Though it has "STEREO RADIO CASSETTE RECORDER" stamped on the front of it as well as a FM STEREO l.e.d. (that stays lit when on FM all of the time) there is no stereo reproduction at all. It's MONAURAL. There's no FM stereo, it has a mono cassette head, and playback trough the SD and USB slots is mono as well.I've been collecting radios and "boomboxes" for over twenty years and this is the fist time I've ever seen anything monaural in stereo clothing. Yes, it's quite inexpensive, but I can't help but feel as if I've been scammed.
Ok, so it's mono, but how does it perform?
FM is about average. AM is a bit below average with relatively strong local stations swamping the dial a bit. The SW bands are practically useless with the built in whip antenna, so I didn't bother to find out if a random wire or any other antenna would improve them.
The tape deck runs at the proper speed without any noticeable wow or flutter. It does record (in mono) though a reasonable built in microphone surprisingly with very little if any noise from the tape deck itself. It will also record from the tuner. It will NOT record from the USB or SD Slots, however.
The SD and USB slots are very basic. Just play/pause, previous, and next. It will not scan through tracks when holding down the I>I buttons, so it's impractical for podcasts or audiobooks. I use a free program to divide podcasts into short files, so it's not much of an issue. It does remember the last file you played should you turn it off or switch over to the radio or tape, but it starts at the beginning of that track.
The sound quality is decent and about what you would expect at this price-point, though I've very disappointed that it's not stereo. It's output is maybe one watt r.m.s. The three band eq works as it should.
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