Description: The D-328 is a mini-sized multiband portable with M3 player generally available for around $20, sometimes even less. Introduced in 2018 it is still available on Amazon.    

Specifications:

AM/FM/SW DSP 12 Bands

FM 64-108 KHz 2 bands (FM-1: 87 – 108 MHz/FM-2: 64 – 87 MHz)

AM 520-1620 KHz

SW: 4750 – 22,000 KHz

Stereo MP3 Player via Micro SD Card

5 x 3 x 1.2 Inch / 125 x 75 x 38 mm)

5.6 oz.

USP Rechargeable via USB Mini Plug

BL-5C Li-Ion Battery

Detachable Lanyard

Checking It Out: There is always interest in a new ultralight-sized radio and for the price I was curious to check it out. I have recently reviewed two other radios also costing about $20 which were OK and being a DSP design I had hoped this one might be worthwhile. I’ve got to say though that I was a bit disappointed. AM reception was weaker than I had expected such that even the weaker of my suburban-grade signals were way down in volume, although stronger stations sounded OK. FM was also fairly insensitive and not very selective such that some normally receivable stations were masked by others near it on the dial. Surprisingly, SW was not terrible and at night I was able to receive several listenable signals, although the dial calibration was quite far off. Be aware though that although the radios covers SW from 4750 – 22,000 KHz there are some gaps in coverage as you can see in the photos…this is not unusual for radios with analog dials.

One  positive note is how the two FM bands are executed, with FM-1 covering the standard US FM band and FM-2 the lower frequencies as used in some countries. Each band gets full dial width which is desirable.

MP3 playback via SD card is a great feature and one thing I do like about the D-328 is that you can scan within a track, which many such players don’t do. There are also +10 and -10 buttons which let you jump that many tracks forward or backward. The problem though is that with no display of track information it is tough to locate specific tracks if you have many on the card. If you just have files in a single folder, you can navigate somewhat but I have several cards with multiple folders and hundreds of tracks within them…there’s just no way to locate specific ones. I was amused that XHDATA describes an MP3 “digital display” yet this is only a red LED which illuminates when you are in mp3 mode…hardly what one would expect from its description. It will accommodate 32 gig cards which I verified and some users report it will also play 64 gig cards, but again, good luck trying to locate specific tracks.

Conclusion: I will say that the XHDATA D-328 is probably worth $20 in that it does give you AM/FM/SW and MP3 playback but don’t expect to pull in weak signals and don’t try to use it to navigate SD cards with multiple folders. If you primarily want AM and FM there are better choices around $20 such as the recently reviewed Retekess V112 , Retekess PR15 , or for a few bucks more, the Sony ICF-P27 .

Jay Allen  

See It On Amazon: