Sangean DT-210 Radio Tuner

I purchased the radio mostly to listen to my favorite AM station talk shows. It does a great job in tuning them in and the FM reception and sound is great!
 
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this portable has both good sound & good reception, though it's not user friendly in using basic "memory" tuning settings.. having a difficult, yet great sounding/receiving desktop Sangean radio, that didn't come as a surprise, nor prevented me from buying this model that I still see as a good value & get long life out of a pair of AA batteries
 
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I bought this radio and thought that it was expensive. After getting it and hearing the sound quality I quickly changed my mind. It blows my other small radios away. I can't use headphones and the speaker in this radio is amazing.
 
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DT 210 V: About sixteen years ago I started regularly walking the two miles between my home and my office at the university where I taught until my recent retirement. I bought a cheap ($14.95) Koss walkman-type of AM/FM/Cassette unit to listen to on the way. My favorite station by far was the university’s classical music station which came in with crystal clarity despite the mere 5000W strength of the signal and the fact that the transmitter was a number of miles away. The Koss unit had a poorly designed belt clip, the outcome being several falls to the sidewalk, each of which knocked off another chip or two. Finally, about 9 to 10 years later, although superglue and duct tape did an admirable job of holding the exterior together, terminal interior trauma ended its useful lifetime. Of course, I couldn’t even find a Koss unit to replace it and bought a considerably more costly Sony. The signal of my favorite station at 90.7 MHz was totally swamped by harmonics from more powerful nearby rock stations. I took it back and exchanged it for an even more expensive Sony. It did an even poorer job. Finally, after trying out two more units of brands I have forgotten, I found a Panasonic that had sufficient selectivity to let me enjoy my favorite station again. The tone of the Panasonic, while acceptable, was never particularly good. After about five years of use the output started distorting so badly that I began a search for another radio. I found that not many were on display any more, and all the ones I did find suffered from the same flaw. My favorite station was unusable. Realizing by now that small radios with good enough selectivity to reject unwanted harmonics from other stations were a very rare critter, I began a search of user comments on web reviews and was thus alerted to Sangean radios. On the basis of those reviews I ordered a Sangean DT 210 V online for about $42. The tone of the DT 210 was extraordinarily good, especially when I substituted the headphones from my discarded Panasonic radio for the earbuds that came with the DT210. Unfortunately, my favorite station signal wasn’t even noticeable amidst the hash from several other more powerful stations. Now, the DT210V has a peculiarity in that the headphone cord also serves as an antenna. Acting on a hunch I reduced the antenna exposure by bunching up the headphone cord into a tiny space and voila! My station was there, crystal clear, with no simultaneous garble from agricultural market reports or rock accompaniment. I have since found that if I reduce the antenna exposure by wrapping nearly all of the headphone cord round and round the DT210 and carrying the radio in my shirt pocket instead of hanging it on my belt, I can listen not only to my 90.7 MHz favorite, but to several other low power stations in that part of the dial that are challenging even for the superior radios in our several automobiles. As it is, my only remaining source of dissatisfaction lies in the fact that that I haven’t found out how to make it stay in the “memory” (pre-select) mode. I can get it to cycle through the pre-selected stations nicely, but if I stop on one to listen for more than five or ten seconds, it slips back into manual mode, and I have to reset it on “Memory” to avoid having to plod through all the in-between frequencies to get to the next one I want. If it weren’t for that inconvenience, the radio’s superior sensitivity on all bands, its good selectivity (once the antenna exposure is properly controlled), and its very good tonal reproduction, taken together with a very convenient size, I would give it a “5.” As it is I’ll rate it at a 4.5.
 
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I have every digital pocket portable that Sangean has produced over the past ten years. This review puts the DT-210V at the head of the pack for price and features. <P>I find this my preferred brand for portability, durability, and overall ease of use. Keep in mind that if you live in a rural area, your mileage may vary-these pocket radios are good if you live near fairly strong signals, either urban or suburban. Still, they’re head and shoulders above other brands I’ve used…no one seems to fill the niche like Sangean. I have to replace them periodically when the headset connector plug fails, so I look forward to them developing wireless headsets in the future.<P> THE GOOD: The DT-210V has less AM and FM interference indoors in front of my computer than other Sangean pocket portables. it's lighter, I find the buttons more intuitive, and the deep bass boost circuitry makes for a better audio experience. The 90-minute auto shutoff can be adjusted or turned off. The presets are split up into groups of 10 for each band so you don't jump from FM to AM and TV like with the model it replaced, the DT-200V. The external speaker is large enough to reproduce a voice with much better quality than the speakers on either the scratchy DT-200V or the tinny DT300VW. DX reception is no less than the top rated DT-200V. The numbers on the 210 are bigger and easier to read. Tuning is also easier for me; I’d swap the positions of the side ‘recall’ and front ‘memo’ buttons, but one handed tuning is much easier. <P> THE BAD: The AAA batteries won’t last as long as the AAs in the 200V, and two battery doors mean double the chance to break. The 'lock' button is in an unexpected place on the back. I worked at construction recently, and if the 200 ever fell out of my pocket, I knew I could pick it up and drive on because it’s quite rugged. The body of the 210 is made of a softer gray plastic than the rigid black 200, so I want to handle this one with a little more care. There is no slip cover like there was with the DTV-300, but the 210 is definitely a performance and durability improvement over that model. <P>The new white earbuds supplied with the DT-210V just scream ‘ipod envy’. They sound okay, but I wouldn’t buy a radio like this without clip-over-the-ear buds. I like the Koss DSC-22. <P> I scoured reviews to find pro and con about which one of these Sangean pocket portables to buy this time. Last time I bought the workhorse DT-200V based on my needs. Each has their place: I used the DT110 for years: it’s durable and easy to use, but reception is only fair. I recently bought the DT-220V, which is a superb model for home use…a little more delicate, but better reception, better sound, a clock and alarm, even a light. But it’s at the upper limits of size for a pocket radio. I also own the ATS505P and previously the ATS606AP, which are great for a larger format. <P> This time, the DT-210V is just right. Lightweight, very good sound, easy to use…why did I wait so long?
 
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