RCA RP7887 AM/FM Super Portable Radio by RCA
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Digital camera reviews of RCA RP7887 AM/FM Super Portable Radio
Digital camera Review: Best sound; Indifferent quality; bad ergonomics
Summary: 4 Stars
As a professional broadcaster for many years, I LIKE radios a lot. I've lived with my Superadio for about 10 years.
THE BAD: the ergonomics of the unit, the "human engineering", is pretty awful. The rotating pots for volume and tone are often sticky and gritty right out of the box. The plastic toggles for band, AFC, narrow/wide AM, are as cheap and cheesy as can be made and still function most of the time. The big tuner knob is pretty good, though. I don't get much drift once I set a station. The calibration of the dial is comically inaccurate, however, so the frequency markings are pretty much just a rough guide.
The form factor is another annoyance. Center of gravity is high so the unit tips over easily, and sometimes even adjusting the volume is a two-handed operation -- one to hold the unit and the other to twist the gritty little knob.
Overall build quality is not very high, and many purchased units are defective. Anyone who complains that they can't get decent reception or the sound is bad on their Superadios have defective units. That's the only possible explanation.
THE GOOD: The sound is absolutely glorious. Nothing can touch it in its class, and for twice the money. In addition to the large speaker the unit boasts a small tweeter. Voice or music, it offers the best sound you can get in a portable radio.
Reception is likewise incredibly impressive. Listening to AM at night is a real trip, literally. This is one of the reasons that there is no digital tuning on this model. A dial setup will pull in stations much better than a typical digital tuner will. "Digital" is not always best.
Battery life seems infinite.
BOTTOM LINE: This is the radio for people, and only for those people, who want the best available sound from a table/portable radio. Dontcha all be lookin' for clocks and alarms and doodads on this sweet thing, now. It's ugly, downright fugly, with iffy build and questionable design. But once tuned in, the glory of the sonics will be a reminder of a little money very well spent indeed.
Digital camera Review: Broke after a year of light use
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought this to listen to baseball. I was hoping for better AM reception than I got. It didn't pick up the distant stations I was hoping for but worked OK for local stuff.
After quite limited use for a little over a year, the dial for changing stations is stuck and I've had to pry off the front plate in order to force the dial to move. I'm sure it will completely die before long. Definitely a disappointing purchase.
Digital camera Review: Butt ugly but beautiful sound !!!
Summary: 5 Stars
It is heavy and large and the controls are very spartan but it is the best sounding radio i have purchased at this price in my 68 years. Do not pay any attention to the venier scale it is not even close but that is a very minor thing. It gets am radio stations that the other radios in my house do not even come close to bringing in. I bought to use for work and for that use it is outstanding. I believe it is my next radio also.Digital camera Review: Design has changed, AM reception is bad.
Summary: 1 Stars
RCA RP7887 AM/FM Super Portable Radio
I had a GE Superadio III and the current RCA RP7887 is just not the same radio. The GE was quite good, the RCA is not.
The electronic design is different and much inferior to the older GE version.
The user manual claims that this has 4 tuned IF transformers and it does not -- the GE SR III did.
The circuit board is very different from the GE SRIII. A bad performing GE SRIII probably just needed alignment; the RCA version isn't worth the effort.
AM reception is poor, inferior to much cheaper radios. Sensitivity and selectivity on AM are poor.
FM reception is mediocre, but usable.
Audio quality is not as good as the old GE, but is perhaps better than cheap tiny portable radios.
Operation of the controls causes static.
From the reviews here, I have to wonder if the early RCA versions were identical to the older GE superadio III. Mine is definitely not (purchased Dec. 2010). Don't expect that exchanging a bad version will result in a good one. The electronic design of this version is inferior.
I'm returning it.
Digital camera Review: Disappointed
Summary: 2 Stars
I read all the rave reviews (this and predecessor) about the great reception. Unfortunately, at work, where I use it, I found that it works like any other radio -- this super radio has little to no reception.