Retekess V115 Radio MP3 player recorder follow up review

[@FoulOwl2112]

I bought one after your 1st review. For the money it's been an excellent little unit. Great features and sound quality. I figured l would need to by a higher battery. But as you just mentioned, the thing runs forever on the cheap stock battery. My only gripe, albeit minor, is that you can only access the EQ functions in mp3 mode and not radio. I give this little unit two thumbs up. And btw when l bought it there was a "buy now" special for like $5 off. So l only paid like $23 for it.

[@Ronl53]

I am sitting here looking at the exact same radio. I purchased it a couple of years ago. All I can say is that it is fantastic. Thanks for the video. I learned a few things I had not tried before.

[@laylamiamuchmore7240]

You have me sold on this radio, I just ordered mine and I will be coming soon. I liked all the features of this radio and I will this video to my favorites list.

[@JasonHalversonjaydog]

yeah i really like mine too. funny i only recently discovered what that little plastic thing on the cord is for. you slide it in the back slot so it'll stand up on the table and lean back on that

[@coondogtheman]

I bought two of these radios after watching your first review video. Used it yesterday when I lost power. I like almost everything about it. What I would change as someone below me mentioned the EQ functions were only accessible in MP3 mode and not when listening to the radio. I would have liked a manual tune feature where you press the button once and it tunes one step. The other thing is the MP3 encoding, I looked at one of the files recorded from the radio and it is MP3 blade encoding and that sounds horrible. Lame encoding is better sounding. You can change the recording quality but I got the same results even at the highest quality.

[@FoulOwl2112]

Now that you mention it, l forgot about that. I also wish it had a manual tuning mode. I think that would be particularly useful in Shortwave mode. I made myself a stranded copper wire SW antenna that rolls up and stores in a earbud case. It clips on with a small alligator clip. Although it greatly improved SW reception, l thing it would be MUCH more enjoyable if l could tune one click at a time.

[@coondogtheman]

@@FoulOwl2112 Yeah but I think the buttons would wear out quicker. I'm not sure what buttons are being used in this radio if they are tac switches or those metal dome type that are secured to the board with cello tape.

[@jeromeglick]

No doubt the phenomenal sound quality of its small built-in speaker is a huge plus for this radio. Another bonus is that the reception on AM and SW is not muffled like on most new radios! Frequency response here goes out to 5 or 6 kHz which is a rarity (unfortunately). I like the tactile feel of the buttons, important for mobile use. Several things that could be improved: 1) The headphone output sounds too tinny when listening over headphones but sounds fine when feeding another device such as an amplifier or modulator. This variable behavior may be due to some impedance mismatch. Also the jack is finicky; the speaker won't mute unless the plug sits just right. 2) Rewind & fast-forward on MP3 files is too slow. It takes 12 seconds to fast-forward through 1 minute of audio, whereas on my Kaito KA29 (a similarly-featured pocket radio) it only takes 5 seconds to do the same. I record radio shows and skip over the commercials when listening to them later. Also used to find a spot in the middle of a podcast. 3) I wish it would resume playing from the last spot you were listening to for each file or recording. If you're listening to a file and turn the unit off or switch to radio mode, then resume later, it does pick up where you left off in that file, but if you switch to another file and then back, it simply starts over at the beginning. My smartphone on the other hand does remember where I left off for each individual track.

[@israelcohen1834]

Great tutorial. I have one but learned lots more. Can't fix the volume loss after 10 10 AM. Can you help?

[@JessicaFEREM]

I literally just bought one right before you uploaded this video great minds think alike, eh 😆

[@Synthematix]

If this had 2 speakers it would be the perfect portable companion

[@zx8401ztv]

Yes they are amazing for there size, my frend has all sorts of small digital and analog radios. He has one with the singing and dancing chip that does everything, amazing but it becomes a door stop if it fails. (i don't like things that are designed to be unrepairable. Any way how well does it work in comparison to your ham receivers?

[@soundtripescape5656]

I also have this one. Very useful in my workplace....

