Sangean SR-35 AM/FM Analog Pocket Radio with Built-in Speaker, Black

Update Jan 24, 2021If theres any doubt, this is "the little radio that could", mine has put that to no doubt. Almost 4 years of daily use and abused badly, it works as good as new and other than a little paint worn off the dial position and scratches, the radio is solid physically as when I got it. The on/off/volume dial, tuner dial, tune display marker, antenna, battery compartment cover, body,speaker, every screw, 100% solid.Its ToughnessI listen to talk radio, 5 days a week 5-6 hrs a day, I am a disabled vet & have a 4 wheel walker and put the radio on the seat while walking, it has fallen about 22 inches onto cement, tar roads, rocky dirt park paths, in mud, in muddy water hoof prints, 2-3 times a day everyday on my walks. The batteries pop out sometime but they go right back in, close it up and its back on. Its fallen from 4+ feet up many times onto my cemet patio, off 6 foot fences onto gravel/rocks many times, I lost it for near 2 weeks, finally finding it in a tall outside pot planter in the california winter where it was rained on continuously for that time and amazingly it was on that whole time. I heard a strange buzz sound, thats how I found it, turned it off, then on, tuned dial and got perfect radio!. That was last year as in at least 12-14 months ago, its still coochin'Station Pick UpI listen to AM only, FM doesn't make it in good, not even in my good car radio, at least for the classic rock stations I like.I live in Morgan Hill, Ca, east side, literally right up against the Diablo Mountain Range. I get stations from San Francisco, Marin County to its north, from south to Salinas and Monterey, I even get KMJ in Fresno, clear and loud as a bell or as we in the Military say 5 by 5. The amazing thing is, its 130 miles as the crow files but a 30 mile wide 150-200 mile range 1500 feet-2000 feet sits in between us and I am butt up against it. Absolutely amazing! I get so many stations I cant count them and many are from that far away or more, even from Stockton & Manteca they come in & given the angle to them thats 60 miles of mountain range to jump, even higher than KMJ. It's like every little turn of the dial, Ive got a station.Battery lifeLike I said, hours every day, and I change batteries maybe every 5 if not six weeks. Just dont crank the volume, thats where all the power goes, not the receiver circuitry, its speaker volume.OtherStill happy with the sound, its ni=ot high fidelity but the speaker is more than great for this class and price. It is not digital of course, so you may have to rotate the radio, for AM only, to get the best reception.Old Time Nostalgia & SimplicityI was born in '55 and had a little transistor radio like this, if your from those days and miss those simple times, or you just want a simple radio without a million switches, modes and other "modern" annoyances like login's and tracking, and a radio that can take a pounding and fit in your pocket, all without breaking your bank, don't think,just get it!!!!!!!!! I'll be updating this in another 4 years!Original ReviewI've used this now for about a week and absolutelty love it. I see this radio is now 19.97$, I got it a week ago at 18.74$ Feb 11, 2017...mmhh is Amazon jacking the price thinking I'll buy another ?Anyway I look over all the radios in this price range, some reviews say great and some say bad and I beleive them both. Your reception depends upon your location (like on flat plains or in mountain/hill areas) like where live. So its hard to tell from the reviewers "will the radio work well for me in my area". I wanted a radio in this price range, give or take a few bucks. I just wanted a radio to listen to AM talk radio while working out in the back yard or talking a walk, listening to FM rack was also on my list. Not know how well any of these may work in my area, I did a search for Sangean SR-35 and of course got hits for amazon reviews, then found a youtube reviewer.This reviewer is a radio enthusiast and bought just about all the pocket radios and other larger radios from amazon and did a side by side review of each from the same location at the same time. Now that still doesn't answer the question how well will this work in my area, but it certainly answers the question, how good is the AM and FM reception between each other under the same conditions. He starts with a physical go over of features, then slowly runs it up and down the AM and FM bands, counting how many stations come in on each band for each radio, again at the same time (give or take and hour) and same exact location, so it is truly an oranges vs oranges comparison, he also reviews how well it does if you are walking with it or taking it for a bike ride (how well does it keep lock). Search youtube for "bigslick radio" bigslick is one word, if you make it 2 you will get something completely different.To keep this short, I was looking at the Panasonic FR P50 @ 16.95, the Sangean SR35 @19.74 (lthough a week ago I got it 1.20 cheaper) and the Sony ICPF26 @ 19.75 ( a week ago this was 21.75 or so, I remember clearly just a nitch under 22$ which I thought was to high but still considered)The Panasoinc per the youtube review showed pretty showdy physical case and a pretty short antenna about 13 in, the sony and Sangean had 17 inch, it also had no clip on the case to lock it in place when folded down and turned against the case so its pretty easy to break the antenna and I read alot of reviewers who said they broke the antenna. It also came in the lowest in picking up AM and FM stations and had poor ability to keep station in tune when moving, but it is in expensive and if you are just sitting there, its probably just fine. One other thing, it has an