shortwave

I have owned this particular model of Sangean, as well as several others, for a number of years. Sangean radios, in my experience, have excellent sound (for their size), have great reception, and are quite easy to use.

I listen to classical music, international news, and domestic news while at my home in radio/tv/cellphone no-mans land. Only the Sangeans work up here. Our pretty little Grundig Porsche radio has to live at the city house to be useful.

Back to the 606 - the metal and plastic case of the 606 is quite solid, handsome, and compact. The built-in stand is both very convenient and angles the radio perfectly for easy viewing of the LCD at counter/table/desk height.

The sound quality is terrific, considering it is a single driver of maybe 2.5". Sound is full, dynamic, lively, remarkably rich, and very fast. Bass is lacking, as you would expect over a radio with such a small driver.

The 606 has one nasty habit, which is that if you plug it in, and it has batteries in it, it will drain the batteries instead of using the wall power. You must take the batteries out of it before it will use the AC. Mine is a fairly early one (it uses the european power adapter with a US adapter on it), so this may have been fixed.

As mantioned, this is my 6th or so Sangean, and the whole line is well built (except perhaps the 322) and they all sound great. I highly recommend them all.

Detailed analysis will follow if I have the time, but overall impression of quality, ergonomics, and design is very good. For those who primarily want a good travel radio, with the shortwave as a bonus, I have a few minor complaints.

1) Light for frequency is not that bright (and display is a little small for us older folks who want to see the clock at night without groping for our glasses)

2) Bigger problem is that the light goes off to save battery power. What's wrong with that? Nothing if you are running on batteries, but when using the AC adaptor I would like the option of leaving the light on (like a clock radio) so you can wake up and see the time without groping in the dark for the display light switch.

3) The power supply is dual voltage (good) and almost as heavy as the radio (bad). It does sag in a US outlet, but that is aesthetically annoying more than it is an actual problem.

FM reception is excellent, I must say. Haven't played much with the SW yet.

Written instructions are good and seriously, my overall impressions are very good. Clearly, much thought has gone into the "radio" aspects of this device. It is a little weak as a "clock radio," which is a bit of a shame, but it does have very nice alarm (dual) and a gentle wakeup alarm that does seem very "humane."

It might have been more accurate to award this radio 4.5 stars.

More later.

I bought and returned this item. Very poor quality and all parts seemed cheap.