As previously said, the balancing of the audio sound of a bass heavy radio was accomplished using the Winamp Equalizer.
But that setting was made in an indoor environment, and once taken outdoors the acoustics are very different and the EQ needs to be especially tuned for outdoor balance.
Of course this is almost impossible because the computer, where adjustments are made, is indoors.
Despite that difficult obstacle, the Sangean U1 is an amazing paper weight, and I pledge my everlasting loyalty.
There is so much fun stuff in this thread.
It's great being able to listen to your Part 15
station while out in the yard, as well as other
stations.
I have a Grundig S-350. It is sort of like a kid's
lunchbox in shape. It is based after the legendary
Panasonic RF-2200. If i'm correct, the RF-2200s
that are left in the world now are 30 to 40 years old.
It also sort of reminds me of the Heathkit and Gonset
"lunchbox" 2 way radios. Not as big and heavy - but
sort of the same shape. For a guy with vision problems,
the S-350 is a joy. It has a nice big backllt LCD display,
that is also a clock and alarm clock.
As a radio, the S-350 has some great points and some
problems, but gosh, it only sold for $100 ten years ago.
It sounds great. A big speaker, with audio output jacks
for FM stereo recording, if you want to do that. It has
a good whip antenna (I broke mine off and attached
another one) and the case of the radio isn't too bad for
strength. My S-350 tumbled down the front steps -
it was OK - other S-350 owners might not be so lucky.
AM is very good. There is a narrow filter that does very
well. During the day, I can hear some weak adjacent stations
next to strong locals on AM. I have quite a few other radios
that don't do as well. FM is good. I can hear locals and semi-locals
out of 40 or 50 miles. Every once in a while I will hear tropo or
E-skip DX, but i have other radios that are much much better for
FM. If there is FM DX coming in, I run to another better radio -
Besides, the S-350 drifts on FM a little. It does have an AFC.
The AFC works after a fashion. The radio also drifts on shortwave.
More on that in a minute. The radio uses an analog VFO with an
electronic dial. So when you tune in a station, sometimes the
display doesn't look quite right - it might be off a little. This and
the drifting used to drive me crazy, but now the radio is like an
old friend, so I don't care. Back to the AM BCB - there are some
strange products on the low end of the band below about 700 kHz.
One can sort of tune around them, so again - I don't care anymore.
Shortwave on this radio was made for hearing the big broadcasters -
and when the radio initially came off the factory line, the BBC, CBC,
etc., were still out there. It drifts, and there are strong images 900 khz
below your target station. (Only single conversion superhet.)
However, I have to say - when Global 24 Radio
was running last year on 9395 khz, it sounded GREAT through the S-350.
Really good fidelity for an SWBC station. A real pleasure to hear.
Soon after the S-350 came out, Grundig issued the S-350DL. I bought one.
It was bigger. I didn't like the new size - but that's just personal taste.
The S-350DL had an even brighter digital display, in retrospect - I guess
it didn't drift as much as the S-350. But the S-350DL's case didn't seem
to be as strong as the one on the S-350. I don't think it was as thick.
It's personal preference anyway. I gave the S-350DL away.
Now the old S-350 is getting pretty banged up. On FM and especially on
shortwave, the digital display has been getting really unstable - and the
drift is there.
Something got loose or cracked on the inside. I opened up the
radio and jammed a piece of folded up cardboard inside. I closed
it back up. It was great for a while. Now it's getting flaky again.
The end might be coming.
But there have been adventures. I stuck a bunch of velcro on the
side. I attached other things to it - a handheld scanner, a ham radio HT,
and a nice analog clock - which never did look quite right. I even
put some red "running lights" on the radio so I could find it in the dark.
Then there were the NEVER ENDING WINTER STORMS. The 350
was outside in all of them. It got stuck in ice and snow. It fell over.
It got covered in frozen precipitation. Still, it played on.
It uses 4 D batteries. Man, I have to say -
D alkalines don't go for very long when it's zero degrees F. But
that's not the radio's fault. There is a battery indicator that is works well.
I knew when the batteries were getting low. Even on low batteries,
it still pulled stations. Like my weak Part 15 or WCBS 880 NewsRadio in
New York 100 miles away. There was enough volume to compete with
the snowblower noise if need be.
I tried to solar power the radio. I messed something up and blew out the
external power jack. Oh well.
The Grundig S-350. Yonder you sit. You have
gotten me up every morning for years. You
have kept me company and I have dragged
you around the house, the yard,
and to other places.
Almost as good as a dog.
Well... Not quite as good. But almost.
