Saw this at kmart… had heaps of stock..
Seens good price?
Cheers
Pic courtesy of OzHalloum
Audiosonic FM/Digital Radio - $9 @ Kmart
520
Fizzydrink on 07/01/2016 - 13:03 files.ozbargain.com.au (5523 clicks)
Last edited 07/01/2016 - 14:30 by 1 other user
Last edited 07/01/2016 - 14:30 by 1 other user
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got two alarms, but not too intuitive to setup.
you can put it on the side - as the display is on top and using the handle as a stand, actually look better this way. (accept the micro usb is sticking out)Ah thanks, I think I get it, by side you mean front?
Yes, sorry… Move the handle to the front and rest the radio to the front, ie, the speaker is facing the floor, but there is a gap in between.
What a bargain! Picked up 2 for home, and it gets good reception where other cheapies have failed. Sound is actually not too bad either - Double J is more than tolerable.
First one I turned on without even plugging in, and away it went. The second one I plugged in first, and it displays a Low Power message and won't play. I'm hoping it just needs a but of charge in it.
My experience… Yours should be OK.
Turned mine on in car outside Kmart to check it out. Turned off car, & found it still played. Happily went back for another. Came back to find it had run out of power & shut down.
Plugged back in & got Low Power message & wouldn't work. Charged for 30 minutes & works fine.
Been on charge for a few hours now, and same problem. Looks like it'll be a return.
See list of found faults (so far) below
Did it charge fully (light shows blue when plugged in & switched on)?
Switch on back may be faulty. Wriggling it may solve issue, but it is faulty so return.
Bought one yesterday, in-built speaker doesn't work, hooked it up to my computer speakers and I only got five seconds of anything before it cut out again.
Taking it back today for a refund, or at least an exchange for one that works.
Did you charge it first?
It won't play or cuts out unless battery is first charged, despite being plugged in.most probably faulty… my one work straight up, just plug in and play
If battery is completely flat, it wouldn't work when plugged in until its charged a bit - tried 2 units, running battery down first.
But all 3 worked out of box when plugged in - must have had just enough charge to turn on, but not enough to run without being plugged in.
Thanks OP. Bought 2.
When first turned on, it takes some time to start up but after that, do a full scan (58 stations found).
Works well. Sound is good. Looks good as well. Mine works plugged in to the charger.
Very happy … :) Thank you.Anyone going to paint theirs?
I'm thinking red and matte black.
Lol… The care instructions near the back page state 'DO NOT PAINT'.
Alright, guess I might vinyl wrap it then.
Got one and looks great, DAB and FM…purchased out of interest but no dab reception in my area :( My standby kitchen radio is an old smartphone linked to an old Bluetooth spkr(internet radio streamed from home WiFi). As both are small I might try and Velcro both to the back of this thing, then I'll have a great retro look and just have to turn it around to use when cooking etc. Just an idea. I find the ABC radio app and some others really great, incorporating both live and podcast functionality, let alone 1000's of stations to chose from around Australia and the world….
WARNING: Quality control is very poor in these units. At first the 3 I bought were impressive, but faults became apparent… (sometimes it takes more than 1 unit to show up issues)
Annoying: volume control does what it wants on all 3 units - rotating clockwise may decrease volume. Can live with. (Its the downside of retro design - simple push button up/down switches are translated into a rotary dial.)
Not right: plugging in headphone plug does not switch off internal speaker. 1 faulty - returning.
Faulty: on/off switch at back - sometimes unit displays Low Power message on screen & won't work. Wriggling switch either solves problem or it turns off! 1 faulty - returning.
A failure rate of 2 out of 3 - not even a pass mark. (Revoked + vote as product is poorly made & finding a good unit is a gamble.)
Charging: all units charged fully overnight (light on back changed from red to blue when switched on at back), charged whether switch on back was on or off. Charging light on back bleeds through case, giving an ominous red glow at night - poor design.
Reception (antenna fully extended): all 3 cut in & out while a quality Sangean DAB+ portable radio in same location had no reception problem at one end of house. Moving the unit to a different location in that room solves the problem, but annoyingly intermittently works beside my bed.
