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Reviews For: SONY CRF-330K

Category: Receivers: General Coverage

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Review Summary For : SONY CRF-330K
Reviews: 1MSRP: 2700
Description:
Large 1970's Multiband with recorder
Product is not in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0015
DAROBIN Rating: 2003-09-08
Fantastic! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
In the 1970's, SONY and PANASONIC battled it out (at least for those who could afford the purchase prices) with huge multiband receivers. SONY's offerings were the CRF-320 and CRF-330K.

Both were marvels of design for the time -- digital readout, complex analog as well, and great sound, and well, what a look! They looked like battle tanks of 1970's design.

But the 330K always had many people salivating. It featured a full SONY design cassette recorder in a pull-out tray below the speaker. What an innovation for the time, and one that SONY didn't put back into a receiver until the 1000T portable in the 1990's.

The recorder, by the way, can be set and linked to the digital clock which turns the receiver on. And it features a toggle for personal memos to be added to the recording!

Many have commented about the faults of these wonderful receivers -- the 320 and 330 suffer from nylon gears that can be easily broken leaving the tuning mechanism all but useless. Also, some of the electronics used in the series had a tendency to go out, leaving one without the last three digits of the LED readout.

Whatever -- the 330K still fetches huge numbers on Ebay. It's a collector's radio and should be in a radio museum along with the famous boatanchors we all know and love.

Also -- performance. With its manual preselector peak tuning knob, the 330K is as sensitive as almost anything else I own. Add the recorder, and ability to tune FM and LW, and you have one heck of a radio.