Once you learn how to use the controls it's great. The setup and programing the presets can be a little complicated. The sound is very good for small compacted radio.

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

I bought this yesterday, along with the Sangean HDR-16, with the though I would return one. BIG MISTAKE! Both are outstanding radios, so good I cannot choose. The sound quality is amazing. The turner picks up tons of stations with the attached antenna barely extended...and many without the antenna extended at all. Lots of features, highly recommended to anyone wanting a radio, especially one capable of receiving HD stations. Well worth the price.

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 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.