Boston Acoustics Recepter Review

The first thing I notice about the Recepter (spelled "Receptor" on Amazon so I've used that spelling in other posts about this radio) is what a rich sound comes out of such a small radio. Better yet, with talk radio you feel as if the voices are in your room as the sound affords a sense of closeness and intimacy that is unmatched. The Recepter is only 7.5 inches wide and 4.25 inches in height. Like most upscale radios, the designers opted to put the dreaded piggy tail wire FM antenna in the back as if to imply that the upscale radio buyer is a white bread philistine who focuses more on looks and flashy speaker sound than he does powerful reception. So I anticipated average reception. I was wrong. Even with the piggy tail in the back, the FM is very strong as it pulls in 89.3 KPCC, a usually troublesome station, with great ease. AM also sounds great and I would say AM is well above average. The ergonomics are easy to use. You turn a dial clockwise or counter-clockwise to toggle through the presets. However, this radio inexplicably has one glaring weakness: It has no headphone jack. A clock radio without a headphone jack is like pesto without garlic. If Boston Acoustics would please put a headphone jack in the model's next incarnation, I might use it by my bedside in place of my Sangean WR-2. Until then, the very reliable WR-2 must remain by my side while the Recepter fills my kitchen quite well.