HDR-18

I had an older Boston Acoustics Receptor radio which worked fairly well for an FM radio with good sound and questionable reception even with well rated antennas (I tried a bunch). I also listen to various sports and talk shows on AM and with an excellent AM antenna I received good reception on the BA but the signal would tend to fade at night and require a lot of adjustment. I was very interested in this radio as it appeared it would be an improvement in each of these categories and would provide HD radio which I enjoy in my car. On this radio, even with the internal antenna I was receiving remarkably better reception over the BA Receptor or any of my other AV receivers, radios or tuners. It is as good as the car HD radio which is remarkable. I do have a HDT-20 with a good AV receiver which also gets good reception but nothing like this one. I am using an external AM antenna (Terk Indoor AM Antenna Advantage) and the FM antenna that came with the set but may mess around with another of my antennas to see if I can do any better. The FM stations lock in and without fade. The AM reception is better but I continue to have some fade at night likely due to the nature of that broadcast signal. The mono speaker sounds great and I also have a small set of two Bose speakers I have plugged into the output that I use at times if I want more from the sound. For the most part the mono speaker is fine with me. This radio has checked most all the boxes I needed to serve the multiple purposes I hoped it would work for. I haven’t gotten to the alarm yet but will only use it sparingly. The remote works well and it was easy to program the stations. The one good problem is that I found more HD and FM stations than I have presets. An updated model should have more FM presets but this is not nearly a dealbreaker for me. Display and location of the controls, buttons and inputs / outputs are not an issue for me although the blue power button light at night could be much less strong. I think many other reviewers feel the same on that. They controls / buttons are mostly intuitive and work for me without any particular issues. Looks good, too. This is as good as I could get for the price for an over the air radio. Very satisfied customer. Others might want to explore an internet radio, particularly if you want out of town stations that are out of range.

Sangean is offering a very good quality radio in a market that had seemed to be all but gone in the last couple of years: home table radios combined with HD Radio technology. This one is a winner in my book. Sangean has made its name manufacturing good quality portable radios in South Korea. Once only known as a maker of AM products, it is now developing good portables for FM as well. I am particularly encouraged they have committed to supporting HD Radio which will likely be the future of FM radio as its deployment grows. HD Radio has been a slow deployment technology for a number of reasons, mostly due to a "let the marketplace come up with the money and technology to upgrade radios "attitude that reflected deep political influence by companies that were gunning to take over radio's lucrative advertising market. It was first rolled out in 2004 with preliminary equipment at the radio station level, reaching perhaps 10% of radios stations concentrated in the major markets. Initial rollouts included just the basics of this digital broadcasting technique, although the many obvious advantages that are achieved by conversion are now much more widely available. These include extra channels, known as HD2 or HD3 streams, which allow radio stations to supplement their offerings, higher power levels which improve the full-quieting range of FM radio to about 20% more than analog, greater station metadata capabilities than aging RDS systems, and the latest trick of allowing full color graphics to be broadcast to the radio dial, known as Artists Experience. I am a radio fan and spend many hours every day listening either in my car or my kitchen to both news and music programming. While I am generally able to find HD Radio capable receivers in cars (the majority of cars sold in the US now include HD-capable radios) I have missed the kitchen table radio experience. No, I'm not one of those that wants to be tracked by Amazon, etc, every time I listen to a web stream with terrible audio quality via one of those loss-leading Alexa-type products. No thank you to that. The Sangean HDR-18 does a fine job with providing radio streams (which is what most listeners use in their homes) without the spyware. I am currently using it in the Tampa area to listen to my favorite radio signals, including one that recently lost its main channel license and has been re-created as an HD-2 only format. Reception is excellent with over 40 signals receivable in a multitude of formats using the internal antenna that is included in the case. The radio comes with its own 3 foot telescoping antenna, but I find the reception is better on the internal one. No more snaggly wires taped to the windows! This is a radio that works well without them (kind of like what we all learned to expect from our cell phones). The only quibble I have this radio is that it does NOT come with Artists Experience which is widely deployed down here in Tampa to show off album art or other graphics. My guess is displays capable of doing multi-color graphics are in short supply due to the disruption in China/Asian manufacturing and available supplies of this kind of display were all routed to the automobile industry. Even so, this is a great radio for those who like the free audio programs and want high fidelity sound in a small package for something like a kitchen, home office, or even as part of a den/reading room. It works! And for now this is doing a great job until I can get my hands on something with AE. Keep up the good work Sangean! ML

