ETON Mini GM400 Super Compact AM/FM Shortwave Radio with Digital Display Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I just received my M400 and these are my first impressions. The radio is very slim and just a bit wider than previous Grundig models (100 and 300), which makes it a perfect pocket companion.
Pros:
- great SW reception (on par with Grundig G1000, for instance)
- good AM reception/selectivity (strong stations don't bleed too much into the adjacent frequencies)
- solid feel. non-slippery plastic body
Cons:
- some mirror images from powerful FM stations on SW (not a huge problem, though)
- FM is quirky - without the extended antenna only the most powerful stations are heard, but if you extend antenna for just one inch, they overload the receiver so I couldn't listen to some of the weaker stations in my area (like 90.3 or 91.1).
- touching the unit below the LCD panel changes the tuning by a couple of kHz, so I learned to hold it a little lower to prevent a station drift.
Overall, not a bad buy for $30.
UPDATE (after 1 week): I essentially gave up on the FM band in this radio - it's practically useless as it fares much worse that any other radio I have. There's no way for me to change the initial 4-star rating but I'd give it 3 stars based on this fact

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CC Witness 2GB Digital Recorder/MP3 players with AM/FM Review

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(More customer reviews)Great little recorder. Received mine yesterday, charged it up, recorded a few test recordings on AM and FM. Programmed it to record from midnight to 4am and it worked great. Fairly easy to use! AM receiver is sensitive and worked well with no interference. I followed the instruction manual and turned off th AM Radio display to minimize/eliminate any interference. Uses SD Memory devices as big as 16gb! That is in addition to it's built-in 2gb of memory. Maybe in a future model it will use a USB Thumb Drive or maybe a regular USB External Hard Drive! This unit is going to make late night recording and recording of specialty radio programs a real easy task. I calculate my recording usage at slightly more than forty hours a week.

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ETON Traveler II Digital G8 AM/FM/LW/Shortwave Radio with Auto Tuning Storage Review

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(More customer reviews)I wanted a shortwave radio small enough to carry around and not too expensive--somewhere in between the $20 toys and the $100+ serious boys. Well, this is it. It's not perfect, but it's reasonably powerful, has useful features, is fun to use, looks and feels good (with a matte black soft rubber finish), and comes with a handy pouch and earphones. Just what I wanted.
The display is excellent, with an orange backlit screen that's the best I've seen on any radio of this size. One click lights it up for a few seconds and a longer one keeps it on; it switches itself on briefly with a change of frequency. The information in the display is configurable and can include the following: frequency, battery strength, signal strength (in dBmicron and dB S/N), time, alarm, temperature (!), shortwave band, memory locations, and timer.
FM, SW, and AM/LW all sound good to me and are reasonably sensitive. FM pulls in a lot of stations, including the one I wanted most: KING-FM 98.1 in Seattle, which the more expensive Grundig Aviator A6 couldn't get from where I live on Vancouver Island. Ditto KOMO 1000 on AM. SW reception is good, too. Auto search only catches the strongest ones, but manual tuning gets scores more. I've heard Australia, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, Tokyo, Beijing, Moscow, Zagreb, etc. in the short time I've had it. It all depends on time and the atmosphere. At 6.30 a.m. the 31m band is packed with stations. And there's continuous coverage from 3150-21950 kHz, not just the selections that come on many shortwave radios. If only there was a setting to filter out the religious stations that come in so loud and clear. Scanning is by thumbwheel in 1 or 5 kHz steps, or by band, or by auto scanning in 5 kHz steps. Both the tuning and volume knobs move by detents.
One particularly nice touch is that the radio remembers the last station you were listening to in each waveband when you switch off. Another nice touch is that radio is silent during auto scanning. A lot of thought has gone into the user-friendliness of this little portable. Short and long button presses for different functions can be annoying, but on this radio they are sensible and intuitive.
Hidden under a front panel are buttons for setting memory locations, time, and alarm, with a recessed button for resetting the radio. There is also a large dial to set the radio to any of the world's time zones, which apparently gives the radio its name. This looks impressive, as does the world map inside the panel, but unless you're constantly changing time zones it's really just a marketing frill. I'd have preferred a direct entry keypad here instead.
The only sour note is the feeble manual, which covers the basics but has no technical information about the radio or more advanced help (such as explaining dBmicron and dB S/N). You shouldn't have to Google things like this. Some parts of the manual are poorly explained or just plain wrong, like telling you to have the radio off or on to set up a function when it means the exact opposite. I've noticed the same thing with other Grundig/Eton manuals, even on their "serious" radios like the S350DL. They really should put more effort in here.
Despite the poor manual, this is a very competent portable that is easy to use and sounds good. A larger speaker might help and there is no tone control, though neither of these noticeably compromised sound quality on the stronger stations. With these slight reservations, this radio earns 4.5 stars from me, but since that's not possible, I'm happy to give it 5.

