Review : Toshiba LE TY-SR55 Radio

A stereo radio TY-SR55 made by Toshiba LE Trading came to me. Let's check details of it.

Toshiba LE  TY-SR55

The TY-SR55 is an AM/FM stereo digital tuning radio with full range stereo speakers. It powers three "C" alkaline batteries and works up to 160 hours. Frequency range is 522-1620kHz with 9kHz step of AM and 76-108MHz with 100kHz step of FM. No RDS and DAB/DAB+ are built in because those are currently not available in Japan.

The size is 8.66"W x 4.72"H x 2.17"D. The weight is about 1.8lbs. The audio output is 1 watt of total with two stereo speakers which can be used in the noisy area. There has no bluetooth and no external audio input jack.

The TY-SR55 has not only a handle but also a shoulder belt. You can hang the TY-SR55 on the trees, poles and knobs on the doors to use.


The front panel places a LCD panel to display frequency, preset buttons and manual tuning +/- buttons.

No clock, alarm, sleep timer equipped with. The LCD has orange backlit. It turns on after you operate then, turns off in 10 seconds automatically when working with batteries. It must maintains on status while using supplied AC adapter by the specification however, it sometimes turned off in some conditions when I checked. This might be a minor bug.


There are two slide switches, power and band selector on the top.

It also has a stereo mini jack for phones and an external power input on the left,

and has a volume knob on the right. It turns right to maximize the volume.

Number of stages of the telescopic antenna is six. There is some clearance between the root and the second stage, which is rattling.

The battery cover is separated from the TY-SR55. We have to put in power when removing. In other words, it is hard to come off.

Stereo lamp turns on when you receive a stereo station. Leak of the light lets us read the LCD information in a dark place. Sound is clear, no distortion. Sensitivity achieves high level in the class of cheep radios like other DSP radios. Especially, sensitivity of the AM receiver is almost equal to SONY ICF-SW7600GR.




Next, we compare the TY-SR55 with a similar SONY SRF-A300 (discontinued) for appearances, audio quality, stereo separation, sensitivity and noise.

TY-SR55 and SRF-A300

Size of the SRF-A300 is bigger than that of TY-SR55. While the TY-SR55 is superior to the SRF-A300 for audio quality (bass and treble), sensitivity and S/N ratio, stereo separation which the TY-SR55 has is inferior to the SRF-A300. Even when stereo / mono switch on the SRF-A300 is set to mono, SNR of the TY-SR55 is still better.



Backlit illumination of the TY-SR55 exceeds SRF-A300. Tuning display on the SRF-A300 can faintly be read at dark night when the backlit turns on. Needles to say as to the TY-SR55 any more.

TY-SR55 and SRF-A300

This time we have checked details of the TY-SR55 and differences between other similar radio. The Toshiba LE TY-SR55 has high sensitivity, clear sound considering that it is in the cheep class though not better than many portable audio speakers over $100 such as XDR-V1BTD.

It has cheap appearances but lasts up to 6 days through day and night and has better performance than expected.

Conn. is supplied AC adapter. The AC adapter send out strong noise to TY-SR55 and AM band is filled with noise. Concern for noise is required when using the supplied AC adapter with the TY-SR55. The best way is to use batteries only or to listen FM radio stations only.

TY-SR55 radio

Other stereo portable radios with digital tuners, handle and shoulder belt are not found around Japanese market now. The TY-SR55 is a unique radio.