On Wednesday, September 27, 2023 at 3:22:28 PM UTC-4, Bob F wrote:
> On 9/27/2023 11:05 AM, micky wrote:
> > In sci.electronics.repair, on Mon, 25 Sep 2023 10:38:13 +0100, Martin
> > Brown <'''newspam'''@nonad.co.uk> wrote:
> >
> >> On 22/09/2023 18:42, micky wrote:
> >>> I bought a $230 wifi radio that is impressive in many ways, but the
> >>> problem I have is that the sound sounds muffled
> >>>
> >>> Maybe it's okay for music. I haven't listened to much music, but for
> >>> talk it sounds muffled. Like literally they are talking through some
> >>> sort of muffle. I don't have this problem with 5 other table radios.
> >>>
> >>> Is the problem that there is too much bass? If not that, what?
> >>
> >> Possibly. Is there a reflex port on it somewhere?
> >
> > No. I don't think so.
> >
> >> 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.
> >
> > Interesting.
> >
> >>> It has equalizer settings so I changed from default and various kinds of
> >>> music to "talk". I didnt' hear any change.
> >>
> >> Depending on how badly their equalizer mangles the sound you might be on
> >> a no win battle with this thing.
> >
> > Well, here is the end of the first chapter:
> >
> > I'm still going to talk to the manufacturer about what equalizer
> > settings work best, or any physical improvement like changing the
> > speakers, or stuffing with foam,
> >
> > but two nights ago I bought a patch cable for the L & R Line OUts that
> > plugs into the AUX on the rdio above it, and now the sound is pretty
> > good, certainly good enough for me (who has a tin ear which is why it's
> > surprising this radio wasn't good enough for me.) The cable merges L &
> > R so even though I paid extra for stereo speakers, it's monaural.
> >
> > In addition, this means I can leave the internet radio on all night,
> > with the sound turned down to zero, and use the Sleep function of the
> > second radio, so it will turn off after an hour or two. On the
> > internet radio, the Sleep function** disables almost all the controls
> > and doesn't let me watch the name of the songs being played or see the
> > graphic that comes with each station or each song. That's just
> > entertaining enough to keep my attention but not enough to keep me
> > awake. **It just displays the time, which is boring.
> >
> > The second radio, the Sangean WR-22, has very little tone control, but I
> > pressed a button my mistake and found that 3 years ago when I got it, I
> > had set the bass to -3 and the treble to +1. Simple, small changes, and
> > I've been happy with that.
> >
> >
> > Back to the internet radio using its own speakers, I've only played a
> > few songs. The music is probably okay, but the lyrics are muffled,
> > muddled, or muddy. So even they are better through the other radio.
> >
> > I know I'm not following the advice of people who said to send it back
> > but I didn't find a better replacement, also with presets. Maybe there
> > is one but I'm tired of looking.
> >
> > Thanks all. I couldn't have done it withou' you.
> It still sounds like the "radio" is seriously defective or a piece of
> junk, that you are kludging to make it "usable". I would send it back in
> a moment.

Exactly!!! Send it back and get a new one. With all this dancing around with various connection configurations (some of which raise more questions than answers), you could have been enjoying another radio or found a better alternative.
If you send it back, the supplier will never tell you what 'problems' the device had. Their easy soln is to send you a new one. I suggest making some sort of mark on the original unit (in a very inconspicuous place) so you can determine if they sent the original radio back to you or a different unit. (I've personally experienced this).

IMHO, trying to connect the audio to an external speaker via BT is a crap shoot. A lot of BT devices have lousy implementations....won't pair with some devices, spins forever when attempting to make a connection, dropped connections, the reconnect feature doesn't work, lossy audio, etc.
If I am troubleshooting an audio problem, nothing beats a hardwired connection.

I am watching this conversation with increasing sadness, consternation and amazement. As a collector of things-radio for a very long time, I have examples from 1919 through 2007, including coffin-box home-brews to $5.99 WalMart hand-held portables (by the washer/dryer for my wife to use). Gems include a Zenith shutter/robot dial, a Grundig Satellit 700, & YB-500, GE super-radio and others. Countries-of-origin include Czechoslovakia, Turkey (!), Russia, Portugal, France, England, Russia, Germany, US, China, Japan and others.

Given that I have sufficient grounds for comparison - anything that sounded "muffled", especially purchased new, would be unceremoniously returned to the seller without delay. Life is simply too short for that noise.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA