Grundig S350 Deluxe AM/FM/Shortwave Radio, Black
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Grundig S350 Deluxe AM/FM/Shortwave Radio, Black
Customer Review: Handy General Purpose Receiver
Summary: 4 Stars
Received the Grundig S350DL very promptly. This radio LOOKS like a radio - I say that because one of the reasons for buying it was to encourage our 15 year old son to listen to the radio and to facilitate my teaching him something about radio and shortwave reception. The combination of analog operation (no push button station selection here!) combined with a very accurate digital readout of tuned frequency is good for this purpose.
This is a great general purpose receiver. Beefy enough to use in the backyard but equally at home in the office/study/whatever. Makes a good table radio and the option to use EITHER AA or D size batteries makes a lot of sense. I am currently running it on rechargeable AA cells which is the cheapest option for long-term battery operation. (We also have a Sony D7600 and I would expect the battery life of the Grundig to be much better).
FM reception is excellent. This radio gets great reception of distant FM stations and the sound quality is great for the size. It's really very pleasant to listen to.
SW and MW reception is good. No issues here for the money. Some commentators have mentioned the images at 900KHz below the transmitted frequency. We are close to WWV (the NIST time signal transmitters in Fort Collins, CO) which at this range gives a much stronger signal than normally encountered - we are about five miles away from a 60KW signal source - so the images were clearly heard. This would not be a problem in 'real world' use and certainly not a deal breaker as all radios have images (or phantom signals) - I used to work in a lab that designed general purpose receivers and images of stations (and the receiver's intermediate frequency) are par for the course. No IF images have been found on the Grundig so far.
Some commentators have mentioned the tuning mechanism as a negative. It seems fine to me - I have found it quite easy to use and even quite pleasant. Anything can be improved upon but at this price point it is perfectly acceptable. Perhaps in the next iteration of the design this is something that Grundig could give attention to.
The two RCA (phono) sockets are handy for recording programs. It is nice that it is easy to do this without having to rig something up involving the headphone socket which is the usual thing one has to resort to on budget radios. The STEREO/MONO switch for reducing noise on more distant FM stations is also a nice touch. (For the uninitiated, if you are in the fringe area for a distant FM station, a radio would normally switch in and out of stereo mode as the propagation conditions change from moment to moment and as stereo reception of a weak signal simply adds noise which can be annoying, these intermittent bursts of noise would be annoying. Thus, a switch to force mono reception is an intelligent and welcome inclusion in this set.
No hesitation in recommending this set for good general purpose entertainment and radio fun.
Customer Review: Great Little Radio -- Grundig S350DL
Summary: 5 Stars
Just set this up to use today. Very impressed so far. Pulling in distant AM and FM stations very nicely. It is a fun radio to operate and looks very nice. Currently have the line out to my stereo set up and that is impressive for music, not so hot for talk and sports, the radio speaker is better for that. The 90 min auto sleep function can be overiden on the DL if you wish. I live in the mountains of central upstate NY, surrounded by higher terrain in all directions especially to the North and West. Tonight I listened to Friday night oldies on 740AM from Canada. Hockey games in Philly and Chicago on AM. During the day and a little tonight, Binghamton NY oldies radio on 100.5FM. Also pulled in tons of short wave broadcasts tonight. I am not familiar with SW so I will have to learn the ropes with that. The wide setting is usefull to me and provided great listening on AM during the day for a couple of local am stations one 20 miles to the east and one 20 miles to the west. Not many good am stations available to me in my location during the day so the wide setting worked well during the day and the narrow was best at night when everything came to life on AM. Head phones gave very nice stereo on FM. The Duel tuning ratio knobs worked very well. No wobble in mine, but the display model on the floor was terible, it felt like the knobs were about to fall off. Everything work perfectly on the one I bought, nicely lighted freq indicator (digital) with analog tuning NICE. Clock, alarm, timer, swithes. For the price ($100) it does what it is suppose to do very well. The wip antenna for FM is a big one and very sturdy. The radio must have a very large ferrite bar internal antenna for AM given the fine AM it produces. The AFC operated OK. Although it works very well now without any external antenna help, I am going to try a C.Crane twin ferrite antenna with it which should really make it shine on AM. Be carefull with the battery cover it is thin plastic and it does not look like it would take much to break it when removing it to install the 4 D cells. Currently running mine with the AC/DC 6 volt adaptor. Overall - Glad I bought it. 5 Stars
UPDATE 4/23/09 after 2 months - Still think this is a nice little radio, I use it everyday for hours at a time. I have added the Crain Twin Coil antenna connected inductively and it makes a great combination. Fun radio for everyday use. I could not have asked for more for the money. Still 5 Stars !
Customer Review: Very good for the average listener
Summary: 5 Stars
Radios are all about sound and the Grundig 350 has very good warm tones that are easy to listen to all day long. This radio can do very well as a table radio which is how I use it. The sound is solid with no distortion even if driven to full volume. This radio is a keeper for the sound alone.
As far as Am/Sw reception goes the Gundig 350 does very well provided you use external antennas to pull in the signals. The new added frequency lock works well to stop the drifting this radio was so infamous for. The Fm reception is very good pulling in many stations on the built in whip antenna and holding them rock steady.
