Customer Reviews

Sanyo R227 WiFi Internet Radio (Black)

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Got my Sanyo R227 Internet radio from Amazon within 4 business days and was ready to rock 'n' roll. Easy set up and no problems finding stations to listen to. The sound is super for a clock radio, although I would have liked to see a tone control since the radio is a bit heavy on the bass. Build quality is impressive too. Compact and heavy; not at all cheap looking.

The bad news is that my radio always lost the WiFi signal within 3 minutes of connecting, thus requiring a reboot every time. I called Sanyo service and was met by the most droll, uninterested, tech support man on the face of the earth. He volunteered no helpful info and answered every question that I asked in the most bored, brief, demeanor imaginable. SANYO, find this unhelpful guy and DUMP him! Concluding on my own that my radio was faulty, I decided to exchange the radio at Amazon and I'm now awaiting the new radio. Never one to put all my eggs in one basket, though, I also order an Aluratek radio. I'll keep whichever radio works best!

Got the replacement radio today (10/6) and everything works great. I'm very impressed with the R227 so far. I'll be returning the Aluratek to Staples tonight. It's much smaller than the R227 and doesn't have the quality feel, or appearance of the R227. It couldn't beat this Sanyo R227 as a bedside radio since it has only one speaker. The Aluratek unit also has a cheap plastic smell. The Sanyo has no odors to overcome.

Buyers of this great Sanyo radio need to be aware that the 8 presets are, thankfully, not the only way to save your favorite stations. To get many more favorites, you'll merely log on to the Reciva site, enter your radio registration number, and their massive list of Internet stations is quickly at your fingertips. At the Reciva web site you'll select your favorite stations and, then, when you turn on your radio you find them all listed under MY STUFF on your radio's menu. In other words, you can have dozens (hundreds?) of favorites. You may have to reboot your radio to see them. At the moment I have two dozen favorites.

My only complaint as of today (10/7) is the searchlight-bright display in the dark bedroom. I'll need to find some clingy tint film and put it over the screen. You can adjust the radio backlighting, but it doesn't help. I'll post more when I find a solution to the light problem.

(10/8 Update) - I went to a window tint store and got some free samples of their various tint films. Then I cut out a display screen-sized piece of the tint film and laid it on the display window. No need for any glue; the film clings nicely to the display window. You'll have to experiment with various degrees of tint to find your preferred one.

Oh, I do have one other problem. I want to carry this radio everywhere I go!!!!!!!! (and I have XM in the car)

I just bought this for my wife and have played with it most of the evening. If you've ever thought of owning something like this, and have the extra cash, go for it. If you have a solid WiFi and Cable/DSL service, and still love to listen to radio or even streaming our playlist from your hard drive, pick this up. The Grace product is okay, but this one rocks. There's always going to be some little issues or glitches with a product like this, because of the signal. Every once in a while it drops out, but repicks the signal right back up again. I have it 30 feet away from our network. We have 2 laptops, two XBox 360s and two regular desktops on the one WiFi router and its only dropped once this evening and traffic is always heavy with my boys online. My wife loves it and so do it. The quality of the sound is amazing. Even streaming at 32K on something like Air America or NPR, is solid sounding. I searched for The Gong over in German and found it, and it came through very strongly and sounding great. Its MP3 streaming functions from the computer are awesome. Just share out a folder or two on your hard drive where you have music and it reads the list and pulls the tags in for the songs. And if that isn't enough...this baby even does the dishes. Just kidding. :) Its one hell of a product. I'll tune back in, over a couple of months and give an update or two...but this is well worth the coin if you would like the power of the internet radio throughout tht house. :)

The Sanyo R227 is a great little entry in the current lineup of internet
radios. The unit has an attractive brushed aluminum front and produces
rich, premium sound from the twin side-mounted speakers. Before buying,
I compared the Sanyo to the Grace and C Crane radios. The Sanyo offers
more than either in this price range. The unit has a sleep timer (15/30/60/90 min.)not mentioned in the Amazon specs. The R227 was easy to set up and connected to my network within minutes. The control panel is intuitive and easy to navigate. The unit was also able to connect by Wifi when moved to an another room about forty feet away when tested.
The radio is compact enough for a night stand but has the weight and
feel of a quality made audio component. I highly recommend the R227.

I purchased a Sanyo WiFi R227 Internet Radio from Amazon.com in August of 2009. Before deciding on Sanyo, I had looked at other WiFi radios. Based on my research, it appeared that Sanyo was considered to be more reliable than similar radios being offered at the time. The Sanyo performed quite well at first, but after some weeks it began to disconnect and reconnect after a few minutes of playing. I initially took this to be a buffering problem and was to be expected. I had experienced buffering while listening to radio stations over the computer. As time went on, the disconnects and reconnects became intolerably frequent. I finally decided to contact Sanyo Service. I was informed that Sanyo's warranty coverage period was 90 days for parts and labor for this product. However, my Sanyo was now approaching 4 months old and out of warranty. I was advised that I could send my radio to Sanyo for service. The cost of repair was estimated at $100 plus the cost of shipping both ways. I concluded that spending any more money on this product would not be sensible. When the radio totally failed, I did, however, send a letter to Sanyo detailing my concerns. I have never received a response. This experience makes me wonder how a manufacturer, such as Sanyo, could place a product on the market with only a 90-day warranty - a product that cost close to $200? Based on my experience, I would not recommend the Sanyo WiFi R227.