Brooce, DOGRADIO
Is the tuning knob "detent" like the old TV tuners? That would be a plus in my book. 🙂
The radio is larger than it looks in the picture, and the tuning knob rolls very smoothly with plenty of space in between signals so that each frequency gets a fair amount of dial-position.
On some AM tuners the apparant width of the signals get narrower up at the X-band, but not on this baby. All the frequencies are fat and tunable.
This radio has made life even more worthwhile than it was when it was really good, but not this good.
I miss my radio right now. I've got to go.
Nothing in life is perfect, not even things that are perfect.
Sure, it's true that the Sangean U1 Gas Meter Radio is ideal for stationary work, like mowing an area of grass, but because of its 50-pound weight it is not convenient to carry along with a full can of vegetation on its way to a mulch pile 200-feet away. For mobile working I still use the small Grundig FR-200.
Mustn't miss anything being broadcast on KDX Worldround Radio.
What would be convenient is a body radio, maybe attached to suspenders or a belt. No ear buds, please.
Or, or, a CAN radio, attached to the waste can!
Ultimately a brain implant radio would take care of it.
Maybe some of the experienced members will have a suggestion how KDX can solve a software puzzle.
As explained earlier, the Sangean U1 Yard Radio has a Bass Boost that cannot be turned off, but I use the Winamp Equalizer to shape the sound being sent to the radio and it would be perfect, except...
The Winamp Equalizer shapes the sound going to ALL points, including the three web-streams, and a listener mentioned that our audio sounded very tinny. So I've shut-off the Winamp Equalizer and am now looking for a software equalizer that can be placed in-line with the audio feed to the AM transmitter.
Maybe a hardware equalizer is needed, but today's project is to find a software solution.
Radio Station Program Stream begins with Zara, feeds Winamp for its DSP Plugin Side-Chain, outputs to KDX-FM for monitoring.
The player VLC contains an audio equalizer, so I stream our Icecast feed through VLC with EQ settings customized for the overly bassy Sangean U1 Yard Radio, serviced by AMT5000 AM transmitter. There is a 10-second latency.
Takes most of the morning to get this all set up.
I can't understand why you can't turn off the base boost. Do you have the manual to the Radio? If not have you tried to google for it? Maybe there is a "secret" way of doing it that you may have to google for. Sometimes those manuals don't cover everytning or its not too clear and someone on the Internet is figured a way to turn off the base boost. I've seen that on a few things I've owned and had to google for it.
You are right, TheLegacy, it would be logical to have a bass boost on/off switch, but I've searched the radio and the manual and there's nothing to be found.
I called the sales guy at Universal Radio and he said, "I thought there was a bass boost switch." I asked if he could get me a schematic, and no, Universal is not able to order service manuals or circuit diagrams.
I'll keep looking, starting with a google search.
Carl, is it stated in the user manual that the radio has a bass boost? Or, is it just that the radio is normally bassy?
Unusual indeed that it would have a bass boost with no control for it.
In the very skimpy U1 Manual the only mention of bass is under Main Features (8) Dynamic Bass Compensation for rich bass.
The section titled "Controls' shows images of the radio from all angles with pointers describing each control, but no "bass" related control is shown.
The section on operating the radio does not mention tone or bass.
Despite that weakness, this radio is so beautiful that I'm going to introduce it to my family.
I seen a surround sound stereo that had a feature where it would try and adjust the sound according to the room and it sounds like your Radio has this feature. Look for anything that would look like a mic. It will have a hole about the size of the end of a paper clip. If you see it put a piece of tape over it and the Radio sould sense too much base and it will cut off the base boost. Problem solved. I found this for a friend of mine and I saw the hole and I said “ah ha” and put tape over it and no more over driven base out of that surround sound receiver. It sounded like a brand new device and I laughed because it was a nice concept but a very bad idea. When you told me your Radio had a automatic base boost that is exactly what I suspect in your case. Just look the Radio over real good for that pin hole.
Soon as I get off the keyboard I'll examin the radio for a pin-hole.
Meanwhile, the radio does have an input for a microphone which converts it into a P.A. system, and it has a headphone output.
If worst comes to worst you could get a little external speaker for the Radio. Or a Bluetooth speaker that has a headphone input. You simply use the speaker instead of the one in the Radio. Some of these speakers have tone controls or you can buy one of those headphone line equalizers and turn the base way down to compensate for the stupid boost. Just an idea if it don't have that pin hole.
Wearing a lab coat and stethoscope every surface of the Sangean Gas Meter Radio was inspected and no small holes were found.
In fact the whole radio is built to submarine standards by having little rubber covers that plug over the sockets.
It is "Water Resistant up to JIS-4 Standards." I think that's more water resistant than must of us.
It might even float.