SonyICF-506 Analog Tuning Portable FM/AM Radio, Black, 2.14 lb

Compact with good sound

I needed a new radio that would pick up with an antenna sitting on my kitchen bar counter away from my front window. It does fine. I also like the way the on-off switch slides easily. I don’t change frequencies, but could easily. Really like Sony products!

Yup yup yup should have got the Sony the first time. Ordered some no name brand I was being cheap and cheap is what I got. This Sony is the bomb picking up so many radio stations so clear. When you first start using this Sony plug it in play with the stations for awhile and after a few times using it more stations will come in watch the red dot at the bottom at you tune it slowly. Sony is still the number one brand always get quality!

Seems to be another good product put out by Sony. The AC cord is heavy duty which I really like. Reception on a.m. is standard over all it's a good product

The radio works well and seems reliable. It maintains being tuned to the station.

Great

The Sony ICF-506 is my first AM/FM radio of this size. Its not large but its a nice size, the main thing is that for $45 your getting a very solid radio! It has a very sensitive tuner, good clear and rich audio and excellent build quality!Tuning this radio is a little different compared to traditional analog radios. This radio uses some sort of digital tuner however since its tied to an analog dial you can kinda fine tune the reception. The reception comes in "steps" you'll hear very quick pauses in audio as the tuner goes from station to station. This took me all of a few seconds to get used to. This radio picks up allot of stations that my clock radio for example can't pickup. Both AM and FM come in very clear. Its actually very easy to tune this radio and lock in on a station. If you have the ability to fine tune the dial then you'll be able to bring in even more stations.Audio quality is pretty good. Mid and high tones are clear and crisp with lows being clear for vocals but bass isn't going to have any force behind it. You'll hear lows but your not buying a radio like this to blast.Build quality is really good. All the parts fit together perfectly and the handle locks into place with a nice soft click. The knobs turn smoothly and battery door is hinged.Some people complain about the price of this radio and I have to laugh at that. If this radio had any of the features that older radios had from a name brand company like Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba, Hitachi ex you'd be paying allot more. Allot of companies today make pure junk with lots of features to entice people. Sony on the other hand has a reputation to keep so instead of including filler, they just use good quality parts which will last for years or decades.If your in the market for a good radio then be sure pick one of these up! You won't be disappointed. I also have the small ICF-P36 its also a great radio with a more traditional analog tuner. Its a "radio on a chip" meaning everything except the capacitors is on a single IC. P36 has a pretty sensitive tuner as well. Its able to get most of the local stations by me. Its also very high quality product. Overall you can't go wrong with these radios. I'm happy that Sony still makes products like this, I for one enjoy listening to the radio and by the looks of things allot of other people do to.Update so Ive this radio long enough to leave more feedback. I have a few vintage radios from the late 60's and early 1980's. This Sony ICF-506 out performs all of them on both AM and FM reception. It also sounds clearer then all of them on FM. However on AM its like the radios tone automatically switches to a lower tone which isn't always wanted, for talk radio a lower tone is prefured but some stations still broadcast music over AM so it would be nice to have a tone switch or dial like my old radios have. Battery life is also pretty good to, Way longer then 35 hours it's rated for. Its more like 50+ hours which is about the same as say my old Panasonic RF-775 or RF-930, overall this is a very solid purchase for anyone wanted a modern Analog radio. This Sony does everything I want it to do while sounding very good in the process.

I wanted to get a good radio: one that has good tuning reception and good sound quality. I had a sony back in the 80s which was metal, had a good speaker, and excellent reception. I was expecting similar. Instead the reception was fairly weak for stations I know should be coming in and the sound was meh. I guess people just dont invest in decent radios anymore.