Sound quality: good, for a low priced unit - very good. Maximum volume is not quite enough for noisier environment or larger room, but good for bedroom use. Sounds even better fed into amplifier, the end use for 2. (Tried with the $19 Bluetooth alarm clock from Kmart, via AUX - impressive sound.) I'm listening to the 3 units positioned around the house, as I move from room to room - with SBS 'Chill' to ease me into the day.
The 1 remaining good unit has a few annoying problems (volume control & reception), but I'll cope with those idiosyncrasies. Listening to it now propped up on its handle - still an impressive (mono - single speaker) sound for $9. But given the poor quality control, it may not last & since stock will be unavailable at time of failure, returning with receipt within 12 months will only get your money back.
Keep your receipt!
Thanks for the heads up, quick question, you mentioned the $19 Bluetooth alarm clock is it this one. If this is the same item what's your thoughts on it sound wise, is it really tinny sounding or is it passable? I'm thinking of getting one but wish I got one of those Target Ghetto Blasters when I had the chance.
That's the one. I'm still considering sound quality, but Kmart have easy returns if not happy. There's a $25 bigger one with am/fm as well.
Also discussed here
Thanks for the link, the feedback seems positive enough plus it can be returned if not up to scratch. I'll check out the $25 one but I'll probably pick up the $19 unit.
Agree about the overly bright red and especially the blue charging light. Since there is a lot of empty space inside. Ok during the say but at night it seems to light up the whole room at night and can be seen through the front as well. Not good if in bedroom even in standby or off. Only way to fix is to actually pull the plug so it doesn't light up the whole room.
Also wish there was a way to extend the LCD screen light so it stayed on longer. Just seems to turn off too quickly and doesn't give enough time to read the scrolling display before going dark.
The quirky fluctuating volume controll and the disky little on of switch on the rear.
Timing of led on display is probably done in firmware. However the led+ & led- wires are marked on the display pcb & are easily accessible on long leads (red & black) - so could be rewired to a switch or simple timer via the power supply to fix that… for those who know what they're doing.
Voltage at display led: 2.88 full / 2.62 dimmed, via resistor fed from small switching transistor, transistor is switched via small capacitor from DAB+ circuit board.
Will consider that modification as display is either not on long enough to read details, or dimmed display is useless & on all the time when using or in standby. Dimmed glow of display when playing music at night in bedroom is an unwanted light source.
If I try it, I'll report back with suggestions. But simple switch on black wire (bypassing switching transistor to Gnd?) would be easiest. May try a reed switch which can be housed inside case - tiny magnet will open & close contacts from outside… now where did I put my reed switch collection? (Found & installing)
The light issue - I just unplug it.
But easy enough to open up & apply black electrical tape to cover the led on the rear circuit board. As the led sits on the board & presses against the case, best to apply tape to both sides of board near led, and down onto case. That still leaves a small area of light through the rear of the case.Another solution involves unscrewing the rear board & wrapping a cylinder of tape around the led, leaving only the light to come out the top of the led (through the back of radio).
Took me less than 5 minutes to open, investigate, tape, check, add tape on back, check, close case.
(SuperCheap has $1 for 3 rolls of tape deal!)Seems to solve problem, but tonight will be the test.
When doing any modifications, don't have the radio on at the switch or plugged in, and don't use anything metal to help get the tape into position! Best to unplug battery from rear board connector while you do this.
I used mine a bit last night and it has no issues, its a little slow turning on but other than that works fine. Reception fine and i find the sound good as well.
Anyone tried charging these from USB? I forgot to try last night.
I've only charged by usb chargers, not mains charger supplied - worked fine in car & home on my 3.
From personal experience does anybody know how long it takes for full charge? Nothing is mentioned in the manual.
Second question how much time do you get with a charged battery?
Mine was completely flat out of the box.
I plugged it in at 9:00 this morning with the supplied charger, and the charge light changed from red to blue somewhere between 12 and 1.
So 3-4 hours.
Possibly shorter if you're not using it while it charges I guess.DAB Radio's typically suck power. I'm not expecting any more than 4 hours on battery.
AT some stage, I'll probably open it up and have a peek inside (hopefully fix the headphone problem I have with this one)Thanks … So the light charges colour when charged (silly me). Yes DAB radios love eating power. I guess more than 1 hour of battery power is alright at that price.
