am-fm

I have had this radio for over a year, and I like it a lot. But it did have the problem described in an earlier review, in that the LCD display failed after a year and the radio became unusable. Sangean USA replaced the radio even though it was out of warranty, which was great, but was also a indication that the radio has a recurrent problem. I am planning to buy another one, but wanted to assure that the problem would not recur. I emailed Sangean, and they acknowledged the problem in earlier production units. They say it has been fixed for later production units, so according to Sangean the design problem has been resolved.

This radio looks great. I really liked the style. However, that's about all I really liked. Another reviewer compared the sound to the Bose Wave radio. Either they've never heard the Bose or they were just really happy with the price comparison. At high volumes the radio sounds ok but at lower volumes it sounds like it play from inside a cardboard box. I could live with that but my real disappointment was with the tuning. I live in the mountains where radio reception is difficult. Usually "PLL Synthesized Digital Tuning for rock stable reception of AM/FM" is exactly that. In this radio the tuning is stable but the reception was worse than other cheap dial tuning radios that I own. Often raising the antenna made the reception even worse. I really wanted to like this radio but it's just lacking in too many areas. The clock vs frequency display feature is another really bad idea.

This radio is solid. The controls feel precise. The 1960-retro vertical styling makes it unusually handy to carry around as a portable. It has sound quality at least as good as any mono portable radio I've ever heard, and it provides stereo FM although, of course, only when you use headphones.

Unusually, it also has selectivity and sensitivity to match its other strengths. It picks up weak and distant stations as it should (and as most radios unfortunately don't), making it useful in rural areas, while camping, and so on. It might not be quite as good as the GE Superadio III in this regard, but it's close, has some good features the GE doesn't, and it tunes much more easily. On the other hand, if you're REALLY out in the boonies, external antennas can help you catch the weakest signals; and while the GE has terminals for both AM and FM external antennas, the Q Radio has AM antenna jacks only.

This is a radio with a clock, not a clock radio. If you want to use it as a clock radio only, its display will disappoint you; it is angled upward, making it hard to see when it's at eye level as on a bedside table, and it can't show the radio frequency and the time at once. However, it does sound far better than any clock radio I've ever had. In special circumstances, the fact that the Q Radio will still wake you on time even if power fails, or is not available at all, may lead you to prefer it to the more usual clock radios.

Although easy to operate, many of its controls have multiple functions. This can be slightly confusing at first. However, they're pretty thoroughly labeled, so you shouldn't have any trouble figuring them out.