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ETON Globe Traveler G3 AM/FM/Shortwave Radio with Aircraft Band, Single-Side Band, Radio Data System and Synchronous Detector Review

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(More customer reviews)I had high hopes for this radio, hoping that I could replace my much-used and beat up Eton E5. Sadly, this will not be the case. While the G3 adds some features such as the Aircraft band, LSB/USB switch, RDS and Sync detector (which sorta works), several important traits/features of the E5 are not carried over to the new model.
1. FM sensitivity is not as good. Several FM stations in Eugene Oregon (about 110 miles away) that are easy catches for the E5 can still be heard with the G3 but not as clearly, and with much more effort to get the antenna "just right".
2. MW (AM) sensitivity is not as good...side by side comparison on several weak AM stations that yield decent reception with the E5 are heard with more noise and hiss on the G3.
3. Ditto for LW... several aircraft beacons are heard, but with more hiss on the G3.
4. The "wide/narrow" switch does not also function as "voice/music" tone control on FM, as it does on the E5.
5. The push-buttons are NOT illuminated on the G3.
6. Tuning steps increased from 25 kHz to 50Khz on FM... not what is needed to pull in a weak DX station that is first adjacent to a strong local!
The good points:
1. The RDS functions well.
2. SSB stations are MUCH easier to tune with the G3 than the E5.
3. The Aircraft band works well, this will be great for airshows.
4. Under some conditions (stations that are not too weak) the sync detector does provide improvement. I find that I must tune 1 kHz LOW to get it to work, so there could be some alignment issues with my particular radio. The feature does not work as well as it does on my Sony ICF-SW7600GR and is not even close to the performance of my Sony ICF 2010!
5. The G3 is less likely to "overload" in strong signal areas than the E5... perhaps the sensitivity was reduced on purpose to provide better reception for city dwellers, at the expense of reducing DX capabilities.
So, I will keep my beat up old Eton E5, and use both... sad!
Update: 5/19/10 I have read several reviews/comments that seem to indicate that the sensitivity and Sync detector problems on early production units have been fixed. This model might be worth a second chance.

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Sangean PR-D8 Portable Digital AM/FM Stereo Receiver with SD-MP3 Recorder and MP3/WMA Player (White) Review

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(More customer reviews)Radio section works really well. You'll need headphones to hear stereo on FM. AM section does a good job of pulling in weak signals, but does not feature RF selectivity filters to control whistles and adjacent channels, just three audio filters (Music, Norm, News) which control tone. On very weak AM signals, the built-in MP3 recorder creates enough RF noise to add noise via the built-in antenna. The Scan button is extraneous, as holding the tune-up or tune-down button scans in that direction. The scan button only scans up in frequency. Radio will not automatically pick up and program the station presets, like good in-dash car radios often do.
Unit takes 'C'-size batteries, and seems to go through them pretty fast. Much, much shorter battery life than the C. Crane CC Radio which uses D cells.
The white finish seems to resist scratches very well, but will show smudges and dirty fingerprints. Key-lock feature blocks button inputs, but the volume control is NOT locked - it's a real potentiometer, not a digital volume control (pros and cons to this).
MP3 controls are horrible - really needs a firmware update to de-bounce the fastforward and reverse functions on the rocker. Will only go one speed in FF, when it would be nice to have it speed up after 5-10 seconds depressed. Navigation of folders and MP3 files is really crude. Records in 1-hour per file. You can't use the Fast Reverse to access the end of a file, and if you're patient enough to hold the FF to get there, any hesitation on the button will bump to the next file.

