Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Pleasant Surprise, February 15, 2008
Originally I had been eyeing the Tivoli radio brand because of their tuning sensitivity. I listen to late night AM radio and unfortunately most radio manufacturers produce poor quality radio receivers nowadays; from what I read on HD radio it didn't sound that beneficial to me, signals are said to cover less territory. I also wanted a CD player which meant the Tivoli would come in three pieces - too large for my night stand - and I assumed it would not play MP3's because the literature made no mention. To top it off I felt the Tivoli was too expensive so I searched for other makes and found the Sangean. Surprisingly, I could find only one professional and one personal review which made me cautious - why so little mention/notice? I am also leery of professional reviews as many times they won't say anything negative about a product due to advertising relationships.
After reading the reviews and specs, and finding a refurbished unit, I took the risk and made the purchased. What a pleasant surprise. The radio has a nice gloss black finish and is heavy, actually nicer than the pictures. Sound quality was better than expected even to my audiophile ears. I download favorite Internet radio MP3 interviews and load them to a USB thumb drive which plugs into the front of the Sangean. Control is mostly made from a thin card-like remote control. I highly recommend the item.
Improvements- Some notes on what I thought could be changed or didn't like but is true with most table top radios these days: blue lit display will dim but is still too bright, wish it had the option to turn off altogether. I think the USB slot should be in the rear of the radio so the cable or drive isn't hanging out front. I don't particularly like being dependant on the remote control, just in case it gets lost. It would be nice to have controls all on the unit. No battery back-up for presets and clock. If you lose power, guess what? You lose clock time, radio presets, and the clock alarm. So, if you set the alarm, lose power in the middle of the night, you might be late for work. Not too smart. Needs a battery backup. One other comment - Sangean makes an interesting wireless Internet radio. I would have been tempted to purchase that if it had all the other features of the WR-3. Why not combine Internet radio with AM/FM CD USB?
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A good unit...for specific applications., March 14, 2008
After much deliberation, and as much research as the Internet would afford me, I decided to buy this radio and try it firsthand. As always, I felt safer buying from Amazon because of their fair return policy and outstanding reputation. I knew I was going into this somewhat blindly because there are precious few reviews of this piece anywhere online, and even fewer by real folks like me.
Anyway, I got the product yesterday and test drove it in depth last night. Its first impression is an excellent one. The substantial heft and gorgeous "piano" finish would probably sell a ton of these radios if they were more readily available in stores. Set up was expectedly simple, and the user's manual wasn't needed until later on. Personally, I liked the metal, telescoping antenna mounted on the rear of the unit (where, by the way, you'll find a clean array of additional I/O plugs and the "3-D" sound selector. From every angle, this is a beautiful radio.
The first thing I did after plugging it in, was check a few local FM stations. They all came in very well, which was no surprise given Sangean's radio heritage. Be certain of one thing about this unit: it is a radio first, and then a CD player, audio file player, etc. The RDS feature was a novelty, but not as intuitive or lavish as I was hoping for. I'm not entirely familiar with what RDS normally provides on most equipment, though, and I don't fault this unit for anything in that respect.
It wasn't until I put in the first CD (a standard "red book" audio CD) that I experienced that all-too-familiar consumer electronics letdown. It didn't play. The unit acknowledged that it read the CD and recognized how many tracks were on it, etc. But I could not get it to play any of it. The CD was not suspect; in fact, I deliberately started with a CD that was playable on every piece of CD equipment I've owned. Subsequent discs, however, did work, and apparently with no further problems.
It was while I was waiting for the first CD to play that I removed a promotional sticker the factory had stuck on the front of the unit (advertising what types of media it can play). Where every other manufacturer I've seen has used a static-cling or no-residue adhesive to make sure the sticker comes off cleanly, such was not the case on this radio. The sticker came off with much effort and left behind quite a bit of very stubborn adhesive. This might've been negligible had this radio not been so beautifully finished, and the sticker not been put in so prominent a spot on the front. While this had no bearing on the player's performance, this was pretty disappointing to me.
In playing with the sound options--the part of this unit I had the most interest in and curiosity about--I ultimately realized that even the fine design and speaker capabilities of this radio/CD player are limited by the direction of the speakers and bass firing. In a very specific listening zone, this sounds pretty good. And by specific I mean, I found that directly facing the speakers from a distance of about 6 feet, with some peripheral area to either side, was ideal. Step much further outside this cone of sound, and the overall listening experience is compromised significantly (though the 3-D sound effect lessens the degradation a bit). This is more a limitation imposed by the direction of the speakers, and not by the design or components. But it's reason enough in my opinion to consider a radio/CD player with detachable speakers, unless you're using this on a nightstand or a very small room.
The USB and SD card input options are really fun novelties, and I wish more manufacturers would get hip to this simple technology. But in the end, when you have a unit that already plays MP3 CDs, these additional formats aren't as needed.
In the end, after only a day, I'm sending it back for a refund because of the fickle CD player issue. I'd rather not take my chances on this one. In a nutshell:
Pros:
-product feel and look
-simple set-up and easily moved
-excellent radio capability
-clean inputs and outputs on the back
-telescoping FM antenna
-full function remote
-SD card and USB drive options
Cons:
-Small "ideal listening zone"
-Unnecessarily bright display
Too bad these aren't in your local store where you can play around with them in advance. Hope this helps.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Featured Radio, June 22, 2008
I bought this radio for my kitchen, which is a high traffic, high use area. It has great sound but the features are the real sell. I was frustrated because most everything out there was focused on the iPod which I will never own. Also, most of the CD players will play mp3s but not wma format. My collection of thousands of songs are wma. This radio plays mp3 and wma formats from 3 different sources (USB drive, SD card or CD). It also has an aux jack so I can plug my (non-iPod) player in. Now, my kids and I can each have our own music on whatever media we like and just plug it in. On top of all this, it has RDS (Radio Data System) that tells you the names of songs and groups from radio stations that participate. I have always loved this feature on my car radio.
Now for the downside. All the functionality is on the remote. All you can do from the radio is power and volume. I would have liked a little more functionality available on the radio. Also, there does not seem to be a way to make it so the RDS display is the default. I have to hit the mode button when I switch to a station that supplies RDS. This radio is a little pricey but well worth it and much less expensive than the Bose Wave radio that has nowhere near the features.
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