Grundig S350 Deluxe AM/FM/Shortwave Radio, Black
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List Price: Our Price: $70.20 You Save: $49.80 (42%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $69.80 (click here) Category: Speakers See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Grundig S350 Deluxe AM/FM/Shortwave Radio, Black
Customer Review: good deal
Summary: 5 Stars
I got the radio in time and the product is in good condition as described in ads, and had pleasant experiences to work with the seller. Ireally enjoy it. thanksCustomer Review: Great radio
Summary: 5 Stars
I live in a mountainous area & it's tough to get good reception from distant stations. This radio brings in weak stations better than any other I've tried.Customer Review: Grundig S350
Summary: 5 Stars
Pick up from Radio Shack on sale Black Friday Great Deal 40% off retail Works great Love sound. Highly recommend great fine tuning. Check it outCustomer Review: Handy General Purpose Receiver
Summary: 4 Stars
Received the Grundig S350DL very promptly. This radio LOOKS like a radio - I say that because one of the reasons for buying it was to encourage our 15 year old son to listen to the radio and to facilitate my teaching him something about radio and shortwave reception. The combination of analog operation (no push button station selection here!) combined with a very accurate digital readout of tuned frequency is good for this purpose.
This is a great general purpose receiver. Beefy enough to use in the backyard but equally at home in the office/study/whatever. Makes a good table radio and the option to use EITHER AA or D size batteries makes a lot of sense. I am currently running it on rechargeable AA cells which is the cheapest option for long-term battery operation. (We also have a Sony D7600 and I would expect the battery life of the Grundig to be much better).
FM reception is excellent. This radio gets great reception of distant FM stations and the sound quality is great for the size. It's really very pleasant to listen to.
SW and MW reception is good. No issues here for the money. Some commentators have mentioned the images at 900KHz below the transmitted frequency. We are close to WWV (the NIST time signal transmitters in Fort Collins, CO) which at this range gives a much stronger signal than normally encountered - we are about five miles away from a 60KW signal source - so the images were clearly heard. This would not be a problem in 'real world' use and certainly not a deal breaker as all radios have images (or phantom signals) - I used to work in a lab that designed general purpose receivers and images of stations (and the receiver's intermediate frequency) are par for the course. No IF images have been found on the Grundig so far.
Some commentators have mentioned the tuning mechanism as a negative. It seems fine to me - I have found it quite easy to use and even quite pleasant. Anything can be improved upon but at this price point it is perfectly acceptable. Perhaps in the next iteration of the design this is something that Grundig could give attention to.
The two RCA (phono) sockets are handy for recording programs. It is nice that it is easy to do this without having to rig something up involving the headphone socket which is the usual thing one has to resort to on budget radios. The STEREO/MONO switch for reducing noise on more distant FM stations is also a nice touch. (For the uninitiated, if you are in the fringe area for a distant FM station, a radio would normally switch in and out of stereo mode as the propagation conditions change from moment to moment and as stereo reception of a weak signal simply adds noise which can be annoying, these intermittent bursts of noise would be annoying. Thus, a switch to force mono reception is an intelligent and welcome inclusion in this set.
No hesitation in recommending this set for good general purpose entertainment and radio fun.
Customer Review: A SW blast from the past
Summary: 4 Stars
I started out listening to shortwave radio with a Zenith Trans-Oceanic purchased in 1967. I still have it, but it is no longer in very good working condition. I also use a newer, much smaller portable SW receiver with digital tuning that works well. I couldn't resist this Grundig (black version) because of the styling--it looks like something out of the 50's, except for its digital readout. I really hate radios with nothing but buttons. Give me knobs and switches any day. So this Grundig is right up my alley. It has a very nice tone for a portable, although at its size it really doubles as a table radio. Since it is an analog tuning receiver, the frequency will drift a little. Well, my Trans-Oceanic drifted too, so I don't care--that's part of the radio's charm. And the drift is not a lot--a few kHz or 10 MHz (on FM) here or there after it has been set for an hour or so. Now, this is the DL model (deluxe) that is supposed to have a new frequency lock, but it still drifts, as I say, just a bit. If you can't stand anything other than a rock-solid digital frequency lock, this is not the radio for you. I found the tuning dials (fast and slow) smooth enough and a pleasure to use. Of course, there are no memory sets (no buttons, remember), which some may find annoying. Again, my beloved Trans-Oceanic didn't have any either, and I enjoy searching and tuning for stations. Every time you adjust the tuning dials, the backlight (blue) comes on for about 15 seconds, which is a nice feature. On the old classic Zenith you had to manually switch on the light whenever you wanted to see the analog dial. This Grundig runs either on four D batteries, four AA batteries or on the supplied AC adapter. If I could change things, I would put all the shortwave bands on separate switch positions instead of bunching them into 3 SW selections. And I would make it remember the frequency I was on last, when changing between bands. But those are minor inconveniences, overall. If you like what used to be and think that perhaps the newest designs aren't always the best, this radio may appeal to you.