| | |  | Radios | Home » » » Grundig G4 AM/FM/SW Portable Radio with MP3 and SD Player | | | | | | | Description: | | FM/AM/Shortwave Portable Radio with MP3 and SD Player Keep the comforts of home with you, even when you�re far, far away. This AM/FM radio also offers 10 Shortwave bands, so you can access news, weather and entertainment from wherever you may be. Set the alarm to your favorite station, and wake up with a song in your heart. | | | Features: | |
• AM/FM/Shortwave (3000-29999 KHz)
• Digital display world-band radio
• Digital tuning methods including Auto-Scan, Manual-Scan, Direct Key-in and Manual Tuning
• Up to 1000 programmable memory presets
• FM Station Tuning Storage (ATS) provides automatic acquisition of the strongest stations in your area
| | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 1.14 inches | | Product Width:
| 5.63 inches | | Product Height:
| 3.5 inches | | Package Length:
| 10.4 inches | | Package Width:
| 6.4 inches | | Package Height:
| 3.3 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.75 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 14 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 14 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
30 of 34 found the following review helpful:
 "A thing of beauty is a joy forever."Aug 05, 2008
By WILLIAM MCLEAN
"Just My Honest Opinion . . ."
This radio is not for you if you want to listen in on Ham radio operators chit-chat. It doesn't receive single sideband broadcasts. But, for a small portable radio that receives AM, FM, international Shortwave broadcasts, and plays MP3 formatted recordings, you can't make a better choice than this little Grundig G4.
The G4 has a very powerful receiver that brings in AM, FM, and ten short wave broadcasts bands. It competes well with my 14 pound Grundig 800 Satelite Milliniam; and the G4 weighs less than a pound.
The built-in speaker is good for its size, but you must listen to this radio with earphones to fully appreciate the quality of the tuner. It also sounds great when plugged into a an external MP3 player. I thought it sounded great using my Koss Titanium PRO35A headphones - that is until I tried it on the Sony Noise Canceling MDR-NC6 headphones. Wow! I bet that if I owned a better headphone set the G4 would knock me out.
The Grundig G4 operates on either rechargeable NIMh or on Alkaline batteries, or included AC adapter. It's also an alarm clock.
The G4 is equipped with an internal flash memory of one gigabyte and accepts two gigabyte SD or MMC memory cards. It can record on flash memory or on memory cards - off the radio or through the stereo input connector. Or it can simply play previously recorded SD or MMC cards (in stereo if you use headphones or exterior MP3 player).
One thousand radio stations can be stored for quick recall.
It is also a calender/alarm clock that can automatically turn on the radio to wake you up, or play your choice of music until it automatically turns off after you go to sleep.
You can power the G4 with three AA alkaline batteries (not included), the AC adapter (included), or three rechargeable AA batteries (not included). NiMH batteries can be charged by the AC adapter, a separate battery charger, or by means of a suitable 5 volt solar panel (not included). In all probability, it will operate just by sunlight when connected to a 4.5-Volt (or a 5-Volt) solar panel during daylight hours.
I've tested the G4 by using it to automatically record radio stations reception without any direct manual control; and I have used SD Memory cards that had music previously recorded in MP3 format. Everything the manufacture claims seems to be true. In fact, I'm leaving out of my review some of the lesser G4 features.
Useful information about shortwave reception is also included in the small,well written, users manual. If you are interested in international shortwave broadcasts you should purchase the recommended publications.
The G4 has an input for an extension shortwave/FM antenna. Yes, use of any kind of auxiliary antenna helps bring in weak stations. And the higher your elevation the better your reception - usually.
The G4 is easy to connect to a computer for sound downloads, and includes a short cable for that purpose. I connect mine to a Sony HD FM AM radio tuner that makes FM sound like a CD, and makes AM sound like FM.
It also connects to a dedicated MP3 stereo player. (A standard RCA stereo male connector on both ends is needed but not included with the G4. Lucky me, one came with the player. Others may have to spend a dollar or two to get one at Radio Shack - if they didn't get one with their MP3 stereo player.
I plan to convert all my CD's to MP3 format, and then transfer them to SD memory cards. I can get 2GB Kingston SD cards for $8.99 each through amazon.com. For now that price includes free shipping and handling.
The Grundig G4 is for people who want the best in personalized musical entertainment and global news - no matter where in the world they go.
