Sound on my new radio is muffled.

<snip>

Suggest you scroll through the various equalizer presets available, to see if a usable difference is noted. A factory default is offered.

It's possible that there's harness error/damage off the production floor.

Return it if not satisfied.

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.

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?

The PC is at the far end of the hall, and when in bed, I don't want to go there to change stations. With the regular radio, I change stations a lot. Sometimes back and forth and back and forth.

The phone could be by my bed, but in practice the phone is off unless I'm going somewhere. And then off again when I get home. I've used the phone for this sort of thing while travelling and in the car, and it's just not as easy as pushing a button

I may have let too much time go by. I'm over the month that Amazon gives, but I did it pretty much knowing there was nothing else I wanted. BTW, when I sent in my last suggestion for firmware improvement, I mentioned in passing that I haven't found CNN or MSNBC yet. She still volunteered that I could find CNN among the IHeart entries, by typing in, on the radio, CNN, and it worked. (I already quoted that she said MSNBC change their stream name frequently!)

I've sent in two suggestions, to delink the Sleep function from most of the other controls, and to add a Seek function.

I'm saving complaining about the sound for last, I'm not sure why. Maybe they'll like me because I've been so helpful (although why they didnt' think of Seek I do not know. Maybe they have.) I guess the worst would be moving it to the kitchen, where I don't mind if the sound is louder.

I'm looking at its webpage now. Very good, and free. Thanks.

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.

I'm trying to connect my wifi radio to a regular radio with bluetooth. The Grace wifi radio doesn't find the Sangrean wr-22, even though it has found my laptop, even though the laptop has never been on and closer than 40+ feet from the Wifi radio. And it later found something called [LG]webOSnnnnnnn which must be in my neighbor's house.

But not the Sangrean which only 12 inches above the Wifi.

Is there any chance Grace wifi radio knows how to find headphones, but not another wifi radio????

The owners manual only mentions headphones but I took that to be becuase that's the standard device and my problem was not foreseen. The Sangrean works fine when receiving audio from Alexa. Connects very easily and quickly.

I let it try for hours, but the Grace wifi never found the Sangrean.

If I can't connect by bluetooth, there is a Line Out on the Grace and a Aux In on the Sangrean. Both Stereo**. Are those of the same amplitude? Will that work? The Aux In says connect, for example, an iPod, MP3 or CD player. Are their outputs like Line Out would be?

There also a 3.5mm mini headphone jack on the sending radio. Would that be better than Line Out.

**Even though the Sangrean has only one speaker, it has a stereo Aux In jack. Do you think that means L and R are merged in the radio?

Or can I merge the left and right channels just by buying the right Y-cable? Is there a name for that?

I don't know. Mine have never fallen out.

OKay. I like that better because the jacks are in the back.

Even though the fidelity of $8 earbuds can't be that good, I tried them last night in the headphone jack, but they have a 2.5mm plug to fit a cell phone and it's a 3.5 mm jack. Plus it's TRRR instead of TRR, because of the mike it has. Iirc that is still supposed to work if the plug fit.

I guess I'm afraid they'll send me another one that's no better than this.

After I've gone to the work of shipping the first one back and putting the new one in its place, both of which would have been pretty easy 2 years ago but now seem like tiring acts.

Also I think it would be easier to get them to send a new one after I tell them how much effort I put in to get this one to work. This stuff doesn't seem tiring because it fulfills my curiosity too.

I hope so.

BTW, I remembered last night that I have another bluetooth radio, also by Sangean, in the bathroom, and I tried to pair it with the Grace radio this morning and it was easy. So I don't know why I can't pair the bedroom Sangean, especially since I can easily with Alexa, and I unplugged Alexa. It's not just that I can't pair it, the bedroom Sangrean doesn't even show up on the Grace wifi list of bluetooth sources.

That's great!

One of the questions I posed elswhere in this thread is whether, if I connected the stereo line in (or headphone jack) to the Aux input pf my Sangean wr-22, which only has one speaker, would the radio merge the L and R channels. Then I thought to ask on Amazon, on the page that sells that radio. And I already got two answers that both say Yes.

"Yes, it will. If you later add external powered stereo speakers, the output will be in stereo."

I only mention this in such detail because that answer was from Bob F. !!!!

