• Re: Sound on my new radio is muffled.

    From ohger1s@gmail.com@21:1/5 to micky on Fri Sep 22 11:13:11 2023
    On Friday, September 22, 2023 at 1:42:07 PM UTC-4, micky wrote:
    I bought a $230 wifi radio that is impressive in many ways, but the
    problem I have is that the sound sounds muffled

    Maybe it's okay for music. I haven't listened to much music, but for
    talk it sounds muffled. Like literally they are talking through some
    sort of muffle. I don't have this problem with 5 other table radios.

    Is the problem that there is too much bass? If not that, what?

    It has equalizer settings so I changed from default and various kinds of music to "talk". I didnt' hear any change.

    So I went to custom, which has 6 frequency ranges, and over time, I've lowered the lowest 4 ranges to the minimum and raised the top one to the max, and the one in between almost to the max. This helped at first,
    but future changes were smaller and I didn't see addtional help.

    I can still understand if I make the sound one or two steps louder, but
    then it's louder than I want.

    Is there an audio ng that's not dormant that I can post too. alt.audio
    and alt.audio.pro had gone 3 years without posts.

    There's always the possibility there's something wrong with your particular radio and this isn't a normal or adjustable condition. How are the reviews for that radio? Model number? I honestly think a lot of calibrations are for the lowest common
    denominator - people with no idea of accuracy but think loud one note "thumping" is quality sound...

    Yeah, a lot of groups were polluted by political assholes and killed them off - the downside of no moderation.

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  • From rbowman@21:1/5 to micky on Fri Sep 22 18:36:58 2023
    XPost: alt.home.repair, sci.electronics.design

    On Fri, 22 Sep 2023 13:42:01 -0400, micky wrote:

    I bought a $230 wifi radio that is impressive in many ways, but the
    problem I have is that the sound sounds muffled

    Did you take it out of the Amazon box first?

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  • From rbowman@21:1/5 to Retirednoguilt on Fri Sep 22 23:00:58 2023
    XPost: alt.home.repair, sci.electronics.design

    On Fri, 22 Sep 2023 15:10:51 -0400, Retirednoguilt wrote:

    Time for a visit to an audiologist. If you don't use hearing aids, you
    may need them. If you use them, the settings may need to be tweaked. A
    few years ago, I thought something had gone wrong with my stereo
    equipment, either the speakers or the receiver.

    Considering two (out of thirteen) of the Amazon reviews complained about
    the sound and one said a speaker was DOA I'd lean toward the problem not
    being with micky's ears.

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  • From ohger1s@gmail.com@21:1/5 to micky on Sat Sep 23 09:55:35 2023
    On Friday, September 22, 2023 at 6:33:30 PM UTC-4, micky wrote:
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BG67YH18/



    In sci.electronics.repair, on Fri, 22 Sep 2023 18:01:01 -0400, legg <le...@nospam.magma.ca> wrote:

    On Fri, 22 Sep 2023 13:42:01 -0400, micky <NONONO...@fmguy.com>
    wrote:

    I bought a $230 wifi radio that is impressive in many ways, but the >>problem I have is that the sound sounds muffled

    Maybe it's okay for music. I haven't listened to much music, but for >>talk it sounds muffled. Like literally they are talking through some >>sort of muffle. I don't have this problem with 5 other table radios.

    Is the problem that there is too much bass? If not that, what?

    It has equalizer settings so I changed from default and various kinds of >>music to "talk". I didnt' hear any change.

    So I went to custom, which has 6 frequency ranges, and over time, I've >>lowered the lowest 4 ranges to the minimum and raised the top one to the >>max, and the one in between almost to the max. This helped at first,
    but future changes were smaller and I didn't see addtional help.

    I can still understand if I make the sound one or two steps louder, but >>then it's louder than I want.

    Is there an audio ng that's not dormant that I can post too. alt.audio >>and alt.audio.pro had gone 3 years without posts.

    Make and model number.

