We’ve been using a very cheap boombox, and it’s…less than ideal. The stations don’t tune easily, there’s lots of static, and the sound is slightly better than one of those handheld radio toys that use a lollipop and your skull as the speaker.
Any suggestions? I don’t want anything large (no room) or with detached speakers (evil cats like to push things off the dressers), and it absolutely positively has to be able to tune down to 87.7, because that’s my husband’s favorite station, and this is a gift for him.
And since I’m making wishes, it’d be great if it could be under $100. And come with a pony.
Step into the 21st century and get him a portable speaker where he can stream Pandora. I have an Altec Lansing and it is bad ass and less than $100. He may even bea able to stream his favorite station.
Thanks for the idea, but no. He’s an older guy, quite content with good ol’ FM. I don’t think I’m willing to take on that project. Plus, the radio is on (quietly) all night, or we can’t sleep. If I stream from my phone all night, that’s too much battery swapping for me.
The Eton Field is often offered as a premium on our local NPR radio station and it sounds like it should be very good, especially at tuning in FM radio stations. It also has shortwave, if that is of any interest. The reviews on Amazon are 98% 4-star or 5-star. Unfortunately, it is $149.
Tivoli also makes some excellent table radios. Unfortunately, the cheapest one of those, the Model One, is also $149.
There are cheaper radios out there, and many of them have a dock where you can put in your iPhone (if that’s what you have) - that also charges the phone. There may be some that work for Android phones (i.e. dock and charge while playing) but I haven’t seen them. But you can connect your Android through the earphone cable and also connect it to a charger through the charging port.
I recommend staying away from Sony or iHome brands, just from personal experience.
If I were looking for a guy gift of a table radio with minimum bells and whistles, I would go for a Tivoli. They come in a few different finishes and all look awesomely retro.
Grundig looks cool too, but doesn’t seem easy to find.
ETA: Didn’t see Tivoli was mentioned by Roderick Femm. Anyway, they are cool looking and worth the extra fifty bucks.
I was going to recommend Tivoli also. Amazon has a black ash Model One for $129. I’m not crazy about the looks of it, but I love the cherry/cobalt, which is $149 as you said. The downside of the Model One is that it’s a mono system, but the single speaker is very good and sounds like anything but your typical mono clock radio.
I’ll check out the Tivoli; seems to be a popular choice. And if it’s good, the extra $49 is well spent. $100 isn’t hard and fast, more like a target. Thanks!
Was looking at the Tivolis again and saw this Sangean radio in the “other customers have bought…” section.
It looks pretty retro and the price is right.
Never saw a Sangean in person though. I have seen the Tivoli in stores before and it’s a class act. I like the original walnut/beige look.
They make this hi tech device called a charging cable/cord where you can actually plug your phone into an electrical outlet. This way you could stream all week without worrying about your battery.
I am going to make a suggestion that will probably get me severely ridiculed: Look for an HD radio.
For those who don’t know (and 99.9% of the populace of the US doesn’t), HD radio is Ubiqity’s marketing name for free digital radio. All large AM stations and most FM stations broadcast a separate over-the-air digital stream of their programming (any station on 87.7 FM does not). FM sounds a little better, but the difference on AM is like night and day. No more hiss, background noise, or cross-talk.
As an added bonus. most FM stations broadcast at least one additional program stream with alternate programming. And the additional streams are virtually commercial-free because nobody owns an HD radio and advertisers aren’t going to pay to run commercials on programs nobody is listening to.
Not to worry, HD radios will also play traditional analog radio signals and will fall back to analog if they can’t receive the digital stream.
This is not satellite radio or internet radio and you don’t have to pay any fees or sign up for anything to listen.
And, yes, they are hard to find.
By the way, the days of 87.7 FM are numbered. 87.7 is actually the audio stream of a low power analog TV station. The FCC set a Sept 1, 2015 deadline to kill them, but has issued a last minute reprieve to certain stations.
Thanks, I didn’t know…well, any of that. That’s really strange about 87.7, because that’s actually a newer station by us. I wonder why they just started broadcasting if they’re going to lose that band? I will look more into HD Radio, though. Well they continue to work if HD Radio goes they way of the Betamax?
Yeah, not my phone, my phone uses more power than it takes in when streaming, but thanks for the condescension.
That’s the cool thing about HD radio. It’s completely backward compatible with the traditional analog radio. If radio stations just stop broadcasting in HD or, for some reason, it can’t pick up an HD signal, it will just pick up the old-fashioned analog signal and happily play it.
I can’t explain what the radio industry in the US does. It’s like they are trying to put themselves out of business sometimes.
Fun Fact: If you have a TV set connected to an antenna (not cable or satellite), tune it to channel 6 (not 6.1) and you might hear the same thing that’s on 87.7, but with pictures!
Non-fun Fact: I can’t guarantee you that any particular model of HD radio can tune 87.7. You’ll have to check the specs for that particular model.
I would recommend that you check out the C. Crane company. They sell a lot of neat radios–many of which are over $100, but they carry a significant selection under that price as well. I have one of the cheaper emergency models. It has good sound quality.
I have a Sangean WR-11 table-top and am happy with it. I don’t think it’s ugly but I’ll concede it is bare bones from an appearance perspective. Works well and picks up my local NPR station (88.1) without any antennas attached. If I could add one bell or whistle it would be a tone adjustment as I prefer less bass and more treble.
P.S. If the radio is going to be on your nightstand the WR-11 is compact and won’t consume much real estate.
Plus, the radio is on (quietly) all night, or we can’t sleep. If I stream from my phone all night, that’s too much battery swapping for me.