integrated on/off/volume switch, the others have separate switches/controls. Dont mean to trash Panasonic just stating facts.The Sony ICPF26 watched this next, case it very nice as you would expect from Sony, ling 17 inch antenna, large speaker, but the Sangean is a bit larger, it had near double the AM and FM stations that the Panasonic did, the only negative is this thing is a boat, at like 1.3 - 1.5 thick its like a computer har drive, I did not like that and you should consider that the most. Also reception while moving was very good.The Sangean SR-35, Case is beautiful and sturdy, I already dropped it 3 feet onto rock, continued to play like nothing happened, integrated on/off and volume control, some dont like this so they can have volume at same level when turned back on, as if your volume wheel wont move after you put it down or pick it up and fiddle with it, I dont see this as a problem, just one less thing to break. It has a nice large tuner wheel, the larger the better as it helps you tune the station in, a smaller wheel makes it much harder. His side by side comparison had this pull in a few less AM stations than the Sony but just a few like 3 or 4 out of 23-25, but it beat the Sony hands down in AM reception, I can remember the number but it was 5 or more. Plus it has a 17 inch antenna and it has a really nice swivel on it and a locking tab at the bottom of the case to keep it secured. This is quite a bit slimier than the sony, like you would expect from a packet radio, height and width about the same or smaller.My own review of the Sangean SR-35 Gald I bought it, love it. Again its light and far far thinner than the sony, nice rounded edges on sides, its speaker is just a bit bigger and it is very very very high quality speaker, I tuned into an FM rock station and had volume maybe halfway up or less and could hear it 100 feet away with nice clear sound, I was really shocked, I thought the speaker would not be this good, but it is. I live in Morgan Hill, Ca. its a small town in a small valley surrounded by mountains and I can pick up tons of AM and FM stations from San Jose and Monterrey, I also get the station I really wanted 560 KSFO talk radio on AM 5000 watts, that comes from San Francisco 60 miles north of my as the bird flies and blocked by many mountains and my shielded valley, and it the Sangean picks it up great. If that is not enough I can get AM 580 from Fresno, Ca. which is 109 miles away and we are separated by the Hayward Fault mountain range and my house is about 150 yards away from the edge of this mountain range, I'm backed right up to it !!The batteries are lasting for ever, I've had it running for 8 hours a day for the last 5 days and one day I had the volume all the way down but did not turn it off. Battery life will be excellent for any of the old time transistor radios that you get, they will last for weeks or longer while digital radios will die quickly. Plus you use 2 AA batteries for this. I did not want a radio with integrated battery as you can't recharge (or at least easily recharge) when your out hiking or in a ark and the battery dies.Even with the Sony price dropped more than 2$ and the Sangean raised by 1.25 this past week, I would still buy the Sangean, the Sony is a boat which is why maybe its price was reduced, see it in bigslicks youtube video, he points it out, much bigger impact when you actually see it. And side by side this had better AM reception. Amazon did have the Sony listed as Amazons choice and with all respect to Amazon I think that means they get a better deal through Sony, than it actually being about any quality or operational features, I know they will "buy this back from you" but it is literally pennies on the dollar, guess that is why it is their choice. I don't know why they changed the prices but usually if you put something in your cart and then in the save for later category you will see in a few days or a week a message about price drop in your cart or write Amazon and ask why did they suddenly raise the Sangean by a 1.25There are draw back to these old type transistor radios, after you tune it in, it can fade out a bit if you turn its direction, because you are changing the direction of the antenna, also as you may take a walk the signal may need adjustment, but I walk everyday for about 2.5 miles and it locks pretty good the whole way, but its not without a few adjustments here and there. The digital radio have phase lock loops that compensate for frequency drift, these dont. These radio are aslo subject to background static noise, but who cares.I just wanted a simple radio to listen to while I garden or walk and its really a nice feeling to have a reminder of your childhood. Wow back then we were more than happy to have a small pocket radio all the rage back then for a few bucks. Today you cant get along without spending 500$ every few months to upgrade your phone and 100-250$ months for your families monthly bill, so you can type messages on a phone that was meant for talking on and so it can tell you how to do everything in your life while spying on everything you do in your life, because you have become so dependent on google, Microsoft and many others to tell you how find and do simple things ( In my days we did research, today the nation does "asking") or how to get to locations you should now how to because you have never looked at a map and like most high school kids these days can't even name 20% of the names of states in the US or even know where they are, dont even know where countries in the world are, actually there is very little they do know.Well to much ranting, I think things were better when they were simpler, this radio is simple and will give you an eternal amount of joy and good tunes.

