Sony SRF-M97 vs. Sony SRF-S84
After getting the new (to me) Sony SRF-M97 the first test was a comparison with the Sony SRF-S84 which is considered among the best pocket FM receivers by those that have tried it.
As much as I hoped the SRF-M97 would be the digital equivalent of the SRF-S84 it wasn’t. It is not nearly as sensitive or selective as the SRF-S84 and the fidelity is not as good either. It is an ok radio, but simply not as good as the SRF-S84.
There was a Sangean DT-200V there so I compared it to them as well. The reception characteristics of the Sangean was on par with the SRF-S84 both picking up distant weak stations at almost the same quality but the Sony had far better fidelity making it the easy choice for listening to music. Both radios are helped by the ability to select mono as well.
Clearly the Sony SRF-M97 is not up to the reception level of the Sony SRF-S84 or the Sangean DT-200V but between the S84 and the DT-200V I would select the S84 for listening to music and the DT-200V for listening to talk radio or sports.
One clear winner in the test was the Sennheiser PX-100 headphones which actually allowed us to hear stations that couldn’t be heard with the same radio using the included earbuds. The headphones are used as the FM antenna so apparently the longer cord helps reception.
