The good: Inexpensive, decent reception on both AM and FM considering its size, battery life better than expected for a 500 mah internal rechargeable battery.
The quirks:
(1) I would have loved a deep bass boost function, but even without it, sound quality is acceptable, especially using higher quality earphones or earbuds
(2) Setting and deleting memories is fussy, and the English-challenged instruction sheet is really no help. Thankfully, since I'm only using this for two stations, it's no big deal for me
(3) Ergonomically, the volume buttons and tuning buttons should be switched. The vertical top-bottom button should be tuning, while the dual up-down buttons should be volume. But, I suppose I'll get used to it.
(4) It remembers your previously tuned AM frequency when you switch bands and go back to AM, but it does not do this for FM. For instance, if you last listened to 1490 AM, 92.5 FM on the first FM band, and 104.9 FM on the second FM band, when you leave AM and then come back, it'll go back to an AM band tuned to 1490. But, with the two FM bands, when you leave them, you won't come back to 92.5 FM or 104.9 FM, but the beginning of the bands, 64.0 MHz and 87.0 MHz on FM1 and FM2, respectively.
(5) If you're listening to a station, if you start tuning up or down one step at a time, and do it pretty quickly, it will seem to stay on the station you were listening to until you arrive at a new frequency, and then "re-tune" it. For instance, you could be listening to 106.1 FM playing Aerosmith, and then want to step up to 107.5 FM playing Beyonce. You'll start with the up button one at a time to 106.2, 106.3...so on, until you get to 107.5. But while you're doing that, you'll still be hearing the Aerosmith song as if you're actually still locked on the 106.1 station, until you stop at whatever frequency. In my hypothetical case, you get to the 107.5 station, at which point it will retune and then start in on the station playing the Beyonce song at that moment. I suppose this is a DSP quirkk.
(6) No signal strength meter or RDS, but I wasn't expecting for the price point.
(7) Seek-scan functionality is rather useless, stops on too many spurious noise and non-stations.
| Brand | VR-robot |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | VR-robot |
| Part Number | VR-HRD-MJX |
| Hardware Interface | USB, 3.5mm Audio |
| Power Source | Corded Electric |
| Batteries Included | Yes |
| Batteries Required | Yes |
| Battery Cell Composition | Lithium-Air |
| GSM frequencies | 108 MHz |
| Connector Type | USB |
| Radio Bands Supported | 2-Band |
| Package Dimensions | 10.21 x 7.19 x 5.21 cm; 100 Grams |
| Item Weight | 100 g |
| Manufacturer | VR-robot |
| ASIN | B07YJBTSWY |
| Manufacturer reference | VR-HRD-MJX |
| Batteries | 1 Lithium ion batteries required. (included) |
| Date First Available | 28 September 2019 |