Update of 1/15/2017 - 3 years after I purchased 3 Sangean SR-35 radios---------------------------After 3 years of use all 3 SR-35 radios are rapidly falling apart;The left little wheel serving as ON/OFF switch and UP/DOWN volume it's of subpar quality, lost gradually its smoothness and the volume now jumps from low to high. It cannot be finely adjusted anymore.Tuning is almost useless: if I can tune a station, the radio will not hold it when I release the tuning wheel.Some stations cannot be tuned in due to the degraded variable condenser inside. In order words your preferred stations might not be tunable after all. If I try to move to radio on my desk it will loose the station when I touched. It's terrible. I leave the radio tuned permanently on my favorite station now, I don't even try to change it being afraid I cannot get it back.Another problem appeared one month ago: the scale indicating what frequency I am tuned to has broke on 2 of my 3 SR-35 radios because of the plastic wire used for that purpose. One radio can be tuned, but blindly only. the tuning became a guessing, frustrating game.On the 2nd radio the plastic got stuck inside and I can tune only 1/5th of the stations normally available.CONCLUSION: those radios start degrading their movable parts (for Volume and Tuning) after the 1st year.In the 2nd year they are so bad becoming almost unusable.In the 3rd year the plastic wire used to show the position of a radio station on the scale gets broken and tuning becomes a guessing game.It also can get stuck inside and no tuning is possible anymore.Verdict: Sangean uses sub-par parts, DO NOT BUY THEM.===========================================================================================================Update of 2/23/2016 by Vio.The 3 Sangean SR-35 AM/FM radios I bought still have the same 2 problems:- subpar On/Off switch- subpar tuning condenser on AM (amplitude modulation)They are almost unusable, adjusting the volume and AM tuning is very frustrating (to say the least).One bright spot is they have a durable radio plastic. I mistakenly dropped these radios many times on the table and even on cement floor but they didn't crack or even have a dent. The plastic is durable and absorbs the shock when dropped in a such way that is practically indestructible. All other radios I had until now have cracked over time but not these Sangean SR-35 radios.However, the 2 items I was talking above started failing before I was dropping unintentionally the radios.Too bad, Sangean should've used better On/Off switch and AM tuning condenser: they would've made an EXCELLENT SR-35 radio then.Please read my initial review below.======================================================================================================I bought the Sangean SR-35 on 3/5/12 from Amazon.Until now I bought around 18-20 analog pocket radios over the years and the results were mixed, mostly bad. The pocket radios I found have tiny (high pitch) scratchy sound because of their little cheap speaker and cheap electronic parts and schematics. In 30 minutes you get tired of listening and you switch it off.Over the years I owned Sony ICF-S10, Sony ICF-S10MK2, GE 7.2585A, Rhapsody, Bell&Howell (good little radio, $10, has short-waves too), Coby CX-CB12 a little bigger than a pocket with the most tiring sound of all, Kaito KA200, Panasonic RF-P50, Eton 100, Eton 300PE, Grundig G8, Innovage Outdoor and many others.I liked "Bell & Howell" the most, $10 price, shortwave too, very easy on batteries and the best sound for a pocket radio until I found Sangean SR-35. The SR-35 changed everything by adopting great schematics, high quality electronic parts, fantastic speaker and great sensitivity to weak radio signals. Living in Seattle and surrounded by many powerful radio emitters, the SR-35 can handle them quite well without overloading.The only station slightly overloading the SR-35 is KUOW 94.9 FM with 100Kw power, half a mile from my house. KUOW is so strong that you may lite a small flash bulb connected to a long wire ... (just kidding).Why do I like then so much the Sangean SR-35 ?I am always in a perpetual search for a great analog pocket radio. Searching the Amazon site I found the SR-35, read some encouraging reviews and decided to buy one for $17.41 (eligible for "Free Super Saving Shipping" when purchased together with other eligible items totaling over $25.00). The radio comes in a good shiny black color, very appealing. I decided to buy the radio and some blank DVDs to take advantage of the "Free Super Saving Shipping".The radio arrived very carefully packaged and