The short summary is: If you don't have up-to-date HD FM with 6-lines of RDS information display, you want fast switching between more perfectly tuned stations than you thought possible, and can accept the fact that its high-quality mono speaker sounds really good, buy this HDR-18! If you must have true stereo all the way to the speakers, and whatever level of audio excellence you like, get the Sangean HDT-20 tuner and connect it to your audio system, because as far as I can tell, it has the same superb tuner, display, and features as this HDR-18. If you want great interactive FM listening, because no single station always plays what you want to hear, but not necessarily the perfect bedroom clock-radio, the HDR-18 is more like the most-excellent kitchen radio. If you want your favorite music in the bedroom, you probably want to be pressing some different kind of buttons than the hard-to-read buttons on this radio, and the display is lighted-background with dark lettering, so if it doesn't keep you awake at night in the bedroom, I'm guessing your partner will want to dim it to the point of not being able to read the clock. I use this HDR-18 in the kitchen, where I want quick station-switching between lots of stations and detailed RDS display at a glance, and I absolutely love it! It doesn't get my favorite AM station, and only gets 1 HD AM station I don't like, but that HD AM station has perfect reception, so maybe there is hope for better AM stations in the future. I connected an external AM loop, and I suspect maybe if I installed a good Ground wire, maybe the HDR-18 could get my favorite AM station, but I use my old Portable Sangean PR-D5 for that, and I found a particular spot in my house where that station comes in well. The included FM telescoping rod antenna might get you the stations you want, but you may want to do some work removing it with a 7/16 open-end wrench and replacing it with the Amazon-recommended F-connector-wire-Dipole antenna, mounting it high and away from where you are, and fussing with the exact placement of the connecting wire in order to achieve the stellar reception I did, but Wow it was worth it! I also discovered that connecting a well-made 3.5mm audio cable to the Aux-in jack and coiling it up near the radio allowed fine-tuning the reception by slightly tweaking it's position and coil diameter; this locked-in my favorite weak FM station without losing any other stations. Even an inch difference in the placement of that cable makes a difference, but once set, you don't need to move it again. I'm only giving the HDR-18 4 stars, because plenty of improvements are possible, but where it really counts, the reception, display information, and sound quality are so outstanding you should definitely ignore the fact that it only has a mono speaker, because this mono speaker is so good, it doesn't matter much. If you think about it, unless you want a way bigger and more expensive cabinet, it's a choice between having a larger mono speaker or having much smaller stereo speakers, and even though I would like to see a larger model with the larger stereo speakers, I wonder how much more that would cost, and I definitely don't want smaller speakers. It has a stereo line-out in the back, and a stereo headphone output in the front, either of which can be used to connect it to a stereo for ultimate FM stereo listening, but for that maybe the Sangean HDT-20 would the better choice: it has the same remote control, which is excellent; way better than the remote control on my old Sangean HDT-1, which also has outdated HD tuning; it gets all the HD stations, but fails to get RDS information on all the HD stations, so the HDR-18, and I assume the HDT-20, beat my old HDT-1 in both remote control and HD RDS information. The HDT-20 also has a darker-background display with dimming, so it would be better for the bedroom than the HDR-18 or HDT-1, where you don't want the display to light up the room at night. This Sangean HDR-18 significantly blows away all previous FM radio/tuners I've had in terms of reception and information displayed, including that Sangean HDT-1 tuner, which was previously my best FM tuner, and I have, or have had, easily over 30 previous FM tuners/receivers/radios in my life, and 5 were made by Sangean. The Sangean PDR-D5 has been my most used portable radio since I bought it about 6 years ago. Now that I see how great their latest HD tuner is, I would upgrade that to the HDR-16 if it had more presets, but 5 isn't enough now, with such great reception. With up-to-date HD tuning, this HDR-18 gets extra HD stations you can't get with standard FM, and not only are they flawlessly tuned and absolutely noise-free, those extra stations are now some of my favorites that I didn't even know existed before getting this radio less than a week ago. I suspect those new HD stations are subsidized in order to promote the new technology. This HDR-18 well-tunes about 20 FM stations, most of which are almost completely flawless almost all the time, and this is in a location where most other radios/tuners only get 1 station I like almost flawlessly, and only a handful of other stations only sometimes good enough to listen to. So it's effectively almost 