Kaito KA200S Pocket AM FM Radio Gray

First it is NOT an iPod, it is lo-tech and not designed for hi-fi, everyday use, etc. etc. It is small, decently built, fairly good reception and in my opinion perfectly suited for the glovebox, go-bag, backpacking [ultralight], disaster pack etc. If it breaks boo-hoo, it is only $12, it takes AAA x2 which is ok since I already have them in recharagables for our 2way radios. A single A battery would be obviously better. I also have the slightly larger Sony which is also a great unit that I also reviewed last year. It is an inexpensive way to be able to get news, weather etc. in an emergency when your smarty-phone looses a signal. It is also a good first-radio for youngsters to see if they are responsible enough to take care of something. One day someone will get clever and put a rubber-whip type antenna on an inexpensive radio like this, I've looked and have yet to find one. I plan on taking this one on the trails and camp trips this year and will post the results. We frequently take our small Sony to the preserves for day-packs to listen to music while having a picknic break. 3/22/13 UPDATE: I gave this one to my 9 year old who is my ranger-buddy in the field. He carries this one in an old digital camera zipper case we already had. I taught him the proper way to raise/lower the antenna and it is still fine. Reception in the field is decent. I will often ask him to find a news/weather station on am before we turn in for the night and it pulls am great. fm depends on your location but is not too bad. It is so small/light it barely adds any weight to his pack. Read more

Great radio with good reception. This is my second one, the first is the silver version, this one is grey. The frequency marking on the dial match up with the indicator much better on this one, the silver one is off by a good bit. Sound is clear given the size of the speaker, but this works better for voice broadcasts better than music. Runs a long time on the 2 batteries and has been vey handy so far because it is small and easy to take along. Read more

Very impressed with this radio. I was looking for a compact radio to put in my pocket for taking walks. I have a Sony Pocket AM/FM Radio - ICF-S10MK2, but it is a little bulky for the pocket and it only gives audio in one ear with headphones. It is a very good radio, with good reception and nice sound, but I wanted something smaller. So I purchased the Kaito. It is much much small (you can see the two compared in a user photo that is currently on the amazon page). It disappears in your pocket and is practically weightless. The audio through the headphones is excellent--much richer and clearer than the Sony--and it is both ears (although one side is louder than the other, still this is better than mono). The tuner knob has a lot of friction and is unlikely to get jostled in your pocket (an improvement over the Sony). The volume knob is on top of the unit so less likely to rub against the side of a pocket. The radio is somewhat cheap looking but the black case actually looks a little cooler in person than it does in photos, so not a total loss aesthetically. Still, it does look like a prize you would trade in your skee-ball tickets for. The Sony has better sound when you are listening to the built in speaker, so if that is your primary use, I would go with the Sony. However, Kaito actually has quite good sound for its size. I was quite impressed. It is loud and clear, just less bassy. So despite the no-name brand (who's ever heard of Kaito?) and its cheap appearance, this turns out to be an excellent portable radio. Read more

This is a SMALL radio, about the size of a deck of cards. My kids each wanted a small personal radio, usable with both earphones, and an external speaker, and one wound up getting this one, the other the Sony ICF-S10MK2. If you want the smallest radio you can find, that still works decently, this is the one to get, IMO. It uses easy to find AAA batteries, and the battery door is captive, meaning that you unlatch it, and it hinges open, still attached to the radio, where it won't get lost (a plus for a kid's radio). Sound quality is surprisingly good for such a tiny thing, and the controls work well. The FM antenna pulls straight up, and does not swivel, but seems sturdy for a radio in this price point. I especially like the precise volume control, which lets even a kid get it 'just right', so they can hear it without it being too loud. The Sony I mentioned will put out more volume, but the volume control is kind of touchy at the lower settings, making it hard to set a precise volume at a low level. By this, I mean quiet enough to not disturb the other child in the same room. The Kaito, however can be precisely set from a whisper, to a pretty fair volume (loud enough for any personal use I can think of, but not at all what you would use to fill a room with sound). This would be a great radio to drop in your pocket to take to ball games, or similar, as it is so small you'd hardly know it was there. Tuning is good, but not stellar. Again, it amazes me how well it works for being so tiny, and at such a low cost, but don't expect full-size radio performance. It catches local stations well, but distant stations tend to get drowned out by a strong station bleeding over, if it is close to the same frequency, but not too bad. In fact, I would have considered the tuner to be great or even borderline excellent for a small radio if not for the aforementioned Sony. It has to have about as good of a tuner as I have, in any radio, in both AM, and FM. Don't get me wrong, the Kaito isn't bad, it just isn't up to the level of the Sony. They both have a tuning indicator light, which glows when the radio catches a signal, and the stronger the signal, the brighter it glows. A nice touch, especially for kids going through the dial, trying to see what they can listen to. Both work well with headphones, send sound to both ears, but not in stereo. My quick verdict, buy this one where size is the most important factor (again, like a deck of cards). It seems well made, has precise volume control, and decent reception. It also has a more precise volume control. Buy the Sony, if you can live with a bigger radio (literally double the size, but still fairly small, about the size of the old 9V transistor radios from the 70s) but the tuner is superior, both in sensitivity to weak stations, as well as the ability to hold a weaker station without hearing another station bleeding into it. Read more