it looked stylish, shiny with good imprinting over all.Specifications: analog, rotary tuning, LED green tuning, FM 87.5 - 108 MHz, AM 520 - 1710 KHz, speaker 2-1/4 inches for 8 Ohms, the speaker consumes 120 mW and the earphones only 5 mW, 2 AA batteries, Height 4.5 in , Width 2.5 in, Depth 1 in, Weight 5.2 oz without batteries.And now let's talk about the radio's performance.I chose to compare SR-35 with the KAITO 1103 radio, vastly superior portable and costing $100.00 (6 times more). KAITO is a great radio, several times larger and heavier, double heterodyne schematics, uses 4 AA batteries, very sensitive and having the ability to receive SW (Short Wave) stations. KAITO is a digital radio while SR-35 is just an analog radio.The comparison does not seem to be fair to SR-35 but you will see that the little SR-35 can keep pace with the larger KAITO 1103.1. - Batteries.When I wanted to insert 2 fresh AA batteries I found out that I had none around the house. Well, I don't know why but I like to keep around the spent batteries from other radios, clocks, GPS, blood pressure monitors, maybe I can use them for something. I measured the voltage with my multimeter and found two having 1.14 V. Did insert them in the batteries compartment in the back (by the way the door is hinged so you cannot lose it), turned ON the radio. You need to turn the volume wheel aprox 30 degrees first until the sound kicks in. This is not a problem though, that's just the knob design.I tuned to KIXI 880 AM (40s & 60s) and I liked what I've heard: clean sound, the fullest sound experienced in a pocket radio.No tiring ear-scratching frequencies, but full sound. The other radios small speakers reproduced well only higher audible frequencies while the bas sound is totally lost. Not SR-35 however: the sound is full, balanced and relaxing. For me Grundig radios were the standard for the truly pleasant, relaxing sound (unfortunately Grundig company no longer exist). These radios were 3 times bigger and 5 times more expensive than Sangean.But I found the Sangean SR-35 can compete with these Grundigs. The only Grundig I still have is the Yacht Boy 305 and the Sangean is on par with it listening on speaker. That by itself is amazing. Later on I found out that the SR-35 sounds almost as good as a $200 - $300 audio receiver if the sound comes through some trusty ears-enclosed headphones. My headphones are 15 years old Sony MDR-V6, very efficient, rendering an excellent sound while consuming very little power. So little that even a small pen-radio can drive them.Please remember: the AA batteries came from others radios which could not use them anymore. But the SR-35 was sounding great even with those. Next day I bought new AA batteries and I replaced the spent ones: to my amazement, there was no difference in the audio quality. In other words, the SR-35 is able to extract power from exhausted batteries of other radios without losing the quality of the sound a bit. I decided to continue my test using the exhausted batteries around 5 hrs/day (1 hour only on speaker). It took 15 days for the batteries to finally run out of juice. Only in the last 2 days the sound was weaker in volume but the quality still good. If you have enough used batteries (from home, friends or from stores which recycle them) you can use this radio for free. In 1 year you recover the cost of SR-35 this way, especially since the sound quality is not affected. Hard to believe? Try it and you will be in for this nice surprise.The larger KAITO 1103 is not able to do that.2. - Sensitivity: the ability of a radio to receive weak signals.Here the electronic scheme and electronic parts of SR-35 shine to the fullest.You can amplify a weak station many times over and it sounds loud enough to listen on either speaker or ear-piece/headphones.Signal amplification is not a problem on any radio nowadays and can be easily achieved. The problem is that 9 out of 10 pocket radios have a high internal electronic noise which gets amplified too; this way the signal is still not improved, just louder. Using a well thought electronic scheme and good electronic parts is paramount to reduce the internal electronic noise of every radio and the Sangean SR-35 is really shining at this chapter. The internal noise is so low and the sound is so clean that you can amplify it without limits, no matter how weak the station is. Now, if the radio-waves are coming from hundreds of miles, over mountains, emitted by only 5 KW radio antennas, the sound will arrive battered of course. But this is the external electronic noise which cannot be controlled