Sangean PR-D9W AM/FM Weather Alert Rechargeable Portable Radio

• Digital Weather Alert
• requires four AA cells (not supplied)
• Weather Alert Siren
• 19 Presets
• Snooze function, Dual Alarms
• Automatic Alert Warns you of Hazardous Condition
• Flashing Red LED Light with Emergency Siren
• Rechargeable and Dry-Cell Battery

For years, I have tried every type of portable radio I could find so that I could listen to my public radio station in the morning, moving it from the bedroom to the bathroom to the kitchen. If it was a rainy morning, I knew the reception would be poor. If it was slightly bumped, the carefully tuned station would be lost. I finally dropped my last "shower" radio and decided to find a more permanent solution.

This Sangean PR-D9W is PERFECT!! The sound quality is unbelievable. I no longer have to worry about losing reception. It is the best purchase I have made. I was hesitant to spend this kind of money for a radio, but if I had only known it could be this good, I would have done it a long time ago. I love everything about it. I purchased the recommended rechargeable batteries at the same time. I want to do everything right by this radio! How wonderful to wake up to crystal clear NPR rather than to undiscernable static! It is small enough for travel, comes with a nice travel sleeve to protect it, and I don't think I will ever be separated from this radio. The weather alert function is appreciated, as our area has been under tornado watches recently and we seem to lose power with the frequent and powerful storms. I feel much more secure having this radio.

Buy Sangean PR-D9W AM/FM Weather Alert Rechargeable Portable Radio Now

The new Sangean PR-D9W integrates the key design components of the Sangean PR-D7 portable radio with the functionality of the Sangean DT-400W (a pocket radio) offering listener's one really neat and flexible form factor. About the size of a trade paperback and smaller than the PR-D7 radio, the PR-D9W is a true travel radio loaded with features not found on other Sangean portable radios.

The Sangean PR-D9W is equally at home in a hotel room, hospital room or night stand in your bedroom. What surprised me after I unboxed this radio was the sound from its 2.25-inch speaker, which I now prefer over the PR-D7 radio. Very subjective here!

BTW, while I am not a Dxer, I was able last night to pick up AM stations from California, Utah and New Mexico from my home in Mesa, Arizona. I listen to NPR all day and jazz in the evening, the PR-D9W does its job in either case.

The PR-D9W is priced at 75% less than the Tivoli Songbook and has more usable features.

If you are looking for a travel radio that can also serve other roles in your radio sphere (high utilization factor) the Sangean PR-D9 may just be the radio for you.

Read Best Reviews of Sangean PR-D9W AM/FM Weather Alert Rechargeable Portable Radio Here

Well like many others I'm an owner of Sony ICF-M410LIV AM FM Weather Band radios. They gave me many years of rugged service until recently when the AM part of the radios gave out. Being that I listen to AM about 95 percent of the time at work it was time for a replacement.

Here were the 3 things I needed from a radio: Digital tuner, a Weather band and a channel lock button. The Sangean met those requirements and the size was a little smaller than the Sony, which was good. The only hesitation was this was a new model but I figured I'd order it anyway.

1st impressions after a few days: Build quality is good, as expected with a Sangean. Reception is excellent and battery usage is good also. I have 3 reasons for not giving this 4 or 5 stars:

1. The radio shut off a few times for no reason. I turned the lock button off and powered the radio back on. Still don't know why it happened.

2. The audio quality has more of a bass tone than I prefer. Way more than the Sony and more than the Sangean PR-D7 which I own also. A separate tone button would have been nice.

3. No station presets. The process of setting the presets and then recalling them is kind of ridiculous. Way too involved.

Hopefully a future model from Sangean or another manufacturer will address these issues. But for what I'm looking for, this seems to be the best option out there.

UPDATE: I gave it a chance but I returned the PR-D9W. The AM reception was getting progressively worse and the radio was still turning off for no reason. Also there was a constant high pitched noise that was just loud enough to be annoying. Too bad because I own the PR-D7 and love it. Hopefully others will have better luck than I did.

Want Sangean PR-D9W AM/FM Weather Alert Rechargeable Portable Radio Discount?

First, the bad news. Another user reported a problem with the headphone output, which I also experienced. The right channel on the headphones output has an enormous hiss to it, which does disappear if I turn the volume way up. Unfortunately, I'm to old to appreciate loud music through headphones. I just ordered a replacement radio. I've been an Amazon Prime customer for years, and hardly ever return anything. But perfect isn't perfect, and when I spend money I want to get a sample of the product that's as good as it can be. So I look forward to receiving my replacement, with no hiss. Not a biggey.