    RL

    Others have complained about the sound. From different reviewers:

    "I also did not enjoy the way this radio sounded at all! I spent several hours listening to a wide array of stations and musical styles while trying to adjust the EQ settings, but could not find any tolerable balance whatsoever. The equalizer is quite
    limited and did not seem to make a significant difference in changing the overall sound quality, which was muddled and lacking in detail, while also making my ears really, really tired and sore."

    and:

    "However, sound quality is very muddy. It has plenty of volume and hood thumping bass, but the high end is just not there, regardless of EQ settings."

    Sounds to me like this is the way this radio sounds - again, tuned for the lowest common denominator. I don't think you'll ever be happy with it. I'd return it.

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  • From Retirednoguilt@21:1/5 to micky on Sun Sep 24 06:40:44 2023
    XPost: alt.home.repair, sci.electronics.design

    On 9/23/2023 5:22 PM, micky wrote:

    What brand did you get and about how much were they?

    Do you have to have them "tuned" by the audiologist? Just once or every >>> year or something?

    I have a set of ReSound Linx Quatro hearing aids that were recommended
    by my audiologist at Walter Reed. I got them about 4 years ago. Yes,
    they were custom tuned. Initially set to compensate for my audiogram
    and then tweaked by my subjective comments. They retailed at that time
    for about $5K so I'm told. Being retired military, I qualify for the
    DoD's hearing aids at cost program. My total cost out of pocket was
    about $850. The audiologist recommended an annual checkup or anytime
    sooner if a problem develops.

    Reading some of your other comments in this thread, it seems that you
    don't have a complaint of muffled sound when listening to other radios.
    If that's the case, and the other radios have a similar audio frequency
    response, your problem may not be your hearing. Perhaps it is the
    radio. Good luck!

    I think it's the radio too, but I do have an interest in hearing aids. I
    hear about 80% of the people I meet fine, but some talk so low I can't.
    And at meetings, but those are not as common anymore. At home with zoom
    I can just turn up the volume. And at movies.

    I have a $150 "hearing amplifer" and it works well at my current level
    of hearing. Although it has a good design, they seem to have used a
    cheap on/off switch and sometimes when I turn it off it stays on and
    vice versa. It's just a slide switch, but embedded in hard rubber so I
    can't replace it. Maybe I'm getting more used to it, although... I can understand the voice when it says "Power off" or "Power on" but after
    she says On she says something else and I can't come close to
    understanding. (In this casee, it is not about my hearing, but about
    the device.)

    I like the onse with a yoke, so when they fall out of my ears as they
    often do, I don't lose them. None of the high quality hearing aids
    like yours or the Otikon that Clare mentinoed come in yoke form, do
    they?
    I don't know. Mine have never fallen out.

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  • From Paul Babiak@21:1/5 to micky on Sun Sep 24 18:38:30 2023
    XPost: alt.home.repair, sci.electronics.design

    On 09/22/2023 01:42 PM, micky wrote:

    Is there an audio ng that's not dormant that I can post too. alt.audio
    and alt.audio.pro had gone 3 years without posts.


    rec.audio.tech and rec.audio.pro still exist, but the traffic is pretty low.

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  • From three_jeeps@21:1/5 to Bob F on Mon Oct 2 10:48:53 2023
    On Wednesday, September 27, 2023 at 3:22:28 PM UTC-4, Bob F wrote:
    On 9/27/2023 11:05 AM, micky wrote:
    In sci.electronics.repair, on Mon, 25 Sep 2023 10:38:13 +0100, Martin Brown <'''newspam'''@nonad.co.uk> wrote:

    On 22/09/2023 18:42, micky wrote:
    I bought a $230 wifi radio that is impressive in many ways, but the
    problem I have is that the sound sounds muffled

    Maybe it's okay for music. I haven't listened to much music, but for
    talk it sounds muffled. Like literally they are talking through some
    sort of muffle. I don't have this problem with 5 other table radios.

    Is the problem that there is too much bass? If not that, what?

    Possibly. Is there a reflex port on it somewhere?

    No. I don't think so.

