Customer Reviews

Sangean DT-110 Digital Pocket AM/FM Stereo Receiver

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I bought this radio for my 30 minute walk to work. It's serving its purpose well. I threw out the dual earbud headphones for a single ear bud so that I can still hear what's going on around me as I walk. I only listen to 2 or 3 stations, so I use the favorites button. I can operate all of the buttons that I need while the radio is in the sleeve pocket of my jacket. Reception is fine. Battery consumption is good too -- I'm on my third set of batteries in six months with about 60 minutes use per day. It's compact, stylish and it works. I like it.

This durable, amazing, practical, great-sounding radio has been with me non-stop for several months now, tagging along with me in my shirt pocket, coat pocket, jacket pocket, PANTS pocket, strapped to my belt, tied to my sleeve, dangling into a bag, clutched in my hand or just laying near me.

I've worn out a dozen pairs of headphones along the way (in case you think I'm super-careful or anything), but the radio is totally unscathed. It's the greatest. It fits in my pocket, has amazing sound quality, and is every bit as good as it was on the day I bought it.

buuuuuuuuut..............

It's amazing how such a magnificent piece of electronic engineering can be rendered so user-unfriendly by poor interface design.

I like the small size and excellent sound quality, but a few aspects of the ergonomics could be improved.

For example, I like to switch rapidly between pre-set stations (as soon as a noisy commercial comes on, for example). This requires pressing two buttons instead of one -- as all of my previous el-cheapo walkmen could do easily -- so I'm a bit annoyed at that. The work-around is to use the "priority" settings, but it's limited to only 3.

Yet I could live with that if only it functioned properly. I bought one and had to exchange it because the low-battery indicator didn't work. They sent me a new one and it had the SAME PROBLEM. Guess it must be a design flaw. So I simply have to accept the fact that it'll suddenly stop working without any warning whenever the batteries run out.

But I thought "no way, that can't be true" so I contacted Sangean. They told me that the battery indicator light is only there to let you know that you've just removed the batteries (DUH!) and should replace them soon before the station settings disappear! Hey, tell me something I don't know, like the fact that the existing batteries are weak! When I told the Sangean guy that every single battery indicator in every single product I have ever owned was there to tell me that it's time to replace the batteries (and not a "reminder" that I just did so a second ago), he shrugged as if I were nuts.

Second, I figured out that they must have made the left earpiece chord shorter so that you could easily tell them apart while running without having to read the fine print; however, they don't do anything to let you increase the slack on the chords (by sliding the wires apart), so the left side keeps popping out of my ear whenever I turn my head! The work-around, of course, is to go out and buy a 2-dollar pair of headphones and use that instead.

When I asked him if Sangean intended to address any of these problems in the next model, he said "no, but we'll be making it in lots of choices of colors!" Ah, so good to see that they have their priorities sorted out. Ahem.

Guess I'll keep this because I'm not finding anything better out there, and frankly, it does sound great.

Aaaagh.

And yet I still give it 5 stars, so you can imagine how happy I am with its qualities. (Sigh)

I bought this radio to use while commuting to work. I find the reception to be poor cutting in and out, when in the suburbs of chicago, and static prone when in the city. It could really use a local/distant switch. The headphones are uncomfortable and poor quality. The other features of the radio are good and so is the battery life.

The reception on this is quite good, even in NYC where there is a lot to mess up with your signal. The earbuds work for me just because I am merely walking around with it. If I planned to use this while working out, they would be inappropriate. The weight and size are fine.

My main problem is that in order to surf between pre-set stations, you must first press a button which pushes it into "preset" mode. This would not be a big deal except that it only stays in preset mode for a short period of time. After that, pushing the up and down arrows just moves it along the dial (rather than switching to your next preset).

So, this is a good radio if you're planning on listening to one station for a long period of time. If you're impatient like me, and like to switch around to avoid annoying commercials, you will find yourself often pulling it out of your pocket and managing this process. I find myself merely scanning for the next clear station, since this does not require the additional step. It's a problem that seems small but becomes a larger issue after awhile.

This is an excellent quality radio at a great price. Its FM section is equal to a high-quality stereo tuner. AM reception is very good--it can really pull in distant stations! It does not have a speaker so you do need to use headphones or to connect an exterior speaker.

Highly recommended. I am very pleased with my unit.

I got this about a month ago. The small size is great. I can put this little puppy in my pocket when I work in the garden or run around the block and I hardly know it's there. I live in the country so I was really looking for good reception, I wasn't disappointed. The reception is as good or better then anything I have tried so far. One suggestion - Keep the instructions for setting memory and priority channels. I lost mine now I have to mess around with it to reset the channels when certain other members of the family changes them. All in all I'm very happy with this trinket, welllllll worth the dollars.

Having owned the Sangean DT-110, the Sangean DT-200VX as well as the Sony SRF-37V, I can readily say that I like all three pocket radios very much. All three are PLL (Phase locked loop) digitally synthesized receivers.

This is how they rank in my opinion:

1) Best AM: Almost a tie between the SRF-37V and the DT-200VX.

2) Best FM: Almost a tie between the DT-110 and the DT-200VX

3) Radio controls: The DT-110 and the DT-200VX both have a stereo/monaural switch (bandwidth control) for detecting weaker FM stations whereas the SRF-37V has a DX/local RF (Radio frequency) gain switch for FM, TV and Weatherband signals. Personally I think that the stereo/mono switch is far superior to the DX/local switch for receiving the weaker FM signals (when set to mono and NOT to stereo). The DX/local switch on the other hand is much better for reception in large cities (when set to local and NOT DX) so that the RF gain of the unit is lowered when trying to receive very strong local signals on nearly the same frequency that strongly interfere with each other. Thus depending on where you live, work or play will ultimately determine which specific radio with which type of switch control you may want to purchase.