I got around 4-1/2 hours from a full charge on DAB+ @ half volume.
Could any one help me!!!
Would this unit work overseas say in India?? or does this only works with digital signals?
Please advise me!!!!
Thanks heaps!!!
FM would probably work overseas.
The Frequencies for FM in India are similar to Aus.
But there's no DAB+ Digital Radio in India according to Wikipedia.So not really much point buying this unit when you could get a much higher quality AM/FM unit for similar money.
This is a bargain because it's got DAB+ functionality at such a low price.Thanks scubacoles, appreciate it but have you seen the shape and feel of this piece mate, it's really great. So would risk it and buy as the looks it's hard to get these kind of radios over there so would be a great gift.
Anyways thanks for the info, now will start looking to buy already most K mart in Adelaide are sold out!!!! : (
There were 10 or so last night at Marion about 8:45pm
Only a display model at Kurralta Park.The appearance from a distance might look OK, but you can feel that it's a cheap unit.
And it'll only be useful for FM radio (doesn't have AM radio tuner) in India.
You'd be able to get much nicer units in build quality and audio quality from known brands for $20 with AM and FM.@scubacoles:
OK will, start looking for it then radio that has both AM and FM.Thanks again champ!!!
I tuned mine and it found AM stations?
It found DAB stations.
DAB is the "replacement" for AM radio
It's actually pretty crap for music, cause it's just a low bitrate AAC stream.DAB+ is supposed to be a digital interference replacement for AM and FM. Whilst you should find all the AM stations and most of the FM on the DAB+ band. Along with exclusive stations only found on digital.
The reason they still have FM on digital radios is that not all the FM stations are available on digital. Especially community radio, out of zone stations and also some stations have different schedules on there FM station compared to there digital one.
You can argue that FM for music is better than the digital equivalent since they are using low bit rate for these type of stations. Then you can always tune to the FM if you want to listen to music. Also don't see why these radios are sold in areas where no DAB+ reception is available.
Its just that digital radio has never really taken of and very popular. As its still only available in major capital cities and digital radios have always been expensive with the cheaper ones of poor quality and sound. I've only just introduced my elderly neighbour to digital radio since we got a digital repeater in our area last year and he loves it. Considering he only had an ancient AM radio and doesn't own a computer.
Was 21 left at Warriewood Kmart when I left at 3.30pm this afternoon after myserlf and another person purchased one.
Testd in the car before going home. Although I had to leave it charging for about 30mins before it would respond. Ok for the price only thing I don't like is the dicky on off switch on the rear. Other than that everything on the one I purchased functioned fine on test. Including earphone jack. Using a Micro USB cable I had from a phone and the car audio head unit USB.
Also no tone or bass control. Though not worried about that as I will mainly be connecting it to an receiver with speakers.
I got one of these and find the sound on FM is much louder and better quality than DAB. Also the battery seems pretty good, been playing mine for 6 hrs straight at three quarter volume and still going strong. Great unit for $9, even better for $3 as mine was display stock without box and charger ;)
Just used my HTC phone charger and that worked fine, took about 4 hrs to charge.None at Ashfield or Pagewood NSW yesterday. Only the $39 http://www.kmart.com.au/product/dab-radio---wood/706969. Can anyone report any in Sydney eastern suburbs or south of the harbour?
Help, i just bought one yesterday. It work fine, but there is one problem. It cannot store stations. I did what is written on the handbook. Present a DAB station, press the Preset button(the hand book said press and hold, but nothing happen when i hold it), press select , and the message is "Preset Empty" rather than "Preset XX stored"
Am i the only one have this problem? It was the last one in my Kmart, dont really want to drive to another one then find out it sold out.
Edited: Problem solved, even though hold Preset button present the same massage as just pressing it. It do can store by holding Preset button then press Select.
You're not the only one to not quite understand the process ;-)
Like a few here I guess, I attempt before reading the handbook, so took a few tries, but it works.
Don't forget to press Select after tuning station using Prev/Next or you'll get 1 station on all the presets. I did that once because I had the volume down & didn't realise I was still on same station.
