settings on the base station are lost so make sure you store the hand-held in the base station at all times.

The weather radio has better coverage than some others. I don't recall ever hearing a weather alert on this unit so I recommend that you get a dedicated weather radio with a really long antenna for that purpose. I use a Radio Shack unit with SAME technology, something that none of the FRS/GMRS radios never have.

I'm always looking for good FRS and GMRS base stations. I'm puzzled how few there are, especially none from the "big" electronics companies and retailers who fought so long and so hard to create the FRS band.

The freeplay radio is a great idea: wind it up and it plays for one hour. No more batteries! A great conversation piece! The perfect radio for emergencies! The problem is, I have had two freeplay radios and the spring broke in both of them after only a few months of usage. In the radio with a solar cell to recharge the battery, the solar cell overheated in the Florida sun and became useless. I couldn't return them as I didn't have the receipt. Bummer. Not for daily use as they don't last (at least mine didn't). Keep one for emergencies, the beach, camping.

I GOT ONE OF THESE SEVERAL YEARS AGO WHEN THEY WERE BRIGHT COLORED PLASTIC...I TAKE IT TO THE BEACH..TO THE YARD..ON VACATION..ETC. TRY IT YOULL LIKE IT

I seriously wonder if the person that wrote the other review in this area had the (E)xtended (S)kip (P)rotection (ESP) turned on when he tried this player. I stood in one spot and did jumping jacks, while playing a 128 kbps mp3 cd, for 117 seconds before it skipped. It was comparable (about 25 seconds) with a regular CD. I loved the rich bass and sound quality. A few things to consider are, 1. Buy a higher quality pair of headphones, you won't regret it. 2. Use 'better quality' cds when you burn your music and use the highest bit rate encode that will allow you to fit the amount of music you want on the cd. 3. High capacity nimh batteries (2400 mah) will give you longer play times and can be recharged hundreds of times. Remember! The antenna for the radio is the headphone wire so your position affects reception greatly.
Overall I rate this player as excellent for the price. ENJOY!

If your looking for a High quality cd player, you do not want to buy this. But if your looking for one of the cheapest CD-MP3-RADIO, on the market then this is for you. I have used this cd player for 2 years because i am too cheap to shell out [money amount]+ to get a decent MP3 player. THe unit plays MP3s in a easy simple way, simply burn a data cd with the MP3s on it or in 1 level of folders. IT does not support more than one level of folders. This is not a especially high quality cd player, and it did mess up after 6 months, but if your looking for a transition before going completly Mp3 this may be a option for you. The only real problem is that the anti shock is terrible. Its ok in a car, or in a plane, but if you try and simply walk with this cd player, [or god forbib you jog]it will skip almost everytime. It says 120 seconds in Mp3 mode, which is complete BS. You might get 30 if you crawling, with it but if you start to walk, you will probably prefer the radio. So if you want a cheap MP3-CD-RADIO, go with this, but if you want a cd player that doesnot skip i suggest speding more $$ and getting a SONY.

This would have been a great ear piece if only it fit into the walkie talkie. The prongs were spaced to far apart to be compatible. But the length was good.

This earbuds are the best I have ever used. Great sound quality. I would definately recommend them.

It is not 100% digital quality; the modulator downgrades the signal from digital to FM stereo. Only way to get the advertised "100% digital quality" is via a direct connection, but this means your unit aint portable.

Something to keep in mind.

This product is a MUST have for the XM Radio in your vehicle!

This product connects behind your stereo in your vehicle and is completely hidden, you see NOTHING. The connections will run from behind your stereo to your Car Adapter Cradle. That is all you see (and the wires can easily be masked or hidden completly).

This product was designed for those vehicles that don't have a cassette player (as the auto adapter kit has a cassette tape adapter to play the XM Radio through your Cassette player). I did not have a cassette player in any of my 3 vehicles so I had no choice but to put the FM Modulator in each vehicle that i connected the XM Radio.

However, even if you have a cassette player, I would highly recommend getting this device anyway. That way you leave your cassette player free, and you don't have that wire dangling out the cassette player.

All that needs to be done is set your radio on 87.9 frequency, turn on your XM Radio and you are listening to GREAT ALL DIGITAL music.

It's the perfect addition, (and a MUST have in my book) to the XM Radio setup!

Mike Heine ('winterstone')