Yikes!

I came across this beauty on the junk table at the Salvation Army
in Marion, Illinois in 2008. I paid $1.62 after tax.

Brought them home and decided that I looked dorky in them. Put
them in the entertainment center cabinet with old VHS tapes and
forgot about them.
I hadn't another AA battery at the time (it takes two), so I'd never
even had them powered on.

Didn't give these things another thought, as I was satisified with
my tiny old 50 cent Goodwill Store Sony SRF-59 Walkman.

But alas the ole SRF-59 began cutting out and died yesterday
whiles I was shoveling snow. A check with new battery and
a fresh set of standby headphones confirmed it was dead. No sweat,
as I'll get another on on e-Bay for under $15 with shipping.

But I needed something for a long fitness walk, and didn't want to
screw with the woe of eating up batteries with my relic Sony WM-EX10
casette player.
So I hunted down this SRF-HM55 in that cabinet.

With the other Reviewer's tip here on programming, and also a pirated
manual I found on-line I was easily able to get the time and 5
station frequencies cued in. Easy.

I'm running it currently on two AA batteries that are depleted below levels of what
a Canon PowerShot A520 4 pixel pocket camera requires. And I know I'm
pulling a transmitter tower from 50 miles away on one of my presets.

For many years I've seen this model on the heads of guys operating loud industrial
lawnmowers and leaf blowers. But never did I think these $8.25/hour grunts
were adorning something like this that lists $499 at Amazon new and hardly ever below
$175. Some e-Bay auctions are starting at $85, and there's Buy Now links for $175!

What's the deal here, folks!?! It's an am/fm radio headphone fer-cryin'-out-loud!
Sure it's a pretty high visibility yellow with a night reflective tape at the top of the antenna.
And yes it fits pretty secure. But it's a friggin' radio, ya'll.
Oh PLEASE gawd, I hope nobody bought one of these things for $499.

I'm tickled at how this thing demands $75 at pawn shops, and am hoping I can give it to
a dude I know at YouTube, then he can use it as part of trade on a new video pocket camera.

Is it a good radio? Shoot yes. But it's not like a Jenson boom-box on your ears. And from what
I hear you're asking for trouble if you ask it to perform on a misty day walk.

I do not use the behind the head strap, but it's true that it doesn't click secure in its adjustment
positions.

And yes the door for the batteries is strangely designed so that with a slight nudge it's disengaged
and will easily swing open to drop your batteries to the ground.

I see raised plastic letters "BATT" below the LED display, but so far I know not of an indicator-- perhaps
something will blink when it gets low?

I felt the ear pieces were soft enough and comfortably snug for me, and they have a nice spring-loaded
effect, which in hand with the somewhat snug headset adjustment strap makes it a secure fit.

But the headset strap seems to be a friction and no secure clicks. So definitely don't let kids play
with these and wear out that friction mechanism-- you'll be sorry, because this unit has some beefy
factor to it at 8.5 ounces.
I can't imagine anyone wanting to give a go at running in these. And now that I know what they're worth I'll never risk bicycling in them, lol.

And by no means fool with Sony for a download of the manual for these. It's just a forced download of AdobeReader (34 MB) and then Sony refuses to share the "Proprietary Manual," ha, the bums.

All in all a nice little unit. I hope my buddy can score some trade with it.
But... $499, you got to be kidding me.

Chauncey "Sonney" Earlington, III