Sangean PR-D18RD AM/FM/Portable Digital Radio with Protective Bumper (White/Red)

This is the second radio that I tried after needing to replace my very old, trusty GE portable radio (after dropping it far too many times, I finally broke the antenna for good, and the handle) . The first one was Sony ICF38 Portable AM/FM Radio (Black) which I HATED. See my review on that one. I did a lot of research on portable radios, looking for one that had excellent reception. Didn't want to spend a lot (wanted to keep it under $20). Bought the Sony for $25 because of excellent reviews. Sadly, my experience was not good so I returned that. Then I went back and increased my price range and decided to try this Sangean. I didn't want to spend much because I only use this radio on Sundays for Green Bay Packer broadcasts, and depending on the sync with the TV broadcast, I need to change the station to find the one that is closest in sync. Was never planning to spend $50 on a radio that I use so little, but conveniently it is my birthday and mom gives me $50 bucks so this became my birthday present. Anyway.... WOW....this little radio is awesome. I am glad it has the electronic tuning and the five presets for both AM and FM. This has made it much easier to lock in the stations that I am trying to tune. The sound is amazing and the size is perfect. My ONLY negative is that it doesn't have a handle, but with it's size and the slightly indented speaker, it makes it easy to carry around. Another plus is it also will fit in my front jeans pocket for those times that my hands are full. This radio has excellent reception. Even with the antenna folded down, this pulled in FM stations better than the Sony radio that I had bought previously (with the antenna fully extended). I was concerned about the battery life because of the electronics, and lighted screen. But other owners said battery life was pretty decent. I have tried rechargeable batteries in this, but it doesn't seem to like them as much so I switched to regular alkalines. I had forgotten this radio also has an alarm clock. I might just bring this one camping with me for that reason. I like the rubberized surround (the darker colored part) which helps keep it from slipping. Nice extra. SOUND: Excellent sound, and volume is amazing...minimal distortion when set at highest volume (which I will probably never use) No AC cord included: Not a big deal to me. I will only use it on batteries, so this allows it to have a smaller size since you don't need storage for the cord. No Handle: I thought this was going to be a big issue for me. It's not. Fits easily in your hand for carrying.

This little portable radio works great! Best AM reception I have ever heard on a small radio like this. It brings in distant AM stations well too. I don’t even have to extend the radio’s antenna at all when on AM channels. Unfortunately, the radio does not come with a power adapter to plug it into a wall outlet. You can order a 6 volt power adapter for this radio on Amazon but be careful! The first 6 volt power adapter I bought stated in its Amazon description that it was the following: “6V Power Cord for Sangean ADP-PRD18 Switching Charger for Sangean Models PR-D18 PR-D4W SG-104 CL-100 Radio Receiver AC Adapter” Well, it was not and I returned it! It was sold by a company on Amazon named, DONYOIE. No matter how I positioned the radio or how far it is from its transformer plugged into the wall outlet, this 6 volt adapter caused so much radio interference that I could not bring in any AM radio clearly at all! So I went back to Amazon and did some more searching and found another 6 volt adapter that is actually a Sangean product that was sold on Amazon by a company named Hour Loop. The actual Sangean adapter has a device clamped onto the cord that blocks all radio interference through the cord to the radio. My Sangean PR-D18 radio works great now when plugged into the real Sangean 6 volt power adapter! Be careful on Amazon because there are a lot of misleading products out there that may appear to be the one you are looking for, but it is not.

Yesterday I was really waiting patiently for this radio, but I could tell by the box it was not the radio. Instead, it was a box of plastic cups. I called Amazon and the nice person reordered it for me, which I just got a few minutes ago. Luckily, the 6v power adapter that was plugged into my 30-year old Zenith radio fit into the power plug and powered up the radio. I carefully researched this ahead of time and was relieved that I worked. So now I don’t have to buy the power adapter, which is sold separately. This radio is definitely smaller than I had figured, but the sound produced is truly amazing. It sounds great. So now it’s sitting on the Kitchen counter where the old analog radio was and without even reading the manual I was able to tune to a couple of AM stations and a couple of FM stations and stored them. I unplugged the DC power from the radio and plugged it back in. I was happy to find that it kept its memory of the stations. There must be a charged capacitor somewhere applying power for the memory, probably not an internal battery, but I might be wrong. I don’t know how long you can keep the power disconnected, but for about 10 seconds, it kept its memory. It also has good sensitivity and good selectivity, since I was able to bring in a few stations that were very distant and difficult to get on most of the radios in my house. So I’m happy about that. One feature that I like is the sleep timer, which my old radio had. When you press and hold the power button, it counts down in 15 minute increments. I always like to select 15 or 30 minutes, which allows me some time in the morning to have my cereal and feed and let the dog out. If it shuts off, I just press and hold the power button again. I just figured out how to set the time, which is now displayed as the radio is playing. I think you can either select the time to be on all the time, or the tuned station, but I haven’t read the manual yet. Even with the radio off, the time is displayed. I just checked since I heard the radio go off from the Living Room and went into the Kitchen to verify this. Nice. It’s a very well made and nice sounding radio. I’m sure it will last many years. I like the rubber non-slip trim around the radio, which also goes along the bottom and stops the radio from sliding. I just wish I knew the person who helped me yesterday from Amazon’s Customer Service. I was a little upset about the box of plastic cups and had to drive to the UPS store to send them back. She was nice and calm and reordered another radio for me and told me that I would have it tomorrow even if they hadn’t received the cups back yet. To her, I just wanted to say thank you again. Oh, and I tracked the cups, Amazon received them a couple of hours ago. 4/12/25 update: I just wanted to add that my alarm went off this morning to the radio, which is what I wanted. It took me forever to change from the beep icon to the radio icon for the alarm. I really don't know how I did it, but I don't want to play with it again. AND, there is no way to clear the alarm. I tried everything. What I do like is that for the one hour that the radio is playing (alarm), the LCD Backlight is lit, which I like. Except for setting and clearing the alarm and changing it to beep or play the radio, is a little difficult, but overall, I still am very impressed with this radio and the way it sounds.

