[Jeffhs]

The stereo FM capability of this radio (through its own speakers, anyway) is a joke, IMHO. The speakers are too close together to achieve any kind of stereo separation, although I suppose one could get fairly decent stereo through a pair of headphones.

One gets what one pays for, I guess, as these little radios couldn't have sold for more than $15-$20, if that much, when they were new. I think the word "stereo" on the front panel of the set was an advertising gimmick; although the radio is in fact equipped for stereo FM reception, that stereo decoder is wasted on it. I read (and agree with) another post in this thread in which it was stated that (in paraphrase), if the radio can be made to sing at all, in stereo or not, be happy you were able to get it working again.

These radios were built cheaply and were never meant to be repaired when they go bad. My best guess is that a lot of these sets were sold to teenagers with tin ears who would see the word "stereo" on the front and gush, "WOW! Stereo!" without giving a second thought to the fact that these radios are just about the poorest excuse for stereo radios there is. Larger boom boxes are an improvement, but again the speakers are too close together. Now, if it were possible to run the audio output from one of these small stereo FM radios through decent-size speakers, the sound would be much better, but it wouldn't work, the reason being that the amplifiers in the radio are nowhere near powerful enough to drive even high-efficiency floor-standing 2- or three-way stereo speaker systems to listenable volume levels.