A nice surprise
Written: Mar 22 '05 (Updated Mar 23 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Very inexpensive, digital readout, small size
Cons: At this price, none
The Bottom Line: Perfect for trips, backyards and students studying abroad
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| mikeak's Full Review: jWIN JX-M14 AM/FM/SW Radio |
The jWin JX-M14 is a pocket sized radio that features AM, FM and 7 shortwave bands. It retails for around $30. Amazingly, it can be had for around $10 with a little shopping.
The radio is in a stylish silver tone. The case has rounded corners and molded reliefs giving it a nice look. The front of the radio contains the speaker grill, LED lights for AM, FM and tuning, various controls and a digital readout. The antenna is fully positionable. Tuning and Volume are controlled by thin thumb wheels. On/Off is controlled by a little slide switch. There is also a jack for an adaptor (not provided) and an earphone (accepts a stereo plug, but delivers only mono). There is a little wrist strap and the back contains a flip-up tab to tilt the dial up when the radio is lying flat on its back.
Power: Power is provided by 2 AA cells which should last a long time. If desired, an aftermarket adaptor could be used, but is probably unnecessary.
Sound: The radio has a built in speaker and sound is consistent with a pocket radio. It is a bit better than the sound from a Grundig Mini 100 and a bit worse than a Sony S10MX2. The differences are small. This radio often comes with ear buds, but mine did not. Listening using an inexpensive Sony headset resulted in very pleasant audio (in mono).
Ergonomics are strange; many things operate in a fashion that is backwards from what you would expect. One annoying fact is that the radio always reverts back to FM when it is turned off. The thumbnail controls are thin and the tight tuning knob tends to dig into your thumb.
The radio also features a clock that seems to keep time reasonably well. The clock can also turn the radio on thereby turning the radio into a simple clock radio.
There are no other features such as a dial light, bandwidth control or memories.
Build seems to be a bit better than what I would expect. Quality control seems to be on par for a cheap radio.
Tuning is analog, but the display is digital (using a simple digital counter). The last digit is missing when tuning shortwave, so a station at 6.155 will appear as 6.15 or 6.16. This is still vastly better than a slide rule dial.
Reception:
Note: Reception was done at my home which is about 35 miles west of Chicago. I’m also a few miles away from a couple of local broadcasters.
MW (AM): MW reception was decent. The biggest problem was the jWin’s wider than normal selectivity. With that said it performed well for an inexpensive pocket radio, but not as well as the AM/FM Sony S10MK2. Local stations came in fine and I was able to log many stations from other states including: Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Texas and Colorado.
FM: FM was also decent. I was able to listen to most Chicago stations. Stations like WFMT at 98.7 came in loud and clear. WBEZ (NPR at 91.5) came in with some fiddling but I could hear another station softly at the same time. Here again the Sony did a better job, but I have definitely had pocket radios that did much worse.
SW: The radio tunes the 49, 41, 31,25, 22, 19 and 16 meter international bands. Strangely, it often cuts off the lower portion of the band and extends past the upper portion. Despite using a single conversion design the radio is reasonably free from extraneous noises such as birdies, dit-dahs and the like. You will hear images of shortwave stations, but they are not too objectionable. I didn’t hear a lot of bleed over from local MW and FM broadcasters into the shortwave bands, a surprising and welcome fact. The radio has enough of a dynamic range to allow the connection of 5-10 feet of wire (via alligator clip) to the whip antenna. This significantly increases the radios sensitivity to weak signals. In my radio it didn’t overload the radio. Selectively is what you would expect in such an inexpensive radio, but it is acceptable.
I was able to tune many shortwave stations (using 10’ of attached bell wire).
I heard numerous foreign language station and numerous religious/right wing stations. In two days of casual listening I was able to listen IN ENGLISH to stations from the following countries:
Sweden
England
Holland
Germany
Slovakia
Czech Republic
Russia
Israel
China
Taiwan
Japan
Thailand
New Zealand
Cuba
Canada
US
In the around $10 category there are not too many contenders. I personally know of the Coby 12 band and the Bell and Howell 9 band offerings. I can tell you that the jWin works better than either of these radios. The Grundig Mini World 100 is considered a good radio in the super cheap category. It retails for about $40 but it is often sold for $30. I wondered how this $10 radio would stack up. Listed below are the “wins” from each radio:
Grundig Mini 100:
- Wins at sorting out a weaker FM station next to a stronger FM station
- Wins at being able to receive FM stereo
- Wins with size (slightly smaller and lighter)
- Wins with a plastic belt clip on the back of the radio (dubious value)
jWin:
- Wins with digital frequency readout instead of analog
- Wins with more stable horizontal style
- Wins with fully adjustable telescopic antenna
- Wins with the addition of a digital clock
- Wins with the addition of a wake to radio function
- Wins with ability to pick up more MW (AM) stations
- Wins with ability to pick up more SW stations in a given band
- Wins with slightly better sound via the onboard speaker
- Wins with having a power adaptor jack
- Wins with visual indicators for bands, AM/FM and tuning
- Wins with separate on-off switch
- Wins with more shortwave bands (22 meters not on the Grundig)
- Wins with a street price that is 1/3 the price of the Grundig
- Wins with a tilt up bail on the back of the radio
Let’s face it, if you want a serious shortwave radio you have to pay the price. A nice starter is the Grundig S350 (street price $100). If you want a more sophisticated portable the Sony ICF-SW7600GR is quite nice (street price $170). Naturally, a high grade table top will cost thousands.
But there are times when a multi-band radio would be nice, but you don’t want to use an expensive piece of equipment. A trip to the beach or park would be one example. Camping also comes to mind. This radio would be great as a travel companion as it is small and it can also serve as a clock radio. At its throw away price it would also be great as a gift to a college student who is studying abroad (they can listen to the Voice of America to get the latest news). Solders in the Armed Forces would also find this radio handy. How about for a kid who has expressed an interest in radio (when they lose it, you won’t be too upset at $10).
Normally, I think of jWin products as being inexpensive, stylish but sub-par to terrible in performance. Despite its oddities, the JX-M14 does a fine job at an amazing price (if you shop around).
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
mikeak
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Member: Mike Kuna
Location: Wheaton, IL USA
Reviews written: 15
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
Living life as a peaceful adventure.
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