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[IRCA] Sony SRF-M97 Ultralight Radio.. Not for Serious AM DX!
Hello All,
In the never-ending quest to separate the contenders from the
pretenders, a digital Sony SRF-M97 was recently purchased from a Hong Kong vendor on
eBay, at the rather inflated price of $68.49 including shipping (but not
nearly as inflated as Amazon's price of $158.33 plus $8.38 shipping, from Wall
Street Photo). Unfortunately, high prices don't always indicate high
performance.
The SRF-M97's big problem on AM is its microscopic antenna.. less than
1 inch in length. It just doesn't have the RF circuitry to compensate for
its tiny (3.25 x 1.3 x .6 inches) cabinet. Sensitivity is well off from the
$15 SRF-59, and to make matters worse, the SRF-M97 only tunes up to 1610 kHz.
This radio has fairly decent selectivity and nulling ability, but that won't
get you very far without better sensitivity.
FM stereo performance seems to have been the primary objective of Sony
in this "Ultralighter" model, which actually does look exactly the same size,
shape and color of a cigarette lighter. It has decent FM sensitivity and
audio quality for its size, making it the digital equivalent of the SRF-S84, a
similar-sized analog portable with the same CXA1129 IC chip as the SRF-59
(but nowhere near the SRF-59's performance).
In summary, unless you absolutely must have one of the smallest FM
stereo receivers around, it is recommended that you pass on this "Made in China"
model, and go for the superbly designed, Made in Japan SRF-T615 instead.
73, Gary DeBock
**************Biggest Grammy Award surprises of all time on AOL Music.
(http://music.aol.com/grammys/pictures/never-won-a-grammy?NCID=aolcmp003000000025
48)
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