today i just splurged without really thinking about it that much and got the sony srf-s83...i just have one thing to say to fixup:
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR RECOMMENDING THIS RADIO!!!
this little thing is absolutely awesome! it's reception is unlike anything i've ever heard from a radio this small. It's sensitivity literally rivals that of my pioneer reciever's tuner. I posted earlier that i was wondering if it could pick up a seattle radio station that i like. IT CAN. This is the only radio besides my at home reciever that can pick up this station on any floor in my house. I am beaming with joy!
The sound on this thing is also pretty good, albeit the bass boost is typical sony crap. aside from that, it has good sound, although with my modded sony ex70's it is a little hissy since i use those at such a low volume. With other headphones that require more volume, like my grado 60's, i dont have a problem with hiss.
As fixup says in his article on his site, using 3 gears for the tuner thing does get a little annoying. when you tune it to a faint station, and then let go of the dial, it rolls just a little off, sometimes upsetting the signal. Also, the numbers that correspond to where a station is on the display are a little off, making it harder to find stations by just using the display.
All in all its a pretty good unit. I think i got mine for a good deal as well. It was a demo model, alright aside from some minor scratches and missing the battery cover. I paid $50 canadian for it, plus he gave my a 2 pack of AAA batteries for free. For comparison, the m35 and srf-s84 were both $70 at the store.
I did compare the 83 to the 84, and i think the 83 is better. the 84 just had a little bit of hollowness to the sound, and even without the mega bass it was quite boomy.
Now its time to phone up the local sony building...see if i can get a replacement battery cover...
cheers to fixup!!!
btw LTUCCI1924: you seem to have a lot of good things to say about that sangean...just to let you know that i would have gotten that if they sold it in canada....shipping to canada from the states is always a pain...