and it's not the internal-electronic noise produced by the radio.The external noise may be fixable a bit with DSP (Digital Signal Processing) electronics used in radios costing around $500 or more). Some stations are weak (I.E.: AM 810 KGO in San Francisco comes reliably in the night, in Seattle, from 690 miles away) but SR-35 amplifies it's signal without problems until your ears hurt with the headphones, but the sound is still crisp and full.I graded the radio stations from 1 to 10 (1 the weakest, 10 the strongest). From 4 to 10 the SR-35 competes very well with KAITO 1103. From 3 down to 1 KAITO has one grade above SR-35 when listening on the speaker.However, when listening on my SONY headphones the sensitivity of SR-35 equals the sensitivity of KAITO 1103.Things are even.3. - Selectivity: the ability of a receiver to separate signals close to each other in frequency.This happens when a strong local station (I.E.: 50 KW power) produces sufficient amounts of band splatter which drowns a smaller station 10 Khz away. From 54 AM stations I was able to receive in Seattle during the night time, I cannot listen to 3 stations because they are only 10 Khz away from a strong local station. And Seattle has a lot of strong stations. However, the KAITO is able to detect these 3 stations but the reception quality is still not good, almost unintelligible.All things equal the SR-35 measures up with KAITO.4. - Signal handling ability: the ability of containing a strong local station to its frequency, otherwise it may show up on frequencies other than it's own. In other words the signal "spurs" on other frequencies. SR-35 is quite good at that on AM.However I found a couple of instances in FM when KUOW 94.9 FM (Public Radio) with 100KW power located half a mile from me could be heard lightly on an adjacent frequency. But, by collapsing and re-orienting the radio's FM antenna you can eliminate pretty much this issue. KAITO is better from this point of view and has a slight edge on sensitivity too on FM.The edge goes to KAITO but not by much.5. - Loudness: the ability to receive and reproduce the sound with high volume.SR-35 does not have this problem. The only limitation is the 2-1/4 inches speaker since this is supposed to be a pocket-radio. You cannot put a 5 - 10 inch speaker in your pocket, could you ? This radio is designed to be a personal listening device and not a PA (Public Address) system found in the stores or sports arena. However, If you place the radio in a hallway you may listen the music in all neighboring rooms. But, if you really want a loud sound from SR-35, just plug-in a pair of good encapsulated headphones and your ears and head will hurt, with no distortions. So good are the schematics and the electronic parts used in this radio ... In other words the limitation is the small speaker only. But this speaker is the best I've ever heard in a pocket portable, full sound, pleasant hours after hours of listening.Just like the famous Grinding.You may want to ask if Sangean SR-35 does not have any weakness.It has one, albeit not important and does not affect it's quality: the tuning is a bit finicky.Sangean simplified the tuning system getting rid of the traditional string and some small guiding roles and using a thin plastic wire instead. It works well but the plastic is elastic/flexible and compresses or contracts, depending from what side you are tuning from. When you release the tuning wheel after tuning, the plastic wire tends to come back to its normal size and, on weaker stations it tends to de-tune a bit. Then a second small tuning correction needs to be made and everything is fine. This issue does not affect stronger stations since they are "spilling over" using a slightly larger bandwidth. I found this to be the case only on aprox 10% of the tunings. To me this is not a nuisance at all: after several tries it becomes a second nature.Besides, the tuning green LED is so sensitive and precise that tuning is really a snap.Buy the way, the LED is quiet strong and you can use it as a small light to see things around.I used it to read in the darkness the exterior temperature on my digital remote display.I recommend to leave the SR-35 continuously on in the first 3 weeks with no interruption, in other words to try to burn it in. This should be a standard procedure for radios because if something happens in these 3 weeks you can still have 1 week to send it back to Amazon for an exchange, within 30 days guaranty.To summarize, these are the For and Cons of SR-35 Sangean radio:FOR:- Solid case feeling, shiny black case (as opposed to matte case found on all other radios).