Its always good to realise someone has stuffed up more than you - its my turn to be that someone ;-)
Still some left at Tea Tree Plaza in SA
I bought 2 today, it's a cute little radio, pretty clear sounding on both FM and DAB+, found 45 DAB+ stations easily. Charged both batteries up and both play on battery power no problem.
However…. Both have faulty volume dials, when you turn it up sometimes it starts turning down. And one of them keeps freezing, no response when pressing any buttons and no music plays, you have to turn it off and turn it back on to reset it for it to work again and more often than not it has 'frozen' again.
They have a 12 month warranty, but 2 out of 2 faulty, bargain for $9 but a real pain if the above annoys you.I commented on the volume control & a few other faults earlier. The volume control is annoying, but I've got used to it. Seems to work best when rotated gently. All 6 radios I've tried had the issue, so it's a design problem. Instead of using 2 separate up/down switches, a dodgy rotary switch performs the job - just to fit the 'retro' theme. Poor design.
Is the radio only freezing on DAB+? Make sure you have the antenna fully extended & have good reception. But that would just cut out all sound, not freeze the unit. The fact that turning off then on fixes the problem suggests an issue with the DAB+ processor board. Best to return.
After reading other comments I tend to agree re design fault with the volume dial.
I don't need to extend either radios antenna to get perfect reception on FM or DAB+. Yes it is on DAB+ when it freezes, it's definitely an unresponsive freeze not a drop out. I have factory reset to see if it fixes the problem but it hasn't. There's no local stock for replacement unfortunately (got the last 2 of 17 sold today) but will return next time I'm up that way.
They're selling fast. The lack of units to replace any faulty ones, is why I have 4 when I only wanted 2. Will keep spares for a while & return if not needed. I've already swapped over 2 faulty units.
In case anyone is interested, I've uploaded a photo of internals of this radio. The front panel with the speaker is not shown.
The front is easily removed by unscrewing the 6 rear screws (1 under label). I only had a quick look - its not that interesting.
There's little in the box…
Speaker '5W'
Battery 3.7V 1500mA, HL18650
Main circuit board - generic small DAB+ processor board, at back of
Switch & Display board - larger board just to accommodate switches & display along top of radio
Rear switch & connectors board
Antenna connection & copper sheetBattery looks to just be a single 18650?
I imagined a small flat cell like a helicopter or phone battery.(Duh! just noticed you've listed it as an 18650!)
Other than that, no surprises…
Copper sheet to "shield" the DAB circuit from picking up non antenna signal?Though you might like an inside view..
Yes a 18650 battery. Not what I expected either, but its cheap & 1500mA - lasts a while on this radio.
My guess was (as was yours) the copper is a shield, connected by cable to processor board. Its about the most unusual thing I spotted.
Am posting details of decoder / processor board…
Photo of the decoder / processor board…
Features:
MVsilicon AP8048B which does most of the hard work. Its the one under the green blob I've partly removed to see number.Overview
A highly integrated SOC (system-on-a-chip) for Audio application processing,AP8048B integrates
ARM Cortex-M3 MCU, Bluetooth stack, MP3/WMA/FLAC decoder, MP2 encoder,
OTG, SD/MMC card controller, SARADC, Audio DAC, Audio ADC, segment LED
display driver, RTC and IR decoder in a single chip, AP8048B offers low power consumption, flexible and more powerful Bluetooth Audio player solution.Plus power supply / charger for battery
Amplifier etc48x30mm Board is mounted on rear of switch / display board with 24 header pins in 2 sockets.
Correction, just removed rear (socket & switch) pcb - has amplifier chip LM4871 (1.5W Audio Power Amplifier).
"The LM4871 is a mono bridged audio power amplifier capable of delivering 1.5W of continuous average power into an 8ohm load when powered by a 5V power supply."
"…it is ideally suited for low-power portable or systems that require minimum volume and weight."Also contains 18650 battery charger circuit (chips 57b6 & 5353A - 5 pin chip, transistors, etc)
Makes sense to locate these services on this board.
Photo of rear socket/switch board. Viewed from underneath.
Charging indicator LED (red/blue ) is just visible to left of micro-USB (fitted at rear of board), 1.5W mono amplifier chip is at left - driving 8ohm 5W speaker, battery charging circuit above right of micro-USB, on/off switch bottom right.