Other than the headphone hiss, the product's as perfect as it can be, for my needs. I wanted a small form-factor, simple portable radio and this little baby is it. My main use is FM radio, both music and NPR shows. I occasionally listen to AM news or sports.

At any rate, I'm fairly techy, and don't have any problem with most button-pushing user interfaces. I played with it for half an hour, read the book, and find that it's a lot easier to use than I expected. It's not as simple as the Sangean WR-11 (which I covet), but it's a lot easier than many UI's that I've dealt with.

There are three minor annoyances:

1) There are two tuning "modes" to this radio. My Favorite channels mode allows you to scroll up and down, using the cursor arrows, through up to 19 channels that you've saved. The other mode is direct tuning, either in steps or push-and-hold to scan to the next strong channel. When you switch from favorites back to direct tuning, it brings you back to wherever you were on the dial before you entered favorites mode. I wish it would just stay on the current frequency. Others may prefer the way it actually operates.

2) In direct access mode, push-and-hold on the cursor scans to the next strong station. When you do that, it skips one or two steps with the initial push. A one-second delay would work wonders here, and would be very simple to program. This is the MOST annoying aspect of the radio.

3) Every time you set the alarm, you have to go through the whole process of push-and-hold to set the hour, minute, and volume. Push-and-release only displays the time that is currently set. I suppose it prevents you from accidently enabling or disabling the alarm, but I'd prefer that a push-and-release just enable or disable the alarm. Maybe if I ever accidently disabled the alarm, I'd feel otherwise, so it's not a big deal, just a couple of extra clicks.

So those are the complaints. Now to the good stuff:

Being an FM listener, and music lover, this is a perfect little portable/travel radio. The size is exactly right. The only thing that would make the whole package better would be a good old-fashioned leatherette case. It is sold, well-built, and it feels great in your hands. The cabinet is smooth, the buttons are a little rubbery feeling but not sticky or gross feeling.

The speaker is voiced for a reasonable balance of bassy tone. Voice programs sound good, music is a little on the low-fi side, but not tinny or shrill. It doesn't get too loud, and it certainly won't fill a room with rich sound. It sounds great sitting a couple of feet away, on the desk or nightstand. That's what I bought it for.

With the antenna folded into its clip, nothing protrudes. There's a lock. I can throw this into my backpack or suitcase and not worry about arriving at a hotel with anything broken or the batteries run down. Speaking of the batteries, I've had the thing for three days, playing it two or three hours a day, and the new Eneloops I bought to go with the radio still show 4 bars on the charge indicator. I'm figuring I can take a two-week trip with two sets of batteries, and won't need to bring the charger.

Enough has been said already about reception that I don't think I need to add anything. It pulls in plently of stations, more than enough to keep me entertained.

I haven't used the weather band function yet, other than to test it and make sure it works. I hate listening to weather radio. Still, I sometimes travel to areas where hazardous weather is a reality, so I'm glad that function is there. I wish the radio didn't have the ugly Public Alert logo with the lightning bolt icon. It takes away from its overall appearance, which is otherwise clean, simple, and even a little classy.

Others have complained about a lack of a handle. I've already mentioned that I really appreciate the tactile qualities of this radio, and I think a handle is completely unnecessary. The cabinet, although glossy, isn't slick. I suppose if you just got done eating fried chicken it might be a problem, but otherwise this radio is very easy to grip and it has just the right heft to it.

I'm confident that I'll get a sample of this radio where the headphone amp doesn't hiss. Once that happens, I'll be completely satisfied. I hadn't bought a radio in 30 years before I went looking for one, and I'd never heard of Sangean before. I'm impressed. It's worth the money.

UPDATE I received the replacement radio, and it works great. I'm very happy with the purchase and would definitely buy another Sangean based on this experience.

Save 58% Off

I'd never heard of Sangean before searching on the web for a high quality weather radio with AM/FM and multiple power options, but its PR-D9W is a high-quality radio indeed. As others have noted, a critical plus here is its tuner seems very sensitive so that even weak stations that my component stereo tuner has trouble picking up, it seems to pick up quite clearly. It can be set to receive the emergency messages from the NWS and here in Southern California, it picks up the Oxnard/San Gabriel Mountains transmitter, as well as the Riverside and San Bernardino County transmissions. It also has some very cool pluses like 19 programmable presets (which can store any combination of AM and FM stations), nice backlighted display, digital tuning and scanning (a big plus over analog tuning, in my opinion), sleep timer and alarm clock functions, and can be powered by 4-AA batteries (either alkaline, lithium, or rechargeable) or via its AC adapter. Finally, though it's only a monophonic radio, its sound is above average, and music sounds pretty good.