Cool Radio, but an Awful Shortwave Radio
932702
This is a nice radio. Cool design and nice to keep on your desk and use to listen to FM or AM radio stations. That's why I'm giving it two stars - because of design. If it wasn't for the the design, I wouldn't give it more than one star. The reason being that I expect a product (especially a Grundig product) marketed as a shortwave radio to actually be able to pick up some shortwave radio stations. I have had this piece for 3-4 years now, and I have still not been able to make it pick up a single shortwave radio station successfully. There are about three stations it finds, but barely. The signal it picks up is so weak one can't hear a single word. If you like a nice piece of very well designed radio to keep on your desk or nightstand, buy it. If you're looking for a shortwave radio, look somewhere else.
13187
Not surprising this has the same 2, (IC) chips as other Quantum model radios, this model opted to eliminate the problem with harmonics on SW by breaking the frequency coverage into two wide bands, I actually received a few signals although I could hear the ticking of the atomic clock signal at 10 Mhz, I could not narrow down the signal to actually hear the top of the minute tone, but other signals did tend to fade in and out, but given the scarcity of components, it's amazing that I received anything for the money I paid.

You do have to put up with a lot of white noise while searching for signals on SW.

There is very little selectivity as there is only one IF coil and it doesn't seem to do much of anything as the other model I bought of a Quantum radio had zero IF coils so no selectivity, especially when I tried to tune to 50Kw stations 20 Khz apart, (1070/1090) on AM.

FM has no selectivity either and towards the end of the dial, (108 Mhz) the stations tend to overlap and it resembles annoying harmonics.

It resembles a Sony radio, radio buffs know which model I'm referring to, but obviously this is no Sony when it comes to performance, it has a power on LED, this doesn't do anything but let you know it's on.

The tuning was off a little but I compensated a few gear clicks when I opened it up to see what the circuit looks like. The volume control is very touchy, you can't move it far without blasting yourself, it has a 3 watt speaker, so with the 3 D battery basic power, according to the data sheet on the TDA2822M audio chip, it can be configured in stereo or bridge, but the sheet says 1.4 watts max, that sounds about right for this radio because you usually use a speaker rated for twice the power you're putting into it.

I had to glue the frequency window back on as it fell off when I took it out of the box, not a big deal for me, but for other people it's likely a red flag.

Other than the lack of selectivity, this is still a pretty sharp looking radio that plays very loud, it comes with a detachable power cord so if you don't like using batteries, there's always house current, it's rated for 120VAC.

I'd probably rate it higher if it had a few IF coils and some selectivity, shipped very fast from Fresno, I got mine in less than 2 days via UPS.
2061805
Radio has nice features but the audio quality is trash. This radio is good for people who don't care how the music sounds
608225
Ended up donating it.  When I got tuned into a station, it was fine.  When I was tuning it, however, it made loud noises.  This scared the kittens into running away from it and me.  If the tuner was better, the design of it was nice, and I was able to pick up one shortwave station while browsing in an urban environment, so that is pretty cool.
3414854
This radio is the most sensitive weather radio I've ever used.  It pulls in weak signals with ease and has great audio quality.
However...
Its controls are needlessly complex and non-intuitive.  For example, to change the channel you don't just press the "channel" button -- you press and hold the channel button for two seconds, wait for an indicator to flash, then press the up-down buttons to select the desired channel.
Overall highly recommended, but it's imperative to read the instruction manual carefully in order to accomplish even the simplest operations. (Like turing the radio on and off!)
152140
I thought I had found the radio time-shifting product I have wanted for years. The design is great, the software is easy to use, the interface to iTunes is excellent, but without decent reception it all for naught. I have a number of inexpensive radios (clock radios, "walkman" types, table radios, etc.) in my home. All of them, except the RadioShark get good reception from a number of local stations. Unfortunately, my RadioShark is plagued by horrid interference that seems to be coming via the apparently unshielded USB cable. There is no facility for an external antenna. Supposedly, you can orient the RadioShark to get acceptable reception. I have not been sucessful. Once or twice I thought I had been successful in getting decent reception. However, when I subsequently listened to the recording, it was intermittenly unlistenable. Very disappointing..
2630048
If you pine for the good old days of analog slide-rule tuning in an AC/DC powered AM/FM portable, this radio has you covered. Just like the good old days, the tuning needle is not very accurate; tuning in a station requires a bit of guesswork (can be particularly challenging on AM where many stations carry the same syndicated programming).

AM receiver performance is good; just like the good old days, the IF selectivity is rather soft so listening to a weaker station adjacent to a stronger one can be difficult. I detected 10KHz tweet in some cases, just like the good old days. I also detected a few spurious whistles on stations not explained by tweet. The wide AM mode actually sounds pretty good on local strong AM stations.

FM performance was reasonable, though audio quality was never great even on local FM stations.

The large speaker and cabinet give good bass response and treble was reasonable but never very pleasant.

If you're looking for an AM/FM portable in the same price range, the Sangean PR-D5 is far superior is almost every way. The Super Radio 3 does have better treble response on AM reception.
795178
Received this radio this last week. Shipped in a timely manner; i have prime acct. The radio is super small, this i like. Powered up, and was able to figure out how to navigate menu option section. I set it up for a 2M , as well as 440 repeater using menu options for offsets, and PL tones. Very similar to menu options on my Baofeng UV-5 radio.