Ribbon cable from processor board is line of solder blobs near top of board. L & R headphone wires are the 2 left most blobs, headphone socket (black) is at bottom, to left of micro-USB.
I've been staring at circuits too long & made a mistake…
I thought the headphone output is MONO, but seems likely it is STEREO. It is only the amplifier that drives the speaker that is mono.After a comment from scubacoles I reexamined the headphone circuit. Was there a second amplifier?… a preposterous idea!
The amplifier is normally fed to the headphone socket. As the amp chip was mono, that would mean a mono headphone output. That conclusion was reinforced by the 'is it stereo' discussion earlier.
After scubacoles comment, I immediately looked at the 'preposterous idea' & realised the original processor board was designed for multiple uses, not just for a 'mantle radio', and headphone output may be included on the processor board as I first thought…
2 of the 7 cables from the processor board do lead to the headphone socket. I hadn't thoroughly looked at that in the maze of fine pcb tracks. What I had found, & jumped to the wrong conclusion about, seems to have been the (normally low power) cut-out circuit for the mono amp, when headphones are inserted. This is not like normal audio circuits I've worked with.
So, it seems there is stereo output, but I'll sleep on it & test further…
Sorry for the earlier mistake.
mea culpa :(
Another modification is possible if you have 2 of these radios. Since the mono output is taken from input from 1 channel, it could be changed to the other channel, possibly with a simple rewire on 1 radio, giving stereo from the 2 radios, with L & R on a separated radio ;-)
pin4 of amp chip is in-, pin3 is in+, audio is typically fed to pin4 (via capacitor & resistor )Also case could be packed with padding (eg pillow stuffing to provide damping) to change the sound output from the speaker. Add more bass to speaker box 📦
Will report back with outcome.
Love your work Infidel!
And I thought you were the one wanting to mod this radio, not me ;-)
It worries me that you are not getting your full $9 worth from this deal
;)@King Tightarse:
Bought with 5% rebate PayWave card. That's an extra 45c value :)Don't worry KT, its soon to become a Udemy online course 101 Amazing things to do to a $9 Kmart Radio. A sure fire money spinner that everyone will want to download & never read ;-)
Although I'm still toying with writing a course How to avoid dealing with a family crisis beyond your control, through writing useless online courses.
I bought the Nora DAB radio from Kmart too for $9 … its a piece of crap. Scans and picks up channels, but drops out all the time,(antenna is fully extended). Bought it for the bedroom , so I tried the living area where I have a Bush DAB radio that works fine. This one, same as previously mentioned.
Other big concern is the USB charger, after about 30 minutes it becomes so hot I could not touch it.
Back to K Mart for refund.My charger doesn't get hot after being on for more than 30 mins or do I have reception issues though that only possibly because we have a repeater 800m line of sight from our place. Although not having the aerial extended all the way seem to give better or similar signal levels. Especially SBS and ABC which tend to fluctuate the most. As does where its placed in the room.
At my place we have a repeater transmitter about 800m line of sight from out place. So we don't need to fully raise the aerial all the way. In the rooms on the other side of out house facing away from the transmitter we get perfect reception except SBS and ABC signal levels seem to fluctuate the most depending where its placed in the room or possibly near other electrical devices.
Please feel free to continue chat on this radio over in the following thread I started in the DAB+ Digital Radio & Internet Radio section on the AV Forum Australia web site.
http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php/topic/207836-audiosonic-d…
Was it fully charged (blue light showing on rear when charger plugged in)? Did you try with another micro-USB charger? Was reception issue still there when charging? DAB+ draws a fair bit of power.
So reception with other DAB+ radio at your location is fine by your report. Have you tried at different location?
As with all (digital) transmission, there will be locations where units won't work well. Different models may have different sensitivity.
As I commented earlier, reception is patchy at 1 end of my house, but fine elsewhere. Sangean dab+ portable works there, but this unit does cut in & out. Am behind mountain, so reception is at its limit - on the edge of the digital cliff. Works great when driving car, away from home.
I've tried 6 units - no heating problem found with chargers left on for hours.
But quality control is poor - which can be expected at $9. Likely to be faulty unit.
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How would this go as an alarm clock radio? My current one doesn't get reception so I have stopped using it