If you want SSB ,or better Am/Sw signal capture, a full sized proper Communications Receiver is a better choice. That said, for every day casual listening ,on all bands offered on the Grundig, it does a fine job that will entertain one and all. This radio does Am/Sw well enough I can take my time now to find a deal on a decent older Communications Receiver in the used market. For now (maybe longer????) I'll just enjoy the Grundig.
All the controls on the Grundig work as they are supposed to instead of just being dials/switches to look good. Reading the well written manual will help the new user to gain full benefit of just what this radio can really do. One point about this radio that is little understood is the analog tuning. Analog tuning gives the user a way to really control this radio in ways not possible with electronic tuning while holding down the cost to enable Grundig to put in other features that normally would cost more. More bang for the buck 'cause you do your own tuning. Oh yes, I prefer analog tuning because I can slide right onto a weak signal I couldn't with electronic tuned radios.
Can I recommend the Grundig 350DL? Yes, as long as the buyer understands this is a first rate "casual" radio and they will not be disappointed at all.
Follow up after external indoor antenna added........
WOW!! Talk about an improvement!! A simple $2.50 300ohm wire dipole that I bought at the hardware store worked magic on this radio. I just hung the dipole & clipped it to the radio's antenna and this little radios was able to reach out there with ease. There is still the imaging problem but that is to be expected. That said, now I can listen to lots of stations that were not there before !!!!
Customer Review: Decent but with exceptions
Summary: 3 Stars
I purchased this radio to replace a Panasonic RF1100 that I have had since it was new sometime in the 1970's. The 350DL has a lot of useful features and the primary ones for me include the sleep timer, alarm colck and the published claim of good sensitivity. The overall sound quality of this radio is pleasing. The sensitivity compared to cheap radios selling for a lot less is good although not as sensitive as my GE Super Radios models 2 and 3. As I have more sophisticated equipemnt for listening to shortwave, this was not one of my primary objectives for buying this radio although the inclusion of shortwave is a nice plus.
The controls are nicely laid out, the instruction manual quite easy to understand to enable you to derive the full enjoyment of all this radio has to offer.
The big drawback and dissapointment I found with the 350DL is the tuning control. There is a lot of " slop " in the control, not just the knob but from what is behingd the control panel. Another problem with the tuning control is an overabundant " backlash " when trying to set the tuning on a station, particularly when tuning in shortwave stations. You tune in the station or desired frequency, let go of the tuning knob and you can actually see it change as it moves forward or backward from where you left it. For those desiring to tune around the shortwave bands to see what is there this is a big drawback. I actually wonder how long the tuning control will last on this radio before it falls apart. The entire tuning knob assembly wiggles and wobbles while you turn it. This should not happen, and I feel is a major cause for concern. For the $100 price tag I am not expecting a mil-spec radio by any means but the poorly designed tuning system in this radio gives me no other choice than to down rate it. That is unfortunate too as this radio has many other features so worthwhile.
If you are planning on purchasing this radio to use for AM & FM broadcast reception and not change stations too frequently, it's a decent radio. If you plan on tuning to different stations frequently you may wish to consider looking at other makes and models befoe buying this.
I purchsed this radio primarily to use as a bedside clock radio with sleep timer and only occasional tuning. The digital display is not absolutely accurate but for the price it is good enough.
Customer Review: A SW blast from the past
Summary: 4 Stars
I started out listening to shortwave radio with a Zenith Trans-Oceanic purchased in 1967. I still have it, but it is no longer in very good working condition. I also use a newer, much smaller portable SW receiver with digital tuning that works well. I couldn't resist this Grundig (black version) because of the styling--it looks like something out of the 50's, except for its digital readout. I really hate radios with nothing but buttons. Give me knobs and switches any day. So this Grundig is right up my alley. It has a very nice tone for a portable, although at its size it really doubles as a table radio. Since it is an analog tuning receiver, the frequency will drift a little. Well, my Trans-Oceanic drifted too, so I don't care--that's part of the radio's charm. And the drift is not a lot--a few kHz or 10 MHz (on FM) here or there after it has been set for an hour or so. Now, this is the DL model (deluxe) that is supposed to have a new frequency lock, but it still drifts, as I say, just a bit. If you can't stand anything other than a rock-solid digital frequency lock, this is not the radio for you. I found the tuning dials (fast and slow) smooth enough and a pleasure to use. Of course, there are no memory sets (no buttons, remember), which some may find annoying. Again, my beloved Trans-Oceanic didn't have any either, and I enjoy searching and tuning for stations. Every time you adjust the tuning dials, the backlight (blue) comes on for about 15 seconds, which is a nice feature. On the old classic Zenith you had to manually switch on the light whenever you wanted to see the analog dial. This Grundig runs either on four D batteries, four AA batteries or on the supplied AC adapter. If I could change things, I would put all the shortwave bands on separate switch positions instead of bunching them into 3 SW selections. And I would make it remember the frequency I was on last, when changing between bands. But those are minor inconveniences, overall. If you like what used to be and think that perhaps the newest designs aren't always the best, this radio may appeal to you.