[@JessicaFEREM]

If you plan on using this as a radio when you are charging it, It might be a good idea to get a USB Isolation board. You can get them on amazon for about $10 or elsewhere for cheaper I recon. basically makes it to where your signal doesn't completely get overrun by static when you charge it.

[@12voltvids]

I use it all the time to play mp3 while on the charger and never have had any issues.

[@jeromeglick]

@@12voltvids JessicaFEREM is talking about listening to AM or SW while it's charging. Reception would be obliterated by spurious noise from the switched-mode charger.

[@12voltvids]

@@jeromeglick with the battery life, why would anyone be charging while listening to am? Really this thing will run about 40 hours on a single charge.

[@JessicaFEREM]

I do notice that maybe they upgraded the firmware in it since you got yours. I know the volume number on yours is just normal letters, but on mine it looks like a digital clock type of font as well as the font is much bigger on mine.

[@jeromeglick]

Interesting. When I hold down the MENU button, "Setting-V1.7" appears at the top of the display. Do you have a different version number?

[@Nonro12]

thank you very much!!!🥃🥃🍺🥳

[@SlinkyStoney]

It can also route your computer/mobile phone audio through usb.

[@m.k.8158]

Yes, it will work as a USB sound card. This also works in Android

[@tedbell4416]

I have this one it is a decent little radio 👍

[@12voltvids]

It works ok considering how inexpensive it is.

[@SPINNINGMYWHEELS777]

how do you load tracks onto it? USB or SD Card? can you use .wav files?

[@m.k.8158]

MicroSD card-up to 32 gig-mp3 and wma(I'm not sure about .wav)

[@12voltvids]

I have had a 64g card it is but the file number is limited. If i remember 4500 was all it would show. So i just use a 32g card. More than enough tunes on the unit.

[@m.k.8158]

@@12voltvids sounds like your unit has slightly newer firmware-as far as I know, most of these units won't work with a 64g card at all

[@12voltvids]

@@m.k.8158 has to be formatted fat32

[@davemonell9308]

Great video Dave pet the kitties for me.

[@m.k.8158]

This unit is able to be set to record at 128-doing so will improve the recording quality.

[@12voltvids]

Correct. When in playback mode press pause. Press menu, scroll down to record set using ff key press play and select super record and it will record with 128k which delivers very good sound. There is also a 64k mode but that is really only useful for voice recordings.

[@johnbeckham1483]

The HanRongDa K-603 is a very similar radio but it can record at 320 on mp3s!

[@thermaldetinatorsonly8857]

Recorder doesn't work for me

[@12voltvids]

Your doing it wrong.

[@miguelchanca9523]

Good radio. I use cell phone to record FM radio

[@12voltvids]

New cell phones don't have a radio because they removed headphone jack to use headphones to act as antenna. Your old cell phone has an expiry date. As the older networks go dark you will have to upgrade. At&t turned off 3g yesterday. 4g in a few more years.

[@antibrevity]

​@@12voltvids Well... it depends. AT&T lied and claimed that some 3G was "4G" and that has now been retired, but true 4G is LTE and that should not be retired in the U.S. for at least another 10 years barring some miraculous new technology, which is unlikely. Note that AT&T lied again, claiming that that its existing 4G is "5Ge". They were sued and forced to stop advertising this as "5G", but AT&T phones still show "5Ge" as that identifier wasn't affected by the lawsuit. All cellphone companies exaggerate, but AT&T seems to outright lie more than most. At any rate, LTE should last for another decade or longer, so 4G phones should be okay unless you want access to millimeter-wave and/or C-band 5G. C-band will be far more useful to more people, but even older 4G radios will benefit as new phones will prefer to use 5G bands, freeing up space for older phones.

[@12voltvids]

@@antibrevity 3g still going strong in Canada. 4g and LTE are not the same thing. I can set my phone to 4g without LTE. LTE phones will make voice calls over VoLTE using VoIP over data as opposed to switch voice channels which can be over either 3g or 4g frequencies. One technology using wcdma and other hspa. LTE (long term evolution) should be good for 10 years minimum but the older technologies will fall before then. Not enough spectrum to have all three different systems running.