For another subthread, I foudn the right cable and connected the headphone jack of the radio in question to the AUX in of the other radio. The sound stopped from the speakers but didnt' show up in the other radio. I'm sure I tested if I could play my phone that way and it worked for that.. Just checked again and it still does, the phone plays through AUX, but the radio headphone jack does not. Unlike the bluetooth thing which is inconsistent, this could be a clear problem with the headphone jack. (I'll try to find some headphones just to make sure. They're in a suitcase somewhere.)

[answer to your post below]

Good idea.

Yes, it comes set that way, and I've tried "talk" and I've tried various settings for custom. Since hearing people talk is the problem, I looked up what frequency we talk at and it is for the most part 80 - 250 Hz. That was the bass range that I had lessened. But when I turned it up it made it worse.

Harness error? What is that? Something that could be fixed?

I assumed I only had the month Amazon gives but your post and others inspired me to check and it has a 1 year Warranty. And I saved the box it was shipped in.

Still, I want to ask them if they have a solution, and before that, I still haven't gotten around to directly comparing the same station on both radios. Won't take that much time, just play C-span radio or WAMU on the PC which has an FM transmitter to the FM radio on the shelf above the radio in question. So I can go back and forth several times. Maybe I'll even come up with better words to describe the problem.

I'll write them about it this week but if I have a year, I can take another month.

And also, the bluetooth and ambient hearing amplifer by Malhear Technology I bought just under 2 months ago broke 3 days ago too. It has left and right microphones and the right stopped working. I've always been genlte with it, there's no apparent damage, and tapping on the little thing (that looks like in inline log) doesn't help. But their warranty is also one year.

Still, I'd have been happier to return something to Amazon, which last time credited me without looking at what I returned an hour after I dropped it in a bin at Whole Foods, than Malhear that I've never heard of. OTOH for the radio that is the theme of this thread, by Grace, they seem like a big, reliable company that makes a variety of fancy products, some of which wikip says without footnote got CES Innovations Awards. Goes bacfk to 2007 and actually based in San Diego.

I hate doing returns, even when it's easy, but if I must, maybe I must.

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

micky snipped-for-privacy@fmguy.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

I've used hearig aids for years. The central bands where human speach is are not coming through. Definitely visit an audiologist to verify what needs to be fixed. They will have a variety of brands. I've used aids that were covered by insurance. Very litte out of pocket. You will initially visit the audiologist every few weeks as you report what works for you and what does not. They can tune them to correct most problems. I have four channels, but moslty prefer my 'music' setting as I prefer to hear background noise. I don't sleep with mine but some people can. My audiologist checks out my aids every 6 months or so for the full warranty. It is well worth it if your hearing changes or you find situations where you cannot hear right and need adjustments.

Good luck,

David

Possibly. Is there a reflex port on it somewhere? 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.

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

On the web, I see that a little attachment, Resound calls a "sports lock", can be attached which is supposed to keep the hearing aid in place during physical activity. They appear to be only about $13 (US) per pair. Can't vouch for their comfort, ease of use, or effectiveness.

Only £9.99 for a pack of 10! But I'd have to get some Pounds somewhere.

"They rest in your concha bowl...." I'm not even sure I have a concha bowl. My mother had all that stuff, finger bowls, punch bowl, soup bowls. When she moved to an apartment, she got rid of a lot of stuff. I'll check if she left me one or two.

Very valuable info here. Thanks. I talked to a guy at a meeting on Sunday who had Jabra. I know there are better than this, and I think I have good insurance, but what impressed me is that the "behind the ear" was much better than what I used to see pictures of in 1964. Surprise! Only 50 years later and they're better. The behind part was smaller, the tube into the ear was smaller, and probbably longer, and the thing in the ear was probably small enough that it wouldn't bother me and you can still hear the actual sound.

Despite my joking with you, Retirednoguilt, I am serious. Your post was very encouraging. (I think I had in mind the ones that looked like little acorns and the whole things was stuffed in ones ear, like an iPod or earbud.)

Th

I'll let my mother know. BTW, I don't have the thing that Cindy's husband has, the Ventura? notch, so maybe I don't have this.

See:

I take it back, I do have that. Thank you for your patience.