The buttons on microphone do not seem to work reliably. I have to coerce, press, fiddle with what seems like all buttons, on the radio head BEFORE it will acknowledge/allow any of the buttons on the microphone. This is very frustrating; maybe mine is defective. I'm not sure what my turnaround time is to send it back, but i am considering doing this. Everytime I power cycle the radio, i have to go through this sequence before the radio will give me mic-pushbutton capability; did i mention very frustrating?

The programming cable that comes with this radio is a Gem. I plugged into windows 7 computer, and was able to read/write to radio. I also was able to cut/paste my entire UV-5R channels (~110 memory) from a file on my computer and upload to this radio using CHIRP. BIGTIME PLUS ++ in my book for ease of use on programming via software. goto Miklor.com for good info on this radio as well as other radios.

I also tried the FUNC(tion) reset on menu options and still no changes to the buttons on microphone.
1715850
I absolutely hate this radio. Besides the fact that it sometimes recognizes my USB devices, and other times not, this is the worst designed radio I have ever experienced. It takes an deep look into the instruction manual in order to figure out even the most basic things. Try to tun off? Keep guessing. Try to set the radio presets? Nope, keep guessing. Try to set the time and date. You get the idea. Whoever designed this machine but really hate people.
4232950
The tuner is a little weak, can't pick up my favorite station. other than that, the shortwave works pretty well, as do the am and majority of fm stations. Overall the sound quality is pretty good too
788140
I would like to give this radio less than one star. I like to switch easily from one radio station to the next. Without pushbuttons, this radio is a disaster. First, you have to press a small button (about 1/4") for the list of preset stations to come on. A second later, the list comes up. Then you have to turn the knob to find the new station you want. Then you have to press the knob to select the station. Try doing that in the winter with gloves on.

I expect this radio will kill some distracted driver just trying to change stations from 101.3 to 104.7. The display is difficult to read in bright sunlight, and that makes changing stations even more difficult. If you are not looking directly at the radio display while changing stations (actually watching the road while driving), you are likely to get lost in some other menu and are stuck with either no sound, or listening to a station you cannot stand.

If you never plan to switch radio stations while driving, this may be an okay radio. But for me, this radio is a disaster. I also want to say the instructions are so poorly written that trying to figure out how to use the radio is daunting. Plan on spending several hours to practice the most basic functions.
1766178
Great Radio, but buttons are not lit and channel changing buttons are in weird location. Scan mode is useless unless squelch is turned up all the way but with that you don't get weak transmissions. Cigarette lighter power plug has weak connections and constantly jumping out due to short coil cord. Battery cases are made of cheap plastic and seem fragile.
1226301
I'm a long time radio user.  I bought this radio because I wanted to be able to tune in relatively distant radio stations.  This radio does a lousy job.  I have an older hand-held radio - actually another Sony, model ICF-S10MK2 - with a broken antenna, and it does a better job of grabbing distant radio stations than this new, supposedly better Sony!  What a disappointment.  I'm sending it back.  One other issue I noticed before packing up to ship it back - on the FM side, strong radio stations bleed in over a much-too-large frequency range, and weaker signals get drowned out.  If you just want a basic radio to sit on a counter top and tune in strong, local stations, this radio would be OK.
4516043
I have an extensive collection of radios, small, medium, large, analog,and digital. This radio is without a doubt the worst of the lot. The reception is so poor,it barely qualifies as a radio. I gave it away, but probably should have thrown it away to save the new owner the trouble.
3113821
I bought this radio because I wanted to try out the long wave band and the AM, FM and shortwave bands.  The others perform ok, but longwave band is very poor, it would not receive any NDB's or weak transatlantic LW broadcast from overseas even with a loop antenna.  The radio does well with receiving local AM and FM broadcasts but overloads bad on FM.  The AM band does OK with receving semi local and distant AM stations at night.  The shortwave band only picks up a few shortwave stations in the daytime and is ok receiving shortwave stations at night with some intermod from a local FM station.  You need a long wire antenna for indoors witha telescoping rod connector.  The radio is ok for beginners and traveler's who visit places that require a paperweight throwaway radio.  Good for antenna experimenters still.

UPDATE : The radio would work with long wave if you supply a good tunable loop antenna that is bigger than 10 inches.  A ferrite loop antenna might work fine.  If  you are in Europe, North Africa or in Asia then you will receive many LW stations locally but with poor selectivity and at night you still would need a tunable loop antenna.  Now for the short wave bands, when I was trying to tune to 4840 kHz the radio was way off tuned verses the dial and needle set up.  It does well on SW, AM
and FM, but like I said the LW band needs more attention than using the radio by itself.  It can be a good radio for travel and for experimentation with different wire antennas and loop antennas.
1728392
The majority of reviewers gave this little radio high marks for AM reception quality, which was my primary criteria. So far, it's been disappointing. And I have one question -- who in the world designs an electronics device like this that you KNOW is going to be used significant amount just standing on a flat surface, and gives it a rounded bottom that forces you to lay it flat? Morons.
3252775
This went on my 2017 Harley Street Glide Special very easy and it is very low profile. The good is that it looks much better than the stock Antenna. The bad however is that reception on the radio is terrible. I got every station with the stock Antenna, with this I get only one of those stations. If you ride with your own music via Bluetooth or some other connected method this is fine. If you want to hear radio stations this Antenna will not be what you are looking for. It does look good - I attached images of what it looks like on.