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
 solid signal capture and audio, great features, lousy manualApr 09, 2009
By R. Cross
I have owned the Grundig Satellit 700, and the more compact Sangean 606 and a Sony ICF SW30. The G4 doesn't have the signal capturing capacity of the Satellit, but it is superior to the Sangean and the Sony, and is outstanding in the FM band. The G4 is feature rich, and best of all, it is all digital (no analog potentiometers to go bad.) But it compresses an impressive array of functionality into very few buttons (in order to keep its footprint small) and this where trouble begins, because the manual is very very poor and provides sparse guidance on learning to negotiate the multi-step digital features. The manual dropped my rating from 5 stars to 4.
9 of 11 found the following review helpful:
Good quality and sound, but complicated to useNov 20, 2008
By Jonathan K. Perkins
I was pleasantly surprised when I received this item. First, it was significantly smaller than I'd expected, at about 5-1/2" x 3-1/2" x 1". It also has a certain heft to it and a feeling that the materials and buttons are high quality. It doesn't feel like a toy, by any means.
Nor does it work like a toy. I literally could not figure out now to do something as simple as turning on the FM radio without reading the manual. There are 25 buttons on the front of the radio, an LCD screen, and four indicator lights. The user manual is relatively clear and concise, but it's a complex little gizmo that isn't easy to figure out intuitively.
I am not a shortwave-radio aficionado, but fortunately the manual has recommendations for newbies to become familiar with shortwave and medium-wave radio.
Overall I'd say this is a good product that would take some getting used to. It's obviously not a home entertainment system with its smallish speaker, but it's not intended to be. It's a compact, highly flexible radio that also plays MP3 files loaded from your PC and/or on a separate SD card.
11 of 15 found the following review helpful:
 DisappointedJul 11, 2008
By MP3 fan
I really wanted this to work, since it is, as far as I know, the only available integrated AM/FM/Recorder. The instruction manual is incomplete and hard to follow, but with trial-and-error I was finally able to get good recordings. The MP3 player function is not user-friendly, but at least it was easy to copy the files to an MP3 player using a PC.
Then after about 3 days it would no longer record, and also was no longer recognized when connected by USB cable to my PC. Luckily this was well within the 30 day return period. It seems like I will have to keep looking for AM radio recording options.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Grundig G4 Should Be Thrown Out The Door.Jun 26, 2009
By M. Sabo
Are you considering the AM FM Shortwave Grundig G4 Radio? If you are, please consider another. My main interest was as a shortwave radio and a MP3 player that can record radio shows.
At first I read the reviews and did not consider the Grundig G4. I decided to purchase because of the onboard flash memory and SD memory slot. It can use up to a 2 gig SD card. You can record up to 99 minutes only. I say again, you can only record up to 99 minutes with this radio.
Does Grundig have a screw loose for giving only 99 minutes? Radio shows are hours and half-hours long. Now consider the 2 gig SD card that can hold hours of MP3's. If this recorder is recording in MP3 format why is it limiting the time to 99 minutes? Do we have an epic fail here? If recording mp3's at 256Kbps there should be up to 17 hours of recording time on the sd 2 gig card.
I reviewed a c-crane witness radio and found out that the mp3 recorder there records in 0 to 99 minute segments. So, I think I can record multiple sequencial segments of the show? Does this radio do that? Manual does not clarify. I followed the manual for recording and it failed to record. It appears the manual may be for an earlier version of the radio. Eventualy, I will figure it out.
Okeh, I located an old Grundig YB305 radio to make a comparison. The old Grundig YB305 is a much better radio than the small G4. In listening to FM music the old YB305 sounds great. The G4 sounds terrible for playing music. The G4 sounds tinney no matter what setting.
I scanned for signals and found nothing with the Grundig G4 even after clipping on an extension wire to the antenna. The old YB305 found every signal out there. I direct entered the frequency into the G4 and then there it was. Not the best reception, but there it was.
The old YB305 is a far better radio and Grundig did the curley shuffle on the G4. The Grundig G4 is a brand new radio and now I am going to have to consider repairing the problem or living with it.
I located an old Grundig G-2000 designed by F.A. Porsche. This G-2000 is the same size radio. I compared the two and while the G4 can at least recieve the signal after direct entering the G-2000 cannot. I think getting a small SW is problematic. Best to go to the local radio store when shopping for a SW and use a display model to see if it can pull in a signal. If it doesn't, don't buy it.
See all 14 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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