Customer Reviews

C CRANE AND COMPANY CC RADIO Plus Multiband Portable Radio BLACK

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This radio is advertised as one of the best around. I fell for the hype and I want to warn you that it is full of flaws. 1) reception was no better than my small Sony radios. 2) The sound is supposedly balanced for talk radio. To me, it sounds muffled (as if everyone is talking out of a cave) with few highs. Yuck. 3) There is no handle, just a grab indentation. A radio this big is sure to drop with nothing to hold onto. Yes, they do sell a carry case - one that makes the whole thing as ugly as can be. 4) The buttons have to be pushed down hard to change. An individual defect on the one I got? Who knows? 5) This is very expensive for a whole lot of nothing. Don't be taken in. Get a Grundig field radio or a Sony instead. I regret my purchase.

I have to agree with the fellow from Atlanta! The CC Radio plus doesn't sound all that great for the money you pay, and the AM sensitivity to me is no better than the GE super radios
that cost three times cheaper. Sony radios do a much better
job dealing with night time fade. the FM reception is
nothing to brag about either. I think the weather radio
should have SAME encoding for the money you pay forit.

After an intense day of listening and operating I just recently returned a CC Radio Plus that I had purchased from a local retail store. I really wanted to like this radio but in one critical area it simply did not measure up and because of this I could not justify the price.

I am limiting my comments to the AM radio section of the CC Radio, since that was my primary intended purpose for the radio.

This radio aims at an admirable target: the footprint is quite interesting, the concept of a long distance AM receiver is enticing, and the build quality seems solid.

This well-balanced package sits squarely on a flat surface with rubber feet that grip well and a rubber grip that allows one to lift it. Loaded with a set of batteries, it weighs a lot and gives an impression of quality. A pleasing heft.

The quality also shows in the 'feel' of the tuning knob, a digital encoder with velvety smooth positive detents. The encoder is as good as that on any shortwave receiver I have used.

Everything else, including the tone and volume controls, has a quality feel to it.

Having a digital frequency display is such a great idea for AM listeners who like to log 'DX', or distant stations. There is no question of the frequency and this helps to identify unknown stations. The tuning step is 1 kHz, which is an interesting idea as it allows slight mistuning to avoid close interference on one side of the other of the station you are trying to listen to.

So why didn't I like it? Very simply, I found the audio on the AM band unlistenable.

In an AM radio, there is always a tradeoff between the radio's selectivity-- the ability to pull out a station with strong stations on either side-- and it's audio quality. The narrower the bandwidth or 'window' of the radio, the more effective it is at tuning to, say, 650 kHz with a strong station right next to it at 660 kHz, and not being interfered with by the strong station at 660. However, for good audio reproduction, this window should be as *wide* as possible, so these two requirements are in conflict. In my opinion, the CC Radio is just too narrow for comfortable listening and results in a listener's fatigue very quickly. It is, however, quite respectable in being able to be tuned right up against a strong signal without any bleedthrough. What I am trying to say is: the radio was doing exactly what it was designed to do, it is just that I feel the bandwidth chosen by the design engineers is too narrow for comfortable, casual listening. What suffers most is the high frequencies, meaning that the audio sounds muffled. It is, for example, hard to discern whether an announcer says "fifty" or "sixty".

I wonder if the claim of 'radio tuned to the human voice' is just a marketing spin to explain away this most glaring shortcoming.

This muffled audio can be mitigated a bit by tuning 1 kilohertz higher or lower than the station frequency. For example, if you are listening to a station on 820, tuning to 819 or 821 (with one simple click of the tuning knob) does improve the sound. (There is an electronic reason for this, but I'll spare you the explanation.) However, doing this increases the audio distortion, so that although you lessen the sound's muffled characteristic, you do so at the expense of introducing a raspiness or gritty edge to the sound that the discriminating listener will most certainly notice. I found this too distracting to accept. I found myself listening to the distortion instead of the audio program.

I had really wanted to like this radio for the features that impressed me and that I outlined at the beginning of this review, but it's basic performance in the area of audio sound reproduction (the basic purpose of a radio!) was, in my opinion, not up to standard.

Ironically, on the way home from returning the radio for a refund, I turned on the AM radio in my car. I was able to receive a station (at midday) about 100 miles away with practically no noise, and with excellent audio quality. Why can't we have a table radio that sounds as good as the typical car radio? That, I think, would be the perfect AM radio.

May I suggest you look at the GE Superadio II, which sounds absolutely beautiful, though it is cheaply manufactured and does not have a digital readout. I auditioned both radios side by side and concluded that the Superadio could hear 99% of everything the CC Radio could but at a much more pleasing audio level.