20-times the number of stations! So, with so many almost perfectly tuned stations, it's now a serious negative that the HDR-18 only has 10 FM presets, and the funny thing is, it's got all 10 of the digit buttons, so it has enough buttons to easily include 99 presets!? With the HD stations, many have more than one station with the same frequency, and you can switch between those with a simple one-button "Tune+" or "Tune-" on the remote control of one click clockwise or counter-clockwise on the tuning knob, so with only 3 presets on the 3 HD stations I like, I get 6 quick-tuning stations. That means I now have 13 fast-tuning, almost-perfect reception stations I like. Again, Wow!! The only problem now, is I have to pass on a couple more stations I like, because no more presets. Such a good problem to have! Other positives: * 1-button 10-preset tuning (but only on the remote: on the unit you have to press "Preset" first) * Volume Knob * Tuning Knob * Looks Great * Direct Station-Frequency Key-in Digital Tuning (both on the remote and the unit) * Mute (but only on the remote control) * Bass and Treble controls * Programmable emergency alerts (can be disabled if annoying) * Keeps it's presets if power is lost (but other settings are lost, see below). Other Negatives not covered above: * Preset tuning 1-digit presets on the unit requires first pressing the "Preset" button, instead of just pressing the digit button * The preset digit buttons on the unit are hard to read, so they should be marked better, outlined, or colored differently * The back-light dimmer only has one setting; should have two settings, one when it's on, and one when it's off * If power is lost, it looses the clock and dimmer setting (maybe other settings too, I'm not sure). Needs a back-up battery to keep time, and more flash storage for other settings. * Preset buttons on the unit have other functions as default; maybe better to have two models or maybe two modes, one with the other functions, and one dedicated to just radio listening, or add more buttons. * With the rear reflex port, on a shelf the bass is so strong, even at the minimum -5 bass setting there is too much bass, especially if the "Loudness" setting is On; tip: make sure "Loudness" is Off. * The Auto Clock setting is unusable, because I found all the stations are sloppy about keeping their clocks accurate; they should be legally obligated to transmit accurate time. One more negative is not about the HDR-18 itself, but about the misleading pseudo-science advertising trying to justify using a mono speaker as somehow being better sounding than two speakers. Just tell the truth: A mono speaker saves cost and space, and with a really good quality, larger, mono speaker, coupled with a well engineered enclosure, it sounds better than smaller or poor-quality stereo speakers, but in reality cannot possibly reproduce stereo sound as well as equal-quality and equal-size stereo speakers. Please let me try to put an end to this myth of point-source out-of-phase sound pseudo-science: The long told myth is based on the idea that how far the listener is away from each speaker has some significant affect on the quality of sound, because of the fact that out-of-phase sounds conflict to some extent. The myth is partly because speaker engineers use a mono-tone electrical signal generator to test the frequency response of the speakers, and yes, it is true with a single mono-tone frequency the measurements will show a significant difference with two sources at different distances from the measuring instrument. But that's not music, read on... As is true for most myths and pseudo-science, it has some basis in reality. Yes, the exact same frequency tone coming from two different distances can in fact cancel or conflict, but what they somehow don't realize is the obvious fact that every different frequency tone in the audio spectrum has a different wavelength and is absolutely out of phase with every other frequency, because they are all changing at a different number of times per second, duh! So every musical electrical signal and every speaker playing music must produce a multitude of out-of-phase sounds simultaneously, or it couldn't reproduce music! Therefore, phase is almost completely irrelevant. To put it another way, when you are listening to a live band, is every musician's instrument or amplifier speaker the exact same distance from your ear? Is every tone coming from other instruments in phase? Obviously not, remember every different tone changes at a different number of times per second, so unless you are only listening to one monotone, out-of-phase is always happening, even in a mono speaker. So duh, do you guys get it? Your mono speaker sounds very good, even though you are shorting two different left-and-right stereo signals together, which have many out-of-phase waves, so by your own phase-argument that cancels out much of the sound, so obviously it would be a more accurate sound reproduction if there were stereo speakers not absolutely cancelled out. Duh!? By contrast, the fact that your mono speaker sounds so good is actually proof that the phase argument is not very relevant, again because you are shorting two different often out-of-phase electrical signals together, which cancels and distorts the stereo differences even more absolutely than the sound waves in the air do, yet it sounds very good despite that; right? So, please take down the pseudo-science; it just makes you look bad, and you are not; as far as I know, Sangean is the best radio company there is.