I bought this Sanyo R227 WiFi internet radio via Amazon.com in early March 2009 to listen to BBC Radio 2 in USA. It all works really well. Especially pleased with the Reciva.com list of radio stations. Also, the Radio 2 'on demand' service for previously broadcast shows is very good. Sound quality is good; so too are the display graphics.
The only negative point I can find is that having selected Location, then a Country, then a radio station..... the radio (or is it Reciva?) often decides at this point to update the list of available stations and starts all over again with the Initialize/Connect/Gateway functions.... a delay of only a couple of minutes but a little annoying. There might be something in the Configure function where I could delay station updates to 'when requested'.
Despite, this one negative point, I wouldn't hesitate in recommending this excellent product. Well done Sanyo!

I've owned this Sanyo radio for 9 months now and will review it critically. I picked Sanyo because of its brand name. I've had no technical issues with the radio and have not needed Sanyo tech support. The radio works well.

Build: Solid. Ideal size...not too large or too small. Neat rectangle, fits squarely on the desk corner. Weighs about 2 lbs, perfect with rubber feet, no slipping.

Display: Backlit, easy to read.

Speakers: Internal speaker is reasonable for talk radio, sports. Has fair but not great volume. Strongly suggest using computer speakers through the headphone out jack. I have attached Harmon Kardon computer speakers with subwoofer and the sound is stereo, full, deep and rich. With external speakers, the volume is loud. I'm listening at 25% max volume here at my desk with it 4 feet from me, and it's plenty loud. Can turn up in big room at full volume with external speakers for great sound volume. It does not have red-black speaker wire jacks; only an headphone out type jack on the front (like your computer-thus you need computer speakers).

Sleep: Radio does have an Alarm Clock to wake you to internet radio, and a Sleep Timer to shut off automatically.

Stations: 10k as stated in the ad. Can be scrolled by alphabetical order, by Location (e.g. your favorite city) or Genre of music. For those that know XM Sirrius, it has the same types of categories (the decades, hard rock, heavy metal, country, folk, kids, Latin and on and on). Also can search by call letters (e.g. WKIM-FM 98.9) or country of origin. I see, scrolling now, Guam, Viet Nam, Samoa, Argentina, and dozens and dozens more.

Remote Control: Tiny, small buttons, not back lighted, but functional. All buttons same size, so you really have to stare at it to see which button is scroll up, down, volume. Can access the saved stations setting from it, though. I use it frequently. Very basic. Buttons should be better marked and larger. The whole remte should be larger.

Memory Stations: Has 8 saved station presets. Eight! For 10k+ station menu! I bet I could easily find 30-40 stations that I enjoy on a regular basis in various genres-but it lets me save eight. Silly. Frankly, this alone (plus the so-so remote control) cost this radio one star in my overall review. My car radio has more memory preset stations than this Sanyo. What you'll end up doing is writing down the stations you like on a 3x5 card and keeping it by the radio and manually tuning to the stations you wish to hear. There is not keyboard input, so it's unfortunately indirect access... you hit Station Select, then scroll through the call letters to find your station of choice. Takes about 1 minute every time you wish to get to the station you desire (unless it's one of the eight stations in the memory, in which case it's instant from one of the eight preset buttons on the body of the radio and on the remote control).

Internet Wi-Fi: Impressive. I use a standard Linksys internet blue box and can put this radio anywhere in the house and have streamed music or news instantly. When the radio is first turned on, it takes about 40 seconds to link to the Wi-Fi system each time...going to whatever station you last listened to automatically. From then on, no hics or skips. Know how frustrating it can be listening to internet radio on the computer and having it stop periodically for "buffering" midway through a song? Never has happened to me even once in hours of listening to the Sanyo. Perhaps it would happen to someone with a slower internet service, but with my cable internet, Linksys Wi-Fi, once connected, no glitches. Smooth sound. I wonder if the buffering on a computer is due to the computer doing more than one thing at a time as one uses the computer for many functions simultaneously, whereas this is a dedicated radio server.

Computer Radio: Why not just listen to radio through my computer. (1) Not portable-this radio is self contained and portable. Just plug it in and rock out. (2) This radio is smoother, no "buffering". (3) Although I'm sure the internet has a server with 10k stations and presets, why bother? Boom-one click and this baby is on, whether your computer is on of not. (4) No computer necessary. (5) Remote control. (6) Can use as alarm clock.

