GE 7-2887 Superadio III Portable AM/FM Radio

Rating:
Summary: The Best Portable Radio Made
Review: It's big, it's bulky, and you can't carry it while you're roller blading, but the GE Superradio has the best AM and FM reception of just about ANY portable radio on the market, short of a $500 Lowe. It's especially valued for its sensitive AM reception (it's a favorite of AM broadcast band "DXers" chasing distant stations) but the FM reception is nearly as good. Spend some time listening to it in the evening and you'llbe amazed how many AM stations are out there that you never suspected existed.

After I loaned mine to a builder friend working on my house, he ran out and bought one; his old job site radio just couldn't get his favorite stations. He listens to it at home now, too. For the money there's just nothing else that even comes close.

Rating:
Summary: Radio Station Owner Says YES!
Review: I own 4 radio stations(3 FMs and 1 AM) and have looked for a portable radio that will deliver great sound in both bands plus excellent reception. This does it. Both the FM and AM reception are excellent even without external antennas. The AM section is so good, my wife thought we were listening to FM. There is a 2-way speaker system plus separate bass and treble controls, which provide good fidelity. The GE SuperRadio 3 is everything I've read about. It is powered by AC cord or batteries, making it a great go-anywhere radio.

Rating:
Summary: Good Design, Variable Quality
Review: I bought a SuperRadio 3 after years of satisfaction from the previous SuperRadio 2 model. The first '3' I bought had great AM sensitivity and terrible FM sensitivity compared to my older SuperRadio. I exchanged it and and the tables were exactly reversed, excellent FM performance and poor AM performance. It seems as if there's a problem aligning these radios properly in GE's Chinese factory. On my sixth radio, I finally got a sample with fairly balanced performance, although still not as good as the discontinued SuperRadio 2 (sorry). In spite of this, and the poor tuning accuracy, the radio is still a good value. To restate others, battery life is long and audio is excellent. Buy from someplace with a good return policy. There may still be some lemons out there. Its worth the effort to find a good sample.

Rating:
Summary: Best Price anywhere and best AM value for the money
Review: I've was looking for a really good AM radio for sometime, I live in the mountains of NW Maine and wanted to get the Portland and Boston talk radio stations. I came across the CC-Crane radio and was about to buy it when I saw the Superadio in thier catalog listed as the best value for the money. I searched around on the internet and really never found a better price than CC because they include shipping, until Amazon had it for under $40. I also found several websites where amatuer radio hobbyists were discussing their thoughts on this Radio and how they got in and tweaked it to improve the performance and the inaccurate tuning display. These guys all gave it a thumbs up over much more expensive radios. I have found its performance to be excellent, although its rather cheaply made, its price reflects that. I have also obtained an AM antenna called the Selecta-Tenna. This has improved the already good performance of the Superadio even further, in fact a cheap boom box was working better than the un-antennaed Superadio with this antenna. I would recommend this antenna to anyone who uses the Superadio to get distant AM stations.

Rating:
Summary: Superradio a good value - one of a kind
Review: I own two Superadios and have purchased units for relatives who live in remote areas. You won't find better AM reception or sound at any price. Great selectivity and sensitivity on the AM band. FM reception is good, but not as precise as a high quality digital tuner. For the reviewer above who had problems with the tuner not holding stations after several months of use: I had the same problem with one of my units - discovered it was due to the batteries going dead. It now works fine with the AC adapter. For such a large radio, battery life is longer than most of the portable portable radios I own. Also great sound from the BIG 7" speaker. Buy a SUPERADIO if you can find one!

Rating:
Summary: WONDERFUL RADIO!
Review: This GE Superradio is a great radio for anyone to own, but especially if you live in a vicinity where you do not have a local radio station and the nearest station is 50 or more miles away--like me. This radio brings in the stations from 50 miles as clear as if they were across the street from me. No static or other radio stations trying to come in like with my old radio. I truly recommend the GE Superradio for everyone.

Rating:
Summary: Review of the GE&-2887 Superadio III Portable AM/FM Radio
Review: I purchased the above mentioned radio last November, and was more than pleased with it's sound and the ability to bring in many stations. In the last week the radio doesn't bring in stations and hold them whether on AM or FM. I am now very disappointed that Amazon.com told me the warranty is no longer in force. I am stuck with a radio which I liked very much and is now useless to me. I don't know how many people save the original boxes this long, but I am not one of them. Even under these conditions, I will continue to be a good customer of Amazon.com.

