SangeanHDR-19 HD Radio/AM/FM-RDS/Bluetooth/AUX Premium Wooden Cabinet Radio

I've had this for almost a week now, enough time to test it a bit and form some opinions. First off this is a very handsome radio, build quality is first rate which I would expect at this price. It's heavier than I was expecting. The speaker is large and can get pretty loud without distorting. The knobs and controls give it a quality feel and the wood cabinet is not only nice to look at but gives the sound a warm quality.To test AM reception I consulted the Radio Locator website and printed off a list of AM stations which I should be able to receive in my area according to them. I grabbed my Eton Elite Executive, Tecsun AN-100 small loop antenna and a C.Crane Twin Coil antenna and set up to see what I could receive in the mid to late afternoon. Radio Locator gave me a list of 15 AM stations that I should be able to hear at my location. Two of those stations turned out to be off-the-air; local stations that weren't present at all. Of the remaining 13 stations the Eton could easily capture all of them and deliver listenable signals. The HDR-19 couldn't hear about 5 of those but when I added the AN-100 or Twin-Coil antenna all of them came in well enough. I had slightly better results using the AN-100 on the HDR-19 and preferred it over the C.Crane Twin Coil. The AN-100 fits well on top of the HDR-19 and looks good there. The Eton didn't need any help, it delivered a great signal all by itself. It found about 8 or 9 extra stations not on the Radio Locator list. The Sangean could barely hear half of those with the AN-100 but not very well. In general AM reception of non-local stations was very noisy, lots of RF noise, typical for this area. The Eton with selectable bandwidths handled the noise better.Night time AM reception was challenging because it's hard to turn the radio, but when I tested it I was able to pick up the major stations out of New York City which is nearly 900 miles away, plus WBZ in Boston and Zoomer out of Toronto and many others in between. (I'm in Florida) I had to use the AN-100 to get these but still this was good performance for a table radio.FM was a different story, it pulled in lots of stations very clearly. I'm between two NPR stations, one about 45 miles south of me which includes an HD station that I like and one about 75 miles to the north which has 3 HD stations. I can usually get one or the other but the HD stations to the north are a hard catch and the one to the south should be out of range too. The HDR-19 is bringing in at least one these stations almost every day, more often than I would expect. There was one magical day when they all came in strong and crystal clear. I'm really happy with this because I like to listen to classical music and the HD stations are the only source I have, except for the internet of course. This is a great FM radio and probably the best HD Radio that I have used.Bluetooth works flawlessly and sounds great! I have positioned this radio next to my recliner and stream TV sound to it. It sounds wonderful. I can understand everything being said which is otherwise a problem for me.I've had this radio for nearly a week and the only real problem I'm having is turning it off! Not only is there no listener fatigue but I actually miss it when I do turn it off. This is a great sounding radio. I usually ignore the equalizer presets and go with the normal program.A couple of minor complaints: 1) There is no provision for attaching an external FM antenna. It would be nice to have that option. There are terminals for an external AM antenna. I hope someone will test that out. 2) The button labels are hard to read in a darkened room. A light behind those would be great.This radio is a keeper!

Great little radio, tons of value from a radio that’s just a bit smaller than a composition notebook. A lot of sound and it doesn’t take up a lot of space. (Picture for scale)I like this radio so much, I’m getting a second one for my mom for her birthday. It has all the functions of her old CD-radio, but the sound quality is so much better because the hybrid-digital eliminates static on the stations she listens to.The good:- phenomenal sound quality. At least as good as a Bose or JBL speaker.- Sangean is a legit business that has been around since before I was born, so the product is solid and well-made.- simple to use. Any functions on the radio are controlled by turning the “tuning” knob left to right and pushing down on the “tuning” knob to select / confirm options. The knob “clicks” like a button if you push down on it.- it has a sleep function so you can have it on as you’re going to sleep or leaving the house and it will turn off after up-to 60 minutes. (To use the sleep function, you have to hold down the power button for about 3 seconds)- it has a little “signal” icon in the top right corner that shows how strong your radio signal is, so it makes it easier to pick up on weaker stations.- it has forty (40!) memory presets: 20 for AM, 20 for FM. That’s more than enough for the number of stations I can or want to listen to.- it comes with a little remote control and it even has batteries included.The mediocre:- the instruction manual is non-existent. It comes with a QR code to scan which takes you to the virtual manual. I couldn’t be bothered with that so I figured it out on my own. It was pretty simple to figure out after messing around with it, but I think I’m going to be learning about this thing’s functions for a few more days.- you have to hit the “menu/info” button to scroll through the station info on any radio station that has digital data. The default display is always going to be call-sign. If you want to see the station name or song info, it doesn’t scroll through those automatically, so you have to push the button if you want to see more info.The neutral:- it’s A/C powered only, so if you’re looking for a portable or emergency radio, this isn’t it.- the four modes including Aux-cable is a bit outdated, but at least it has Bluetooth functionality. If you want to connect an old CD or cassette player to it, you could do that, so that’s pretty neat I guess. Anything that has a headphone jack is fair game to connect to this radio as long as you have an aux cable.If you’re looking for a standard AM/FM radio with great sound quality that can double as a Bluetooth speaker, this is it. You should get this one.