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Excellent, but not perfect
Pros
Digital Radio with 5 pre-sets for AM and 5 for FM. Rugged--lasts for years
Cons
If you run with it, it'll fall off your head.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
It's a buy, esp. since you'll be paying about 1/2 off since you have to buy them used.
I bought a Sony SRF-HM55 new about 15 years ago at Best Buy or Circuit City. When it finally died, I missed it and purchased 4 more just like it, all on eBay. They sell on eBay all the time for between $28-$42, plus about $8-10 shipping.
Overall, it's a very, very good radio. It's sort of silly for me to own 4 of them, but I leave them all over my house, so I can always find one nearby. If you wake up early or stay up late, you can enjoy FM music or AM talk without disturbing other family members. I've been told to take it off when my wife and kids come downstairs and we start the "breakfast show". That's fair, esp. because I can go to www.npr.com and re-listen to the story I was enjoying later.
Setting the pre-set stations is easy. Manually tune the radio to the station you want. Then, simultaneously hold down "set" and one of the 5 pre-set buttons. The only thing I don't understand is why Sony has the tuner move by 0.1 mHz at a time. For instance, going from 93.7 to 96.5, you go 93.7, 93.8, 93.9, 94.0, etc. Every other portable radio I have owned goes up by 2's" 93.7, 93.9, 94.1, etc. I understand that some parts of the world use the even FM stations, but every other digital Sony radio I have seen goes up by 2's.
One other downer: When the batteries die, don't take them out until you are ready to replace them with fresh batteries. If you do, the unit will 'forget' all those pre-sets and you'll have to start over from scratch. So, when you see the 3 squares flashing that the batteries are dead, leave those 'dead' batteries in there; they will allow your Sony to remember its pre-sets if you replace the batteries soon after removing the old ones.
The other review has a comment about the switch for the battery door being very sensitive, and falling open with the batteries dropping out. The bad news is that my original unit developed this problem after i had dropped it on the floor a couple dozen times. The good news is that none of my 4 newer units (all ordered Used on eBay) have that problem (yet). For my old unit, I would put thick brown package tape over the battery door to keep it shut, then peel the tape off and start w/ fresh tape when I had to replace the batteries.
Battery life is OK, but lasts longer when you use longer or longest lasting batteries.
What about going to your favorite sporting event with this so you can listen to the radio while you watch in person? Maybe you can do that at a baseball game, but football games are too loud and drown out the radio, even with the radio's volume turned all the way up.
So how did my original SRF-HM55 die? I was listening to it in bed, and I turned it off, took it off my head, and set it on my bedstand. Unfortunately, I put one end of the radio into a glass of water. When I woke up the next morning, she was dead. Drying it off for a couple weeks didn't help, so shopping on eBay I went.
Overall, it's a very, very good radio. It's sort of silly for me to own 4 of them, but I leave them all over my house, so I can always find one nearby. If you wake up early or stay up late, you can enjoy FM music or AM talk without disturbing other family members. I've been told to take it off when my wife and kids come downstairs and we start the "breakfast show". That's fair, esp. because I can go to www.npr.com and re-listen to the story I was enjoying later.
Setting the pre-set stations is easy. Manually tune the radio to the station you want. Then, simultaneously hold down "set" and one of the 5 pre-set buttons. The only thing I don't understand is why Sony has the tuner move by 0.1 mHz at a time. For instance, going from 93.7 to 96.5, you go 93.7, 93.8, 93.9, 94.0, etc. Every other portable radio I have owned goes up by 2's" 93.7, 93.9, 94.1, etc. I understand that some parts of the world use the even FM stations, but every other digital Sony radio I have seen goes up by 2's.
One other downer: When the batteries die, don't take them out until you are ready to replace them with fresh batteries. If you do, the unit will 'forget' all those pre-sets and you'll have to start over from scratch. So, when you see the 3 squares flashing that the batteries are dead, leave those 'dead' batteries in there; they will allow your Sony to remember its pre-sets if you replace the batteries soon after removing the old ones.
The other review has a comment about the switch for the battery door being very sensitive, and falling open with the batteries dropping out. The bad news is that my original unit developed this problem after i had dropped it on the floor a couple dozen times. The good news is that none of my 4 newer units (all ordered Used on eBay) have that problem (yet). For my old unit, I would put thick brown package tape over the battery door to keep it shut, then peel the tape off and start w/ fresh tape when I had to replace the batteries.
Battery life is OK, but lasts longer when you use longer or longest lasting batteries.
What about going to your favorite sporting event with this so you can listen to the radio while you watch in person? Maybe you can do that at a baseball game, but football games are too loud and drown out the radio, even with the radio's volume turned all the way up.
So how did my original SRF-HM55 die? I was listening to it in bed, and I turned it off, took it off my head, and set it on my bedstand. Unfortunately, I put one end of the radio into a glass of water. When I woke up the next morning, she was dead. Drying it off for a couple weeks didn't help, so shopping on eBay I went.
