Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Coby CX90SVR Digital Pocket AM/FM Radio, Silver

Coby CX90SVR Digital Pocket AM/FM Radio, Silver
  • Digital display with backlight
  • Digital AM/FM tuner
  • Dynamic bass boost system (DBBS)
  • 20-station preset memory (10 AM, 10 FM), hold switch prevents accidental key presses
  • Clock function, 3.5mm headphone jack
  • Convenient belt clip & neck strap
  • Integrated full-range speaker
  • Sensitive AM/FM tuner

Check this video out if you want a real life review of this product. I will show you what it looks like, the quality of the product, and my personal review of Coby CX-90.

Buy Coby CX90SVR Digital Pocket AM/FM Radio, Silver Now

i needed an AM radio to listen to while at the office and my first choice was the popular SONY ICF-S10MK2 which is a popular purchase here on Amazon.com... that radio was old, clunky, had a huge antennae, poor AM reception, a manual tuner dial so if you touched it you'd lose your station, and had a mono headphone jack so you could only hear sound out of one side (i verified this with 3 different sets of headphones).

the Coby DX-90 on the other hand was $2.00 more, is smaller, sleek, completely digital (no knobs or dials), has a stereo headphone jack (again verified this with 3 sets of headphones), comes with earbuds (that are not very good, but at least they tried), has an internal antennae, and has awesome AM reception.

get this radio, it's more than worth the money, don't get suckered into buying the Sony brand name like I did, you'll regret it.

Read Best Reviews of Coby CX90SVR Digital Pocket AM/FM Radio, Silver Here

I wasn't expecting much from a radio that's sold for such a low price, but I was pleasantly surprised.

VERY good reception on both the AM and FM band...above average to say the least. I'd even go so far as to say it's comparable (almost as sensitive and selective) to the (well known to long distance radio enthusiasts)Sangean DT200VX AM/FM/TV Portable Pocket-Size Radio at about 1/4 the price.

It's only drawback in that regard is it's lack of a FM mono/stereo switch for fringe aria reception...a small flaw worth overlooking.

It's audio is a bit better than you may expect in this price range(when using a decent set of headphones, of course), but it's nothing to write home about...I'll just call it "sufficient" (i.e. not unpleasant or harsh at all). It also has enough output power to drive a set of larger headphones without any problem as well as flat out rock a set of sensitive buds. Of course the earbuds that come with it are awful..but that's to be expected

All in all I'd say it's a great radio and worth every dime if not twice as much. A real bargain that performs quite well. Don't let the price or the brand name fool ya as it's nothing short of outstanding....especially for it's price class.

Want Coby CX90SVR Digital Pocket AM/FM Radio, Silver Discount?

I bought this mainly to listen to NPR on 93.9 FM during my commutes to work and while at the office working late, which seems to occur far too often. I had also bought the Sony SRF-59. Surprisingly, the Sony SRF-59 had great difficulty picking up the NPR station inside my office building while the Coby CX-90 picks it up loud and clear! So the Sony stays at home and the Coby is the one I take with me.

Ok, first the bad stuff:

The Coby CX-90 I received looks a bit different than the one in the picture. The faceplate on mine is more brownish than black, and the backlighting on mine is amber, not blue. I'd rather have it in blue but, oh well. The fit & finish and overall quality of the exterior plastic casing of the radio isn't top notch, but it's not the worst I've seen either. It's pretty much what you'd expect from the Coby brand name. I'd say the biggest downside of this radio is the relatively short battery life. It uses two 'AAA' batteries and the instruction manual states battery life is 20 hours. I use a set of 750mAh rechargeable batteries and it seems like I'm only getting about 10 hours out of them. Although, my batteries are old so that may be the fault of the batteries not the radio.

Now the good:

Very compact and lightweight. I like the modern styling. It looks more like an MP3 player than an AM/FM radio. I can enjoy listening to the radio and still look modern and hip, instead of like I just time-warped in from the early '80's. The digital tuning is great, no more fiddling with a thumbwheel and guessing if you're on the right frequency. 10 memories per band make it even easier to tune in favorite stations. A handy hold switch locks buttons from being pressed unintentionally. And the best thing about this radio is excellent reception on both AM and FM bands. As I previously mentioned, it outperformed the highly lauded Sony SRF-59. AM reception is very sensitive. I live in NJ but I've been able to tune in 1080 WTIC in Hartford CT (Red Sox), 1210 WPHT in Philadephia PA (Phillies), 1350 WOYK in York PA (Orioles), and 900 CHML in Hamilton ONTARIO (Blue Jays).

By the way, on Coby's own website, they list this radio as having a belt clip and a built-in speaker. To set the record straight, it does not have either of those. I sent an email thru their support page to point this out and have them correct it but so far they haven't.

I am very glad I picked up this radio. This being my first Coby product, I have to say I did not have very high expectations of it performance wise. But for me to say I prefer my Coby over my Sony, I think pretty much sums it all up.

Update on 4/30/2010:

I've had this radio for 1 year and 8 months now and still use it everyday. I've gone through several sets of earbuds, but the radio itself is holding up very well. All of the buttons and switches still work great. The only visible sign of wear is some slight rubbing off of the silver finish around the top and bottom edges of the radio.

I also want to mention that during the time that I've had the Coby, I also tried the Sony SRF-M37V. The advantage of the Sony is that it only uses 1 'AAA' battery, but I think the FM reception is not as good as the Coby. On the Sony, I hear some bleeding of an adjacent station while listening to NPR. I have not experienced that problem with the Coby. Another thing with the Sony that I'm not crazy about is that it breaks up the 10 FM memories into two banks. To switch from one bank to the other, you have to change the band from FM1 to FM2 and then you have to cycle through AM, WB, and TV to go back from FM2 to FM1. I also think the Coby radio fits more comfortably in the hand with it's slim oblong shape, whereas the Sony feels very chunky. So once again this Coby radio has Sony beat.

Coby has corrected the product description on their website and no longer list it as having a belt clip and built-in speaker. But I still wish they would correct the picture to accurately show that it has an amber backlight, not blue.

I like Coby CX90 so much that I even bought a second one, in the black finish. I'm keeping it as a backup unit (not that I expect my first one to break anytime soon!). At the price point of $17 or less, this is a great value for a true digital tuning pocket radio.

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This is a very good little radio in every way EXCEPT: it eats batteries at an alarming rate. LISTEN-UP HERE, I'm trying to help you... if you put new batteries in... use it for a few hours...put it down for a few days...the batteries can be very low...or dead. Yes, its true.... trust me on this... switched "off" this radio is still eating the batteries! I had to remove the batteries every day to get reasonable battery-life...HOWEVER... when you change the batteries... the memory settings erase!...so, you have to re-enter it all every time you change batteries...and... as I mentioned "this thing is hungry for batteries...like no other I've ever seen". Also...the lowest volume level is very loud ! really... WAY TOO LOUD ! at the very first level(BLASTING for my earbuds).

Memory-scan function only goes from low to high...When you go thru the pre-set stations of the memory you must scroll thru all memory settings to get back to a station you just passed. You could 'scan' back..... "scan-function" goes bowth ways (up or down frequency). If you want to switch back & forth between 2 stations... it is not possible w/ the 'memory-scan' function...you must 'scan' back to the other station.... or scroll thru all other memory settings to get back. OR you could enter only those 2 stations into the memory settings(impractical but possible).

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