I am a tech lover yet tech challenged. I took this Sanyo radio out of the box, plugged it in, and hit "on" and that was it. It automatically connected to the internet and was ready to go. I browsed the stations I liked and hit save memory for the eight I liked, just like a car radio. It has international stations and local stations. It doesn't have every station known to man-I like, for instance, Stephen King's radio in Maine, and although that's available online, it's not on here for some reason. This radio is linked to Reciva, some radio distribution service, but you pay no fee and it's seamless-not ads or anything. Reciva and Sanyo must have some deal. They have a Reciva website Google Reciva), so see if your station is available; check it out, they have quite an extensive list. For a sports lover looking to hear your fav teams, for niche music lovers, for news junkies, this radio is all you need. I felt motivated to write a review after owning it for several months. I would definitely buy it again and highly recommend it to a friend. Hook it to computer speakers for a very full and smooth sound. G'luck and happy internet radio listening.

This radio cured my radio reception problems. I live about 35 miles from a major metropolitan area and could never pick up my favorite radio stations with traditional FM clock radios. The static and bleed over from nearer stations drove me crazy. Now I get local stations (AM and FM) static free and can choose between thousands of radio stations and internet streams from around the world. I've found that many stations, particularly AM, have fewer advertisers for their internet streams than for their over-the-air broadcasts, so while everyone else is listening to a commercial you're hearing a short musical interlude.

Initial set up on my wireless network was easy, though I wish it would keep the connection while in standby mode. As it is, it takes about 20 seconds to find and login to my network each time I turn it on. Sound quality is fine for a box this size in a bedroom or kitchen. Add a set of good amplified speakers and you could rock the house. The 8 station preset limitation is easily circumvented by registering on the Reciva website and putting additional stations in your "My stuff" folder. Reboot the radio and "My stuff" becomes a menu option. Media streaming works flawlessly, but if you have a large (multi-GB) media library I recommend pointing it to a smaller folder with select songs.

On the negative side, out of the box you could read from the light the clock display puts out, it's so bright. It took a few days, but I finally found a setting on the configuration menu that allows adjustment of the display levels in both active and standby modes. My only real gripe is with the remote. Except for the snooze button, the configuration of the other buttons is identical whether the remote is right side up or upside down. I've found a number of times (especially at night) that I'm holding the blasted thing upside down! Also the buttons aren't intuitively placed. The scroll buttons and the select button which are commonly used together are nowhere near each other. Except for these minor annoyances this is a solid product with lots of great features. If I could, I'd give it 4-1/2 stars.

Started having trouble with the radio one month after the 90 day warranty ran out. It quit working when it was six months old. I contacted customer service via e-mail (no contact tel.#) they answered telling what to do to fix it, and said that if this did not fix it that the cost to fix it would be $100 or more. So it is a $150 dollar piece of junk. Buy something that has a better warranty, and better customer service.

I owned a CC Plus radio for a number of years and thought it was great with excellent design and performance. Then I got hooked on Internet radio with its clarity and wide selection. So, for some time I used an older laptop as the input to my CC Plus radio. This worked pretty well until my son asked for the old laptop. So, I decided to shop for an Internet radio and chose the Sanyo R227.

First, the good news. I get the same clarity, wide selection, and decent performance from the R227. I use it as a bedside radio and enjoy talk radio programs for awhile as I drop off to sleep. I maintain that this radio was, at the time, probably the best compromise between function and price at the time I purchased, and I do not regret the purchase for that reason. Set up was not difficult, sound is a bit bassy, but not a problem and perhaps better for music. So, don't get me wrong. It's a pretty neat radio. The choices are endless!

Now, the bad news. I think the functional design of this radio is truly lacking. The biggest issue, perhaps, is the fact that you cannot shut down the display illumination (bright as a spotlight when you're trying to fall asleep)if the radio is on. Isn't this absurd if one uses this as a bedside radio? This sure is not a problem with my CC Plus radio. To add insult to injury, I call the Sanyo support phone number and some bored tech tells me that no, you can't turn off the light while the radio is on and suggests I turn the radio around on my night stand so it does not shine at me! What a helpful genius. Anyway, I point out the shortcomings of this lack of functionality and suggest that the next software update remedy this situation. I got one of those "Sure, Mac, now let me get back to my coffee." type answers. Not impressed at all if this is the caliber of their support. My solution is to hang an old credit card (with adhesive tape)over the display. This way I can flap it up or down. It's not elegant, but I suppose it will have to do.

Furthermore, you get 8 lousy pre-sets to deal with the thousands of station choices available to you. Buttons are all tiny (no convenient dial to control volume), as is the situation with the miniature remote. In other words, using this radio as a bedside radio in the dark is a serious challenge-- never an issue with any previous radio. As others have reported, there are a handful of stations I used to listen to via my computer that, for some obscure Reciva reason, are not available on the R227. It's not a huge deal because of the thousands of other choices, but it is slightly annoying. Don't count on much functionality with respect to listening to your MP3 collection back on your PC, either. Can you do it? Well, yeah, but it's pretty clunky.

All in all, it is worth the $155 but be aware of the shortcomings of this radio. I give the design a "D" and everything else an "A-".

I have had this unit for only one day. I found the set-up to be non-intuitive
but manageable with time and patience. The sensitivity of the unit is terrible:
it has difficulty finding signals that are easily recognized by other devices
and it loses signals when they are detected. I'm afraid that I paid $175 for a
paperweight.