The Sangean HDR-18 is about the best you can get HD radio wise in a table radio. It's been out for a few years, and it appears the current version has the complaints about the blue LED solved (you can turn OFF the LED in the menu, and dim the display down to no backlight if desired). Reception on AM and FM analog are superb with the included antennas, I am surprised how well it works on AM, as most radios get overrun with noise, but the Sangean pulls in distant stations others can't get. FM HD is also pretty hot, using the included telescoping whip, I can get all the local Atlanta HD sub channels with no problem. You can always connect a better antenna if your particular area needs it. This is a primarily a table radio. While it has two alarms, as there is no battery backup or even a super capacitor inside, if it loses power, it's wiped. No Bluetooth either. Does have an aux in and a record out jack, so you can pipe in analog sources as well as use it as a tuner with a proper balanced fixed line level out for recording or adding to a proper stereo system. Again, this is designed to be a TABLE RADIO and a good one at that. The included remote runs on AAA batteries (included) and is well made, full sized keys and easy to use all functions. Not one of those cheap credit card sized remotes, but a proper one. It is also nice that all functions can be manipulated from the front panel, should you lose the remote. Overall this is about the best you can get today if you want a quality TABLE radio with HD reception capability and good performance. It sounds good, though it isn't going to blast you out of the house, but plenty of clean power for a small bedroom.

HD Radio.. I'm not sure if I can think of a more botched design and marketing tragedy in recent history. While Europe has made a successful transition to DAB more or less, HD Radio and it's proprietary IBOC technology have consumers scratching their heads I think, and with good reason. HD radio is not "HD" - that's purely a marketing term. It's compressed digital radio - which is nice, although AM and FM can easily be made to sound better by using the same wider bandwidth and AM stereo - but that's neither here nor there. IBOC is what the FCC chose, and IBOC is what we're stuck with - for better or worse. First, the initial radios were stupidly expensive, really buggy, and a pain to use. Now - the radios (like this one) are easier to use, but are still buggy and there are only a few to choose from. Rest assured, this is probably the best HD radio on the market today - in that it supports I believe up to HD4, alerts (although haven't gotten any successfully) and both AM and FM HD. There's not much competition left out there, and as a general radio, this thing looks great and works pretty well. The sound is decent but not phenomenal, and the UI is quirky but easier than some previous attempts. All and all, it'd be almost worth the price, save for a few things. Namely, Sangean still hasn't figured out (or forgot) how a digital clock works in 2017, and they've fallen prey to blue LED disease, like many other manufacturers have. There's simply zero excuse for the failing clock - as another user mentioned, an atomic WWV signal would have been a cheap and more reliable add-on for this; my $18 end table alarm clock has that functionality. The blue LED is ridiculous. It shines like a beacon when the radio is -off-. Why? Who thought of this? And why does Sangean hire sociopaths that would engineer such a thing? It would have been absolutely stellar if this thing could take a firmware update - and looking at the board, it could have.. (Can still probably update it via jtag, but how to get the source?) I had high hopes for this radio, as finally being a real, good, useable HD radio. And it is - but it's just not worth $170 with its quirks. $99, and its sister HDR-16 for say, $59? Sure. Warts and all. But as HD radio appears to die, a set of radios that could have been part of its salvation were botched. Lower the price or fix the radio, Sangean. There's no excuse for your engineering failures. Just because IBiquity came up with a horrible design doesn't mean you have to follow suit.