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XM XPMP3H1 Portable Satellite Radio and MP3 Player (XMp3i) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Anybody who is reading these reviews for the purpose of buying this product should be aware that a portable satellite radio is not based on the same technology as a Walkman-type radio sold back in 1980s. Satellite radios work by line-of-sight, which requires an unobstructed path between the receiver and its signal source. When properly installed and used, the XMp3i works great for recording and listening to live XM/Sirius broadcasts. However, you must ensure the unit is receiving a strong signal to make it work. If you plan on using it mostly in an automobile (with a live signal), that means purchasing an additional car cradle/antenna. If you wish to use it mostly indoors, you'll need to install the included home dock/antenna properly.
I've had a good experience with the Xmp3i so far. In fact, I was able to listen to live XM/Sirius radio while biking over the weekend with very little interruption. I also used the home dock to record some of my favorite shows for playback later. I believe it is the ability to record programming which is this unit's strong suit. You can record up to five channels at the same time, so getting vast amounts of music/talk on to the device in a timely fashion is easy; provided you have correctly installed the home dock. The playback is flawless and is much more convenient than listening live since you can skip songs, commercials, etc.
The interface seems a little sluggish at times and is not the most intuitive, but it works. Thanks to the microSD slot, you can load up your MP3 library and play your own tunes as well. I was impressed by the overall sound quality from both the satellite feeds and my MP3 files.
The Xmp3i is best-suited for users who will pre-record their music/shows to bring along in the car for playback. It also works well as a standalone device for plugging into your home stereo system. Do not buy this if you want to listen to live XM/Sirius broadcasts when you take the subway to work, or while you're hanging out in mom's basement waiting for some laundry to dry. Though it has a built-in antenna for live reception, the manufacturer clearly intended that to be used in outdoor-only situations.

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Record what you love, listen when you want! Carry SIRIUS XM wherever you go with our this versatile radio. Listen live, record SIRIUS XM programming or play your own MP3s. It works with any stereo system or set of powered speakers that have audio input jacks to fill your home or office with SIRIUS XM.

Your Favorite XM Programming Enjoy live or recorded XM content at your fingertips. Just spin the Control Wheel to quickly tune to your favorite XM channels.
Pause and Replay Live Broadcasts Have to step away for a few minutes? Pause and replay up to 30 minutes of XM programming, so you never miss a beat.
Record Programming If it's a little more than just stepping away, or you just want to save something for later, the XMp3i lets you record songs while you listen, or schedule recordings of your favorite shows.
Just want to grab a song? Record the song to which you're currently listening--up to 10 hours of individual songs.
You can also set the XMp3i to record from five separate simultaneously, so you can set multiple scheduled recordings to occur at the same date and time on different channels.
Your Favorite Teams and Artists TuneSelect and GameSelect alerts you whenever your favorite artists, songs or sports teams are playing on any XM channel.
When a match is found for an entry in your TuneSelect or GameSelect list, you'll be prompted with audio and a displayed alert. Press Select to immediately tune the channel on which the song or game is playing.
Enjoy Your Media The XMp3i also allows you to upload MP3 files, WMA tracks, and Audible.com books from your PC. You can manage all your media, including recorded XM content, using the included XM2go Music Manager software.
microSD Memory Card Slot In addition to the XMp3i's onboard 2 GB of memory, you can store MP3 or WMA files on a removable microSD memory card (sold separately), up to 16 GB.
What's in the Box Audiovox XMp3i, Indoor/Outdoor Home Antenna, Remote Control, Earbuds, USB Cable, Stereo Audio Cable, Home Power Adapter, User Guide

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