... Hi , its Vince the radioman taking a second swag at this review . I have received a lot of feedback about my review on this radio and a lot of different experiences with its performance . Taking all the comments into consideration and being asked to more closely examine the radios attributes I will say this ..... I will downgrade it by 1 star to a 4 star rating because of the sound on AM , yes , it is muffled and quite annoying at times . The radio's sound appeares to be taylored towards FM and VHF . I will still say that I get very , very good reception on AM as good and sometimes better ( comparing them side by side ) with the GE super radio , Sony SW77 and the Grundig S350 which I consider the best radios for AM DXing . The radio IS a bit heavy with no handle but to me its a desk top not a portable . The weather alert system is invaluable and the price I think is fair . Also it has great funtionality , ext AM ant. terminals , stereo mini input , separate bass and treble controls ...etc. Buy it! A must for a DXers collection.

For several years I have used the CC Radio. AM reception is solid and clear. From north of Seattle I can regularly listen to San Francisco (KGO) almost any night (Winter or Summer).

The 5-button presets (per band) and other control functions are basic, simple and intuitive. Battery life is very good (I'm still on my original batteries) though most use is plugged into 120v supply.

I prefer the CC to my Sangean ATS-818, which is similar but way-complex, and dies before batteries are 2/3 used.

I BOUGHT THE CRANE RADIO HOPING TO PICK UP AM STATIONS ABOUT 250 MILES FROM WHERE I LIVE. I ALSO BOUGHT THE EXPENSIVE ATTENNA WITH MY RADIO AND NEITHER PRODUCT WORKS AS ADVERTISED. THE RADIO SEEMS TO BE WELL MADE AND THE SOUND IS GOOD. BUT IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A RADIO TO PULL IN LONG RANGE AM STATIONS THIS RADIO IS NOT IT!

I've known about this radio since hearing ads ON the radio since 1998. For over 20 years my main AM radio has been a Radio Shack long-range TRF circuit portable. It's taken me all these years, but after buying 2 Sangean handheld radios, I decided to finally "splurge" and get the ultimate! I exepct alot from radios, and I'm extremely picky, but I'm not disappointed and it DOES out-perform the aforementioned Radio Shack.
The overall performance is excellent. The sound quality is better than I expected for music and FM.
The AM reception has lived up to its reputation, except for one thing... and this is why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5. I live five (5) miles from a 50kw transmitter on AM-1540. That signal starts bleeding at 1490!!! and ends about 1570!! I have a 1kw 1490 tower about 12 miles away that is tricky to receive, due to the 1540 signal. My tiny Sangean 210, receives LESS bleed from 1540 than the CC Radio, and receives 1490 perfectly! Perhaps it's the power of the CC... and generally, its selectivity is excellent... but this particular scenario has me puzzled. I'm actually CLOSER to a 50kw signal on 810, which has far less bleed than 1540!
This issue aside, the radio is great. It's easy to use and set-up. The controls are very functional, although I wish it had separate buttons for each band. The FM reception is very good, in addition to the WX band and TV audio. Bottom line; for the AM enthusiast, and for anyone who wants a quality radio....YOU CAN'T GO WRONG!

Although the sound quality is good, the overall quality of the radio suffers. I have had mine for a few years now and none of the buttons work well anymore. I have to hit the power button many times to turn the radio off.

Was rather excited when purchacing this radio as I had heard about it via talk radio and had visited the CCrane site and read the supposed capability. So on a road trip I stopped in at the CCrane Store in Fortuna and bought it. I babied this radio.
The first year was OK.. then the LCD panel started going. I then started using it plugged in with the AC cord which promptly failed .. which was maddening as I could get it to work by repositioning the contacts at the connectione point but it would not last. So. I remembered that the thing was supposed to get grrrrreat battery life and started using batteries. Huh? The battery life was not very good either.
From day one things that I did not like: Button detent was not right, in other words when you push the station recall buttons they do not work at the first felt detent position you have to push harder. Yuk.
The sound is tinny sounding. As I think back on how they touted the sound I remember that if something is subquality you can fool people by "featuring" it. They promo the sound as "tuned for the human voice". Yea. I suppose. Well.. I bought an old national panasonic radio at an estate sale.. and the tone is magnificent and the battery life is amazing. Did not realize what I had been missing.
The best thing about buying this radio was the friendly folks in the little coastal town of Fortuna. Great to stop in and browse the LED stuff, but sure wish they would quit touting this as there best radio it is just not worth the money.

ABSOLUTE WORST RELIABILITY

I've owned my CC radio for a number of years. Over time every single button has found a way to malfunction. The channel buttons don't change channels but they do change the memory setting so press enough of the buttons and they all end up set on the same frequency. Sometimes pressing a channel select button turns on the alarm.

As I turn the large channel select on the side it goes up a couple of channels then goes back to where I started over and over and over again.

The on/off button only works sometimes or not at all. It's quite a frustration trying to find the right spot on the button to turn it off. Then there's the night light button, which like the on/off button may or may not work.

I called C Crane and Company, explained the problems and lack of reliability and was told for a stiff fee I could return my radio and wait eight weeks to get it back.