All three have lock/hold switches for keeping the settings fixed except for the analog volume control switch. In addition, the lock switch on the DT-110 must be set to "on" when changing the batteries (you have up to 2 minutes which should be more than adequate) so that the presets won't be lost. The Sangean radios both have fine sounding deep bass boost switches whereas the Sony does not (it appears however that on the Sony a small amount of deep bass boost is always on and cannot be turned off). Also, the Sony is always in stereo mode for FM reception and sounds fine as well. All three radios sound the best with better earphones or earbuds than are supplied with the units which is not too surprising, but I found the Sony headphones adequate for most purposes. Also, all three receivers can achieve quite strong volume output levels before significant distortion occurs.

4) All three radios are very well constructed with the Sony probably the most rugged design. The DT-200VX as well as the Sony have a hinged battery door (the Sony's door can be forced to come off however) and also seems well built, but a few people have talked about the DT-200VX breaking if it was dropped. The DT-110 does not have a hinged battery compartment at all, but it also seems to be well built. The DT-110 comes with a small, tightly fitting slip case with a belt clip attached to the case (in addition the specially designed case was constructed so that the radio can be completely operated very efficiently without ever taking it out of the case at all, except of course for changing the batteries). The Sony MRF-37V and the DT-200VX both have a removable belt clip that attaches to the radios and neither of them come with a case. Both the SRF-37V and the DT-110 fit very nicely however in the zippered Micro hard shell case, HS-5, by Sakar (available online or also available at many stores nationwide). This hard shell case is not very expensive, but also provides a great deal of protection against breakage if the units were dropped.

5) Presets:

DT-110: 24 total- 15 on FM, 6 on AM and 3 random (priority settings). Except for its 3 priority settings that require a single key press, it is a little harder (2 key presses, one with a time delay, instead of one on the Sony) to directly and quickly choose a loaded preset. However an automatic scan/seek capability, APS (automatic scanning for and loading presets and seeking sufficiently strong stations) can be used to either load presets for the first time or even scanning for previously chosen presets.
DT-200VX: 19 total on any band in any order (called My Favorites), but they are found only in a forward progression without the ability to go in reverse. An APS procedure can also be used to setup presets on any band quickly and automatically.
SRF-37V: 25 total- 5 on FM1 and 5 on FM2, 5 on AM, 5 on TV and 5 on Weatherband. It is extremely simple to setup presets and to retrieve them, but tuning is not an automatic procedure and requires single adjustments or the tunning button can of course be held down to speed up the scanning process.

6) Power:

DT-110: 2 AAA: up to 20 hrs on FM and 30 hrs on AM.
DT-200VX: 2 AA: up to 30 - 40 hrs
SRF-37V: 1 AAA: 31 on TV or Weatherband, up to 34 on FM and 54 on AM.

7) The DT-110 (now under $35 at Amazon plus shipping, but is now as much as $50 elsewhere) and the DT-200VX (now under just $50 on Amazon including shipping) are much higher priced than the Sony (now under $29 plus shipping on Amazon) and have only 90 day warranties whereas the Sony has a limited one year warranty.

8) Best overall: I live in a rural area in the high mountains of New Mexico so for my location the stereo/mono switch is superior for improving the weaker FM signals (see my note on this above). Thus, for my location and for working around computers and in heavy RF (radio frequency) noise environments (such as fluorescent lighting, electric motors, etc.) either indoors or outdoors, I really like the DT-110 the best for the great stability of the FM signals and its ability to detect weaker FM signals (it does not have a clock, but it does have a 90 minute automatic shutoff timer). I like the Sony SRF-37V the best outdoors and it is also mostly ok indoors (which comes with a clock, but no automatic shutoff). For all around use if you require a small speaker as well as earphone listening, probably the DT-200VX is the best (with both a clock and an automatic shutoff), but all Sangean pocket radios mute during automatic scanning and seeking which makes it much harder to find weaker stations on AM or FM very easily except using a manual and thus a more tedious search procedure.

For more details, please also see my separate reviews of the DT-200VX and the SRF-37V.

I have used this radio for the better part of a year now. It has performed flawlessly in an area where a variety of Sony and other radios just didn't cut it. I use it primarily as a "working around the yard" radio, in proximity to a variety of noisy 2 and 4 cycle engines and electric power tools. Other radios had trouble with interference, weak signal, fading and distortion. In contrast, this little instrument works as well as the living room receiver. I recommend it unconditionally.

Things to be aware of:

1. Your only warning of a weak battery is that it will cut off for no apparent reason. You can start it up again, but it will cut off soon again. It's no big deal, I just change the batteries.

2. The FM antenna is the earphone cord. I have tried a variety of ear buds successfully, but I see from other reviews that not all earphones work.

These are simple observations, not what I consider to be "cons". This is a great radio and I'm glad to have it.

When I go to the gym, I listen only to NPR and only with ear buds to block out the bad hip-hop they play. I have been through a number of different radios and reception for the local NPR station has been spotty at best. The arm-band sports radios were terrible. I had a little pocket Sony but I had to hold the headset cord in a certain way for each machine I was using. What a pain.

I can easily say that a bad day with the Sangean DT-110 is still better than the best day with any of the others. Since this is the news, I can switch the radio to mono which helps it discriminate the signal better. No more messing with the headphone cord. I do hear occasional static but still far and away the best reception of the half dozen others.

What else would you expect from a company that specializes in radios. This is my second Sangean radio and they are both excellent. The sound is excellent, reception very good, and the controls are easy to use. I never liked ear buds(they keep falling out if your moving around) and replaced them. A great product for a very good price.