- Great speaker providing full and pleasant sound, hour after hour. It produces an amazing base sound for a pocket radio.- Very easy on batteries. The radio has the ability to extract 2 weeks of listening 4-5 hours/day from already spent batteries from other electronic equipment, with no listening degradation at all.- Very good schematics and excellent quality electronic parts, capable of sounding like a good stereo system when listening on headphones.- Very good sensitivity on both AM and FM.- Large factor of signal amplification coupled with extremely low internal electronic noise. This way the signal is still clean even if it's highly amplified.- It can compete with digital radios 5-6 times more expensive, even if it is just a pocket radio.- Very good and bright green LED light helping you in finding things in the dark.CON:- Finicky tuning sometimes when trying to get a weaker station. However this is easily solved by the 2nd tuning (if necessary) becoming a second nature for the owner. This is so minor that I bought another Sangean SR-35 for my wife on 3/17/12.As a recommendation I find the turning on/off wheel to be the weakest item in any radio. Please use it sparingly: if you want to stop listening for 1/2 or 1 hr, it will be better to turn down the volume to zero instead of turning off the radio. The radio is so economical that the batteries are very little affected. Many times the electronics are still good but on/off thumb wheel becomes unusable in 1-2 years and it's not worth replacing it. People then buy a new radio instead.UPDATE - 11/14/2013===================In one of my previous correspondence with "E. Paul Austin" I mentioned that Sangean SR-35 is a great pocket radio.My caution to him was that the weakest points of this type of radio are the potentiometer (on/off switch and turn on/down wheel) and the variable condenser or the tuner.I was very satisfied with SR-35 radio at the time but I expressed my reservation as to how well the above mentioned items are going to work in 2-3 years.Well I have bought 3 radios SR-35 and used them for close to 2 years and I can say that the radios don't hold well.The sound is still good but the turn up/down switch generates all kind of scratches when adjusting the sound volume. Sometimes I turn it up but the volume goes down instead because the carbon film is of inferior quality and it gets scratched.This is bad in itself but even worse is the tuning. The variable condenser is breaking down that it makes it almost impossible to tune stations on AM (Amplitude Modulation). If I am able to tune a station it is often off frequency with distorted voice or music. If I try to tune it better I loose the station and it jumps to another one I don't want. If I was able to tune it well, the radio jumps when I release the tuning wheel to an arbitrary place. The tuning is unstable, capricious and frustrating.Moreover, some stations I cannot tune anymore such as KVI 570 AM.CONCLUSION: Even if the sound is still good, trying to find a station becomes an exercise in frustration and I have to downgrade the radio to only one star now.Worse, all 3 radios have these problems.My only question is: do these 3 radios coincidentally have these problems or they have been designed intentionally to break down after 2 years so you are forced to buy new radios from them? Hard to believe this is just a coincidence but is also hard to believe Sangean uses inferior parts to force the radios to break down in the second year of use. Use your judgment here...CONCLUSION: SR-35 radio deserves 5 stars quality in the first year but only one star starting with the 2nd year of use. And this is happening with 3 out of 3 radios bought.Watch out, based on my experience I don't recommend buying these radios anymore.I am trying to deal with SANGEAN at this point about it and if not successful I will raise these issues with Customer Report Agencies and BBB from their state and my state.They need to replace the tuner and volume control with a lot better parts.11/14/13

This radio has excellent sound quality for such an inexpensive and small radio. The reason for the 4 stars versus 5 is that the power light does not light up when turned on. This is not a big deal to me since the tuning light works, but it would be nice if everything worked right out of the box. Tried this radio with headphones and it sounds great in stereo and is nice and clear out of not headphones.Would buy another one but would pay less since a component (power light) doesn’t work.

Excellent radio!! Easy to use and has great sound!