Purchased at discounted price from Amazon. It was returned to Amazon for unknown reason I suspect. Nothing was missing and no damage detected. It's possible that it was purchased for the HD reception and there were no local stations broadcasting HD. If you want to know if there are HD channels in your area, you may want to check the Internet for listed radio stations. If it was returned because of the clock error reported by other reviews, then please read further. I turned the radio on and tuned into my local NPR radio station as it is the only local HD radio station in my area that transmits HD channels. I live about 15 miles from the transmitter two HD channels came in quite strong. I have to say, the sound quality from this radio is top notch. Crystal clear reception and static free. If you push the volume button you can toggle BASS and TREBLE settings. The display has adjustable brightness control from bright, all the way down to no back light. I would recommend this radio for sound quality. This was purchased for the bedroom, but I may get one for my office. 5 star at this point. The Good: Great sound. HD radio sounds awesome. Wish there were more HD stations. 5 star. The Bad: Poor button user interface. Lettering too small to read at quick glance. Think of the buttons working like a keyboard. There is a button like a SHIFT key to access the next level of button operation. I don't like that at all. Car radios seem to have a better interface. Why should I have to hit two buttons to get a preset channel? My car has a one button preset. Using the remote is a much better user interface. Don't lose the remote. It's easier to operate the radio using the remote. Because of this I removed 1 star. The Ugly: Loses time during power loss. Some radio stations will not set the correct time. You can set the clock for automatic update, but only RDS stations with Clock, Time and Date (CT) signals can do that. I may use a UPS as a power backup. I have regular power interruptions at home, all the time. Don't depend on this clock radio for a mission critical wake up call. Troubleshooting this problem from the Sangean website, I see they recommend, "If the clock time from your local RDS station is not correct, you should consider disabling the RDS CT function and set the radio manually." This tells me that it's highly possible that some radio stations are updating the time incorrectly. Another document I found on line describing how RDS CT works says, "...Note: Radio stations should ensure to always transmit accurate time and date. Faulty time and date information could have a negative effect on users (e.g. wrong time of a car clock or clock radio). Critical is also the change between normal and daylight savings time. If accurate time and date information could not be ensured, it is better to turn off the CT transmitting. So clocks with an alternative internal reference still work properly." My conclusion is that it may not be a problem with the radio, but with the radio station. Is the signal strength strong? Do you have a good antenna? Is the transmitter broadcasting the correct time signal? I have tested at least one FM RDS station that is putting out the wrong time. So there you have it. Buyer beware. My recommendation to Sangean: 1. install a battery backup for the clock and mission critical wake up calls. 2. Improve the user experience with a one button preset operation.

I LOVE this radio. I was super hesitant since I read some terrible reviews, and this is a lot of money for a radio, so I did some research. I love Sangean radios, and really wanted to stay in that product family. This one is everything that I wanted. I work in a downtown area, and was looking for a small but powerful radio for my office that could pick up a local public FM station signal, and would display the artist/track names while I listen. I initially was using a Panasonic Portable RF-2400D which was good but was awkwardly sized/antenna function for my needs, and then I upgraded to a Sangean WR-7WL, which worked fine, but could have a few signal issues some days and an improved external antenna didn't seem to remedy it. Also it was very tiny and had no display, but overall I wasn't unhappy with it. This Sangean HDR-18 HD Radio provides everything I wanted and more. The sound is plenty big for my small office, but I keep the volume relatively low. A super powerful radio in terms of wattage and base levels would be overkill for my needs. This is a good in-between sound - bright and strong but not overly powerful. It fits absolutely perfectly just beneath my laptop stand (GORILLA GRIP Laptop Stand for Desk - ASIN B0BYTQQ45T). The telescoping antenna seems to work really well, and is an improvement over the other Sangean. My radio station is HD and I get the artist/track names like I was seeking. As a disclaimer, I only listen to one specific HD FM station, and I do not pay attention to the clock to know if it keeps good time. The remote is a bonus, but I don't really use or need it. It's perfect for me. Now I want another one for my kitchen at home. :/