    Stuffing that with foam might improve things a bit. Somehow
    extra/excessive bass seems to be a selling point for radios in that
    sort of price range. It does nothing for intelligibility.

    Interesting.

    It has equalizer settings so I changed from default and various kinds of >>> music to "talk". I didnt' hear any change.

    Depending on how badly their equalizer mangles the sound you might be on >> a no win battle with this thing.

    Well, here is the end of the first chapter:

    I'm still going to talk to the manufacturer about what equalizer
    settings work best, or any physical improvement like changing the speakers, or stuffing with foam,

    but two nights ago I bought a patch cable for the L & R Line OUts that plugs into the AUX on the rdio above it, and now the sound is pretty
    good, certainly good enough for me (who has a tin ear which is why it's surprising this radio wasn't good enough for me.) The cable merges L &
    R so even though I paid extra for stereo speakers, it's monaural.

    In addition, this means I can leave the internet radio on all night,
    with the sound turned down to zero, and use the Sleep function of the second radio, so it will turn off after an hour or two. On the
    internet radio, the Sleep function** disables almost all the controls
    and doesn't let me watch the name of the songs being played or see the graphic that comes with each station or each song. That's just entertaining enough to keep my attention but not enough to keep me
    awake. **It just displays the time, which is boring.

    The second radio, the Sangean WR-22, has very little tone control, but I pressed a button my mistake and found that 3 years ago when I got it, I had set the bass to -3 and the treble to +1. Simple, small changes, and I've been happy with that.


    Back to the internet radio using its own speakers, I've only played a
    few songs. The music is probably okay, but the lyrics are muffled, muddled, or muddy. So even they are better through the other radio.

    I know I'm not following the advice of people who said to send it back
    but I didn't find a better replacement, also with presets. Maybe there
    is one but I'm tired of looking.

    Thanks all. I couldn't have done it withou' you.
    It still sounds like the "radio" is seriously defective or a piece of
    junk, that you are kludging to make it "usable". I would send it back in
    a moment.

    Exactly!!! Send it back and get a new one. With all this dancing around with various connection configurations (some of which raise more questions than answers), you could have been enjoying another radio or found a better alternative.
    If you send it back, the supplier will never tell you what 'problems' the device had. Their easy soln is to send you a new one. I suggest making some sort of mark on the original unit (in a very inconspicuous place) so you can determine if they sent
    the original radio back to you or a different unit. (I've personally experienced this).

    IMHO, trying to connect the audio to an external speaker via BT is a crap shoot. A lot of BT devices have lousy implementations....won't pair with some devices, spins forever when attempting to make a connection, dropped connections, the reconnect
    feature doesn't work, lossy audio, etc.
    If I am troubleshooting an audio problem, nothing beats a hardwired connection.

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  • From Peter W.@21:1/5 to All on Mon Oct 2 11:15:39 2023
    I am watching this conversation with increasing sadness, consternation and amazement. As a collector of things-radio for a very long time, I have examples from 1919 through 2007, including coffin-box home-brews to $5.99 WalMart hand-held portables (by
    the washer/dryer for my wife to use). Gems include a Zenith shutter/robot dial, a Grundig Satellit 700, & YB-500, GE super-radio and others. Countries-of-origin include Czechoslovakia, Turkey (!), Russia, Portugal, France, England, Russia, Germany, US,
    China, Japan and others.

    Given that I have sufficient grounds for comparison - anything that sounded "muffled", especially purchased new, would be unceremoniously returned to the seller without delay. Life is simply too short for that noise.

    Peter Wieck
    Melrose Park, PA

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  • From Hiram T Schwantz@21:1/5 to All on Mon Oct 2 17:51:17 2023
    XPost: alt.home.repair, sci.electronics.design

    On 22 Sep 2023 18:36:58 GMT, rbowman posted for all of us to digest...


    On Fri, 22 Sep 2023 13:42:01 -0400, micky wrote:

    I bought a $230 wifi radio that is impressive in many ways, but the
    problem I have is that the sound sounds muffled

    Did you take it out of the Amazon box first?

    +1 Good one!

    --
    Hiram

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