Sony ICF-19 and ICF-26 Review 2020

[@baneverything5580]

I have two of the little Sony radios and the ICF-19. Very good AM radios. If you love AM get the Sangean PR-D4W. It`s just as good as the CCrane radios and costs under $70.00. I`ve tested it up against the CCrane EP PRO and sometimes it beats it on AM. It has AM auto tracking and six bandwidth settings. It has no soft mute that silences fading weak AM signals at night (like the Sony ICF-19) which is a rare blessing in a digital radio nowadays. It also has weather band and alert. It comes with an AC adapter too but I use rechargeable D batteries because AC adapters cause static and ruin AM listening. The Sony ICF-19 is the best power outage radio sold today, and will run between 450 and 500 hours or more on a set of batteries.

[@etow8034]

The Sony ICF-P26, ICF-P36, ICF-306 are basically the same analog radios with the same guts that take 2 AA batteries DC only with long 100 hours run time. The Sony ICF-19 is a DC only DSP radio similar to the Sony ICF-506 that will run at least 450 hours on 3x D cells. My personal choice would be the Panasonic RF-2400D or the Sony ICF-506 if you want radios that does both DSP tuning and runs on both AC and DC batteries for daily use and as an emergency radio.

[@Majicstick]

600 plus hours on the same D cells I have in my ICF 19 and going strong and as for DC power I can careless for AC power because I listen to AM radio I would just get added interference but there all good choices

[@etow8034]

@@Majicstick Yes for AM I agree DC is better, but D cells are getting harder to find and rechargeable NiMH D cells are pretty expensive unless you use AA cells with a D cell adapter. I have concluded that the best battery to use is the ubiquitous AA cell that have good capacity, inexpensive, lightweight and also can be used with my LED flashlights in an emergency instead of having different size batteries and chargers.

[@baneverything5580]

@@Majicstick Another great AM radio is the Panasonic RF 562 DD2 AM/FM/Shortwave. The latest version is DSP but it has a 5.75 or 6 inch ferrite antenna. I have both these Sony radios too and love them. I used the ICF-19 during power outages caused by the recent hurricanes in Louisiana. It really pulled in the fringe daytime AM stations with the power off in the lines. The problem is the DSP ICF-19 and the Panasonic both suffer from soft muting on fading nighttime AM signals, though the Panasonic isn`t quite as bad as the Sony. I finally bought a Sangean PR-D4W. Supposedly it has the same AM reception as the top CCrane radios. It has AM auto tracking that boosts reception. I detected no soft muting at night but the expensive CCrane 2E has soft mute. The Sony ICF-19 is only slightly weaker during the day when I tested both radios outside away from indoor RFI but for about $70.00 you can buy a top notch AM receiver basically just as good as the nearly $200.00 CCrane. It uses 4 D-cells and comes with an AC adapter and has a very sensitive weather band with alerts too. FM is its weakest link because you need a very strong signal to activate stereo using headphones. Sangean radios usually have a muffled sound when listening to AM but on this one they got the sound perfect. Plus it has 6 bandwidth settings on AM and that can be used as an effective tone control.

Its worth noting that the RF-2400 antenna required for FM does not swivel ... that's a braindead cost measure of Panasonic

[@Madmax-TV]

It is sony ICF-P26 and the battery can last a hundred hours but depends on battery you use. This radio sounds crisp!

[@niladrimukherjee2098]

Requesting Sony to relaunch their shortwave radios. And thrse should be MADE I JAPAN and NOT in CHINA please.

[@nicholaspetre1]

Thank you for the review. I understood that I have to buy both)))

[@commanderarsalan5545]

i love both radio. Sony still the best

[@dilipdas5777]

@@LXT43 is sangean SR 35 best?