Additional Revisions as of August 26, 2016: Downgrading down to 3 stars. Radio okay when there is a strong signal however built-in antenna does not do a good job picking up weak signals. But clock is terrible. Loss of set time happens EVERY TIME my unit is powered down and then turned back on. Not sure if this is a problem unique to just my unit or a systemic problem with this entire model. But for anyone who is looking to use this radio for its clock functions, should be aware that the only way I've been able to keep the clock set to accurate time has been to not turn off the unit. Updated Thoughts as of August 16, 2016: Downgrading this product from 5 stars to 4 stars. Reason? The clock. Radio continues to work fine, although reception is not as good as previous radios I have used. That fact was driven home when I found my old Sony ICF-SW55 and turned it on. It picks up stations with greater clarity and better sound quality than this newer Sangean model. However, the main reason for the downgrade is that the clock on this Sangean has proved unreliable. Even after I manually set the clock, on several (yes, more than one, so not a fluke) occasions, when I pressed the power button to turn on the radio, the clock cleared itself (basically reset itself to factory condition which looks like this, --:--). While I personally do not rely on the clock function of this model for alarms or time-keeping, this defect does detract from the overall functionality advertised for this model. Updated my review in case any potential buyers need or want the clock function to work properly for what they hope to get out of this unit. Original Review: I've been a fan of HD radio ever since the technology first came out but frustrated that it's hard to find a good, reliable table top unit that can pick up HD radio signals. I still have a Sony XDR-S3HD table top HD radio unit which I use in my living room. I donated my other table top unit, an Accurian model I picked up from Radio Shack about 10+ years ago, to my parents where it continues to work just fine. But for the last 5+ years I've been unable to find a decent table top HD radio, so I was ecstatic when I noticed that this model was suddenly available this month. At the moment, I'm noticing that most sellers are back-ordered or out-of-stock of this unit. Found this model on Amazon two days ago but was only available through a third-party seller who was literally down to their last unit. Earlier when I checked on Amazon again, I saw that Amazon had this model listed as in-stock but within minutes it showed up as back-ordered once more. So I think it's fair to say that I'm not the only person excited by the release of this model and snapping it up. Decided to write this review to help others who may be considering this purchase. Although the model has a MSRP of $199.99, most sellers (including Amazon and the third-party seller from whom I purchased this) are offering it around $170-$175, give or take a few dollars. For those who care about such things, the packaging is commendable. Firstly and most importantly because it does a good job of protecting the radio from any bumps or dings which may occur to the exterior package. Secondly because the "cradle" which holds the radio suspended in place within the box is clearly made from recycled post-consumer cardboard/paper-product. So no need to worry about styrofoam filling up landfills. The "egg-crate" design of the cardboard inserts is definitely sturdy (feels hefty when I hold it) and did a good job protecting the radio from any damage in transit. The radio itself has been a pleasure to listen to all evening long as I have been familiarizing myself with its features and sound quality. I ordered this on August 7, 2016 and it arrived August 9, 2016 several days before I was expecting it to be delivered. It is compact in size so it has a smaller physical "footprint" than either my Sony XDR-S3HD table top radio or the Accurian table top unit I donated to my parents. Although it only has one speaker, I have not found that to affect my listening experience thus far. I'm using it in my bedroom and the volume of the unit is plenty loud and clear for my needs. The interface is fairly simple and easy to figure out. The buttons are clearly labeled and marked with their specified functions. I was able to figure out how to save stations to the preset buttons without having to consult the user manual. However, I did read the user manual to make sure I would be able to fully understand how to use all the functions on this radio. The user manual does a good job of explaining how to use the interface on the unit for all the functions advertised. I found the internal antenna to be somewhat weak for my local FM stations (I reside in central Nassau County, Long Island, NY). I pushed the switch from "internal" to "external" and have thus far found the telescoping external antenna that is provided (and already attached to the external FM input) to be sufficient for most of the local FM stations that I normally can pick up with my car radio. If someone needed a stronger external FM antenna, it looks like it would be pretty easy to disconnect the telescoping antenna that is provided with this unit and to attach a different external antenna of one's choosing. This model appears to be able to pick up HD signals well. For the stations which I know carry multi-cast HD signals, I have been able to switch back and forth among them (so long as the overall FM signal is decent). One of this model's biggest selling points for me is its large display which can handle several lines of text (I like the RDS feature which displays the names of the artists and their song titles because I don't know always know that information and I can sometimes be somewhat out-of-touch with pop culture). So far, after several hours of tinkering and listening, I am pleased with both the performance, build quality, and overall value (yes, I know, $175 isn't exactly cheap, but I remember both my Sony table top unit and the Accurian table top unit costing around $200 when I got them 10+ years ago; also, there are no subscription fees for over-the-air HD radio signals so in my line of reasoning as long as the unit holds up for many years of use, it will more than make up for its initial cost by avoiding any monthly fees for streaming music services). But, admittedly, I'm biased in my view because I am an avid radio listener and continue to prefer listening to music over the radio instead of my computer, smartphone, or any MP3 player. I hope this review helps others decide whether this model would be a good fit for them.