Rating:
Summary: Computer-room dwellers of the world, REJOICE!
Review: Some products seem to predict their own futures. Corning Ware was introduced long before anyone even knew what a microwave oven was and it turned out to be the best cookware for the ubiquitous food zapper.

Now, the GE 7-2887 Superadio III takes its place among such prescient products. Your humble communications technician, seeking to hear another human voice while on the job in a computer room, found the Superadio III remarkably well suited to the computer room environment.

I had previously brought a Grundig Yacht Boy 400 and a Sony ICF-2010 to work to listen to an AM talk radio station, only to find out that what makes them so good for world band (shortwave) reception are the very things that meant disaster in the computer room's EMI (electro-magnetic interference) rich atmosphere. Being digital receivers, their computer-like circuits eagerly plucked from the air the squeals, drones and squawks of the network servers, PCs and PBX system that occupy the room while adding their own synthesizer noise to the weakened signal. I pondered the possibilities for better reception. I could put the radio nearer an exterior wall, crank up the volume loud enough to hear while seated at my desk, and be promptly thrown into the parking lot, since others in the room don't really want to hear the same station. Through the interference on the Sony came a commercial for the CCRadio by C. Crane, a tabletop receiver specially designed for long distance reception of AM news and talk radio stations (Translation: The speaker ain't so hot for music). Pricey but perhaps worth it.

I read a few reviews of the CCRadio and another model kept popping up as the undisputed CHAMP of Long Distance AM Radio Reception, the standard against which other contenders are measured, the one, the only, ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it for the GE 7-2887 Superadio III. Wow, I thought, how often I had seen them at WalMart and Kmart and how often I said to myself, yeah, right, Superadio, ha ha. Yet, here were some of the toughest-to-please SOBs who ever twiddled a tuning knob using this radio as THE benchmark. I was intrigued.

A quick visit to the usual suspects (Best Buy, WalMart, Kmart) proved fruitless ("Sorry, if it's not on the shelf, we're out. . .No, I don't know when we'll have more"). In desperation, I came to Amazon.com, typed "superadio" in the Search box and there it was in all its "usually ships in 24 hours" glory, and for less than the best street price. 2 UPS Second Day Air days later, it was waiting for me at home. I didn't unbox the radio until I was back at work the next day.

Even before digging into my Sausage McMuffin with Egg breakfast, I unpacked the Superadio III, plugged it in and was, indeed, amazed. The interference no longer dominated the signal from Los Angeles radio station KFI. It was still there, but not as much as on the Sony and Grundig. The Superadio III's analog tuner is, by its nature, more immune to it. Throwing the WIDE/NORMAL switch to the NORMAL position reduced much of the interference. Judicious tuning and adjustment of the separate bass and treble controls brought forth the desired sound while further fading the interference to a tolerable level. Thanks to the 2-speaker sound system, the Superadio III delivers more "presence", allowing it to sound louder even though the volume might be lower than on a radio with inferior sound.

At the minus end of the scale is the tuning scale itself. The aforementioned station at 640 kHz appears between the 650 and 700 markings (675 kHz?). If you do a lot of station hopping, keeping a station list with each's position on the 1-to-10 "log scale" above the AM and FM scales might be a good idea. Made in China and imported by Thomson Consumer Electronics, the Superadio III has a less-than-substantial feel to its construction and controls. Better-built radios DO come out of China (can you say "Grundig"?) but they also cost accordingly.

For its price, the GE 7-2887 Superadio III Portable AM/FM Radio does just what you buy it for and will probably continue to do so for many years to come as more and more computer room hermits discover its ability to bring the outside world inside. They can block your access to Web radio, but they can't stop you from listening.

Rating:
Summary: A classic!
Review: I have several Superadio's, both II's and III's. I'm not particularly wild about their redesign of the III's case (the II had a tremendous generic radio look to it), but the reception and audio quality is about the same. As other reviewers have noted, the dial accuracy is poor, so you have to "learn" each Superadio's setting, but once you learn where stations are, they stay put.

This is a superb radio, with surprisingly good sound and excellent reception. I have one at work, one in the kitchen, and one that I tote around (to the beach, to the driveway for carwashing, to the b-ball court). Versatile, solidly built and nice priced.

Rating:
Summary: You get more than you pay for
Review: This radio does everything that it claims to do and does themwell. I liked the radio and price so much that I just ordered anotherone. I'll have one for listening to distant baseball games in the evening at home and one for general local broadcasts for listening at work.