Quite easy to use and intuitive right out of the box. The last desktop radio that I had, and is still in working order but I can't stand to use anymore, uses a couple of controls to control everything; nothing about it was intuitive and you had to constantly scramble to the user's manual just to do mundane operations. Didn't really need to use the op manual that much for the PR-D18. Ths sound (so far) is crystal clear. I love the dedicated preset buttons for stations instead of those single button you must continuously cycle through to find anything on most other brands. I bought the a/c adapter, but have the AA batteries for backup. The only con I had was that the face was not illuminated. I assumed almost all radios these days had at least a lighted digital clock. For me I use the table top clock as much as the radio. A quick glance and I know the time. Not with this clock; this face is completely dark, I have to turn on the lamp just to see the controls, even the "Display" button (to illuminate the face) is dark; I thought an ever so light background light would help guide you to turn it on to see the rest of the controls. Even an ever so lighted preset program buttons would help in finding the stations you want. Instead you better turn on the lamp and lay the radio down to see anything. Just slightly lighting the "Display" button would have been a tremendous help! I can understand being in a power saving mode when batteries only are being used, but I was using A/C power. I can understand people complaining about control lights being too bright, but a simple dimmer (high-low) could have controlled that. I just don't get NO background LIGHTS at all! All the pictures show the amber light, but it is not continuous, a few seconds is fine, just help me find the buttons (Power/ or Display) to turn it on without having to turn on a lamp first! Again, I love the clarity of sound of this radio, it is no static fanatic like my old radio I bought at Sears. You would think changing stations would be an easy standard feature, but not so with my last radio. It's a breeze with the PR-D18 presets, just like changing stations in your car. Because of the fine features of the PR-D the non illuminated light issue isn't a deal breaker. I can solve the clock issue by buying a lighted digital clock to sit next to the radio. I already have the radio sitting next to a lamp, but it is a pain having to turn on the lamp just to find the radio controls. Maybe I'll lay a small flashlight on the table.

It's a great am fm radio that gets good reception. I love how compact it is i also bought the wall plug for it but I love that it has the option for batteries.

The radio has excellent reception, ok sound, nice feel and touch. On the one hand I love the radio which is why I bought a second one even thought the first one failed (won't turn on) after very little use. I bought my first radio nearly 2 years ago. I use in only when hunting, say 5 days a year (3 hours day), then remove batteries, put it back in the box until the next season. I went to use it a few days ago, it went on, died, and now will not go on. Major concern. Despite this problem, I bought a new one. The new one works great, so far, was easy to turn on, off, repeat. No issues. My original one always had problems go and off, but I blamed it on me not holding the power button long enough. In hind sight, based on the ease of using the new one, my original radio was defective from day one, I just did not realize it. I am past warranty so I could not send it in for repairs. I now have 2 radios, one working, one not. With this said, I still recommend and love the radio, just make sure it is working properly when you open the box, and test it out for a few days, its likely not you, but may be a problem with the power switch or display.

This radio is the best. Easy to put in presets, good sound, digital tuning, fits my space perfect. We ordered our own adapter cheaper than what was given as a product to buy with radio. I am very happy with this purchase. It had all the features i was looking for. Would recomment

I must admit I was skeptical. I have read the reviews, many rate this radio 5 stars. I decided to buy it, and I am pleasantly surprised. There is no shortwave, so it is a AM / FM radio. It has outstanding sensitivity, both on the AM Broadcast Band and the FM Broadcast band. I'm very surprised by it's performance. I bought it for a little more than 40 dollars. I would say other radios for the same performance are charging double that. The audio quality is very good. I have heard better, but for the price, it's excellent. I don't think you could go wrong with this purchase. You can do a little DXing of the AM band, and it does pick up distant FM signals as well. Not the best radio, but for the price outstanding. I can pick up an AM station from Orlando that is 100 miles away ( 540 ) I have an old Panasonic RF-2200 that should be superior, and it is, but I was surprised that the sensitivity of this radio. The RF-2200 is considered by many to be the best on the AM band, and king of the hill. However, this Sangean was close in performance. I also checked a AM Broadcast signal, 950 from Orlando. I'm 100 miles away, and only the best radios will " Hear " this station. It's a Talk station but only 12K watts. The Panasonic RF-2200 picks it up fairly well. You can understand all the commentary and what's being said. The Sangean also picks up this station ! I was amazed. Is it as good as the RF-2200. No ! But for the price this is got to be one of the best AM / FM radios I have ever owned. I'm a radio junkie, and own over 40 radios, and this radio is a keeper. It's perfect for around the house, or for travel, being that it is small. Perfect for me !