Manly Radio in Bold Blue: The Sangean U3 AM/FM Worksite Radio

A reader warned me about the Sangean U3 being too bass-heavy. Listening to talk radio wasn’t pleasant. Too muddled. Same complaint about the otherwise well reviewed U3’s smaller brother, the very appealing Lunchbox, which will be available in about a month for about $12 less than my $104 U3 (with free shipping). The lesser priced Lunchbox has a slightly smaller speaker, no headphone jack, and no tone controls for bass and treble.

 Let me say before I delay any longer that the tone controls on the U3 make listening to talk NO PROBLEM. The sound is great on both talk and music. Digital FM, with 5 presets, is crystal clear with no background noise and no need to adjust the FM rubber antenna. The weakest station I listen to 89.3 KPCC comes in with no problem. AM, received from the internal ferrite, has 5 presets and is very sensitive. No ugly birdy noise on 710 AM, a sometimes problematic station on my other radios.

 
My wife also likes the radio, its bold look and its crystal clear sound. She said she wants to keep it in the kitchen, which means I’ll have to move the Boston Acoustics Horizon Duo into the living room. For now the U3 is between my computer and yoga mat inside the office. Like all my radios, my U3 doesn’t like the computer. Five feet away from the computer and all my radios suffer a bit of compromised FM. AM doesn’t seem to be affected. 

 
 

Power

You can power up the U3 with the included AC. Not included are the 2 AA batteries to back-up power, clock and presets in the case of a power outage.

If you don’t want to use the AC, you power up the U3 with 6 D batteries.

 
 

The U3 also comes with dual alarm functions, which I plan on never using. And it has an auxiliary input for iPod or MP3 player. This radio is to produce big clear sound in the house, the garage, or front and back yards. So far as I can tell it is a big winner.

 
 

Comments

[Michael MacDonald]

Looking into this to use as a receiver for an FM transmitter I use for biology fieldwork. The manual says that it tunes FM in 50 and 100kHz increments--can you confirm this?

Cheers and thanks,
Michael

[Jeffrey McMahon]

Michael, my wife uses the U3 at work where she leaves it, so I can't test this feature for you, but I'd hope the manual is accurate.

Bests.

[Jeffrey McMahon]

My friend says it should work as you want it to.

[Michael MacDonald]

Thanks!

[Michael MacDonald]

Just received the radio yesterday and as far as I can tell, it only tunes in 200 kHz increments on odd frequencies.

The manual reads, "A single press on either rotate the Tuning Control knob will change the frequency in the following increments: FM:50 or 100 kHz..." [sic]. That doesn't exactly inspire confidence in their description. If anyone knows how to make it tune even frequencies as well, please share.

Thanks.