OTHER TECH

Boston Acoustics RecepterThe first radio from Boston Acoustics is ele­gantly simple - mono with dual alarms. One of its two front-panel buttons turns the radio on and off, while the other toggles between AM, FM, and presets (any mix of up to 20 stations). Below them are the volume and tuning knobs, the latter of which is also used for setting the clock and alarm times - much less frustrating than the usual button-pushing routines for setting digital clocks. On the top of the radio are buttons for controlling the alarms, a second on/off button, and a large snooze bar that can also be used to set a sleep timer, plus a few other controls. The back panel has an F connector for an FM antenna and spring clips for an AM antenna. The Recepter has an internal AM antenna and comes with it attached to the spring clips. For FM reception, a simple length of wire is provided to plug into the F connector.

AM reception was good on local stations, and the supplied FM antenna pulled in 28 stations cleanly vs. 38 with the big attic antenna. The Recepter was the FM reception champ in this trio, slightly besting even the reference tuner (set to mono, naturally). It also proved capable of receiving stations on adjacent channels without interference, a difficult feat for a tuner.

Sound quality was pleasantly rich and clear on good AM transmissions and impressive on FM, with plenty of detail and a smooth, natural balance. And the bass performance was great for such a small radio, giving realistic body and impact to drums, string bass, and piano.

Operation is straightforward and mostly intuitive, in part because of the knobs. One minor annoyance is having the same button select between AM and FM as well as select preset tuning - to get back to manual FM tuning from the preset mode, you have to toggle through the AM band. And there's no interstation muting during manual tuning, so you'll hear static as you move from one station to the next. Apart from those niggles, it's really hard to fault the Recep­ter. If you want a compact, easy-to-use radio that looks and sounds great, the Recepter is an excellent value.