Sangean America DT-210 DT-210 AM/FM Digital Tuning Pocket Radio by Sangean
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Digital camera reviews of Sangean America DT-210 DT-210 AM/FM Digital Tuning Pocket Radio
Digital camera Review: ...but my earholes aren't that big
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this radio for work. I'd been using a little Sony for 10 years or so and wanted digital tuning. It's a nice little radio, but for two things.
Wearing it on my belt, it's prone to bumping, which changes the tuning or the band. Maybe a case would help. Also, the ear buds were not made for my ears, which I heretofore had considered to be of a normal size.
Oh, well. I still like it, particularly for the price I paid.
Digital camera Review: 4.5 **** really
Summary: 4 Stars
I love this little radio. Its very light and I can wear it around my neck collar and listen to it with out the headphones or without holding in my hand. I live in an area with limited reception and work in a building that makes it even worse. This radio is still able to pull in reception and make the day easier to get thru (crappy job). People often confuse it for a cell phone and hardly ever think its a radio. Once you get used to the buttons and how Sangean has programmed them, its pretty easy to use. I get outstanding battery life as well. Sometimes I think today is the day the batteries will wear out, then the thing keeps playing for another week before I actually have to change them. Its not perfect, but for the weight, size and performance I dont think theres another radio out there to choose over this one. I use it more for AM talk radio than music and FM sounds much better thru headphones than the little speaker. So, in the end, its a good small radio, but it depends what your needs are when considering buying this.
Also, I do not like the earbuds( hate all earbuds) that it comes with and I use Sony with it now.
Digital camera Review: A Good Buy
Summary: 5 Stars
DT 210 V:
About sixteen years ago I started regularly walking the two miles between my home and my office at the university where I taught until my recent retirement. I bought a cheap ($14.95) Koss walkman-type of AM/FM/Cassette unit to listen to on the way. My favorite station by far was the university's classical music station which came in with crystal clarity despite the mere 5000W strength of the signal and the fact that the transmitter was a number of miles away. The Koss unit had a poorly designed belt clip, the outcome being several falls to the sidewalk, each of which knocked off another chip or two. Finally, about 9 to 10 years later, although superglue and duct tape did an admirable job of holding the exterior together, terminal interior trauma ended its useful lifetime.
Of course, I couldn't even find a Koss unit to replace it and bought a considerably more costly Sony. The signal of my favorite station at 90.7 MHz was totally swamped by harmonics from more powerful nearby rock stations. I took it back and exchanged it for an even more expensive Sony. It did an even poorer job. Finally, after trying out two more units of brands I have forgotten, I found a Panasonic that had sufficient selectivity to let me enjoy my favorite station again. The tone of the Panasonic, while acceptable, was never particularly good. After about five years of use the output started distorting so badly that I began a search for another radio. I found that not many were on display any more, and all the ones I did find suffered from the same flaw. My favorite station was unusable. Realizing by now that small radios with good enough selectivity to reject unwanted harmonics from other stations were a very rare critter, I began a search of user comments on web reviews and was thus alerted to Sangean radios. On the basis of those reviews I ordered a Sangean DT 210 V online for about $42.
The tone of the DT 210 was extraordinarily good, especially when I substituted the headphones from my discarded Panasonic radio for the earbuds that came with the DT210. Unfortunately, my favorite station signal wasn't even noticeable among the hash from several other more powerful stations. Now, that radio has a peculiarity in that the headphone cord also serves as an antenna. Acting on a hunch I reduced the antenna exposure by bunching up the headphone cord into a tiny space and voila! My station was there, crystal clear, with no simultaneous garble from agricultural market reports or rock accompaniment. I have since found that if I reduce the antenna exposure by wrapping nearly all of the headphone cord round and round the DT210 and carrying the radio in my shirt pocket instead of hanging it on my belt, I can listen not only to my 90.7 MHz favorite, but to several other low power stations in that part of the dial that are challenging even for the superior radios in our several automobiles.
As it is, my only remaining source of dissatisfaction lies in the fact that that I haven't found out how to make it stay in the "memory" (pre-select) mode. I can get it to cycle through the pre-selected stations nicely, but if I stop on one to listen for more than five or ten seconds, it slips back into manual mode, and I have to reset it on "Memory" to avoid having to plod through all the in-between frequencies to get to the next one I want.
If it weren't for that inconvenience, the radio's superior sensitivity on all bands, its good selectivity (once the antenna exposure is properly controlled), and its very good tonal reproduction, taken together with a very convenient size, I gave it a "5" because there was no provision for the 4.5 I think it deserves.
Happy in Omaha
Digital camera Review: A Quality Pocket-Size Digital AM/FM/TV Radio
Summary: 5 Stars
The Sangean DT-210V is not perfect, and it is much more expensive than the Sony and Panasonic conventional analog tuning "transistor radios" that I have used before this model. But this radio is much smaller, lighter, and the digital tuning definitely locks in the stations better than the old school units.The miniplug type wire antenna works well, and is also less bulky and heavy than conventional telescoping rigid antennas.The sound quality coming from the built-in speaker is also comparable or better than the bigger and heavier units. If you need an external speaker pocket radio, the extra cost of this unit is well worth it. I use it nearly every day for my exercise bicycle rides.It uses AAA batteries, so do yourself and the environment a favor, and buy a couple of sets of rechargeable nimh batteries.Digital camera Review: A Robust Little Radio - No Regrets!
Summary: 5 Stars
I had my eye on this radio for a few days and purchased it when it came up as a Gold Box Special. I'm very glad I did.
This little radio does a great job, especially for AM purposes, where my favorite newsradio stations are. I had no trouble tuning in on my favorite stations (AM and FM) including one station that broadcasts from Tampa, FL that I'm able to pull in from the opposite coast. The TV does quite well, but my area only uses 3 or 4 channels within the 2 to 13 range, so I hardly use that band area.
The only surprise (for me) came with the needed use of an antenna for the FM and TV stations. Normally, the wire for the ear buds works as the antenna, but if you use the on-board speaker (which works great) you'll need to use the included antenna wire which plugs into the ear bud jack. But that's not a big overall deal.
The first day I used it I accidently dropped it on the brick floor with no ill effects. One battery popped out from the impact. It still works fine - just a few tiny nicks in the front.
I'm glad I didn't buy a cheaper radio, which is what I had originally set out to do. I like this radio. It's easy to handle, it's already taken a beating, and it works really nice. I look forward to using it for years to come.
UPDATE: Five months later and I have fallen deeper in love with this darling little radio. It's been dropped and slobbered on countless times (on tile, brick, and concrete flooring) by a 1 year old toddler. It still looks and runs great. (The lock feature comes in VERY HANDY when dealing with a curious toddler. Super feature.) My husband has complimented me on choosing this radio...it's helped us through Hurricane Charley and helped beat off boredom the days without power afterwards. I do not regret buying this radio and would gladly buy it again and again and again if I had to.