Sangean WR-11SE AM/FM Table Top Radio 40th Anniversary Edition Walnut

I frequently use my laptop at my kitchen counter and I like to stream music while I work. I'd been plugging my computer into a JBL 200ID iPhone speaker dock, but I was getting tired of having almost no audible bass in my music. I wanted to get a better sound without spending a fortune, but there were few speakers for $100 or less that were an improvement over the JBL. (A 2.1 computer speaker system would probably have done the trick cheaply, but this is a kitchen counter, not an office desk.) I'd heard good things about Tivoli and Sangean radios, so I thought I'd try them out. They have aux-in jacks, so I could still connect my speaker, and having a radio would mean I could listen to basketball and football games while working or cooking.After some research I decided I couldn't afford the Tivoli, so I ended up with a Crosley CR221, and then a Sangean WR-11. Here's the comparison of those two radios:The Crosley CR221I got the Crosley first. I liked the retro look--kind of an art deco or old aviation theme. My wife liked it too. She wasn't a fan of the look of most speaker docks in the kitchen, but this is one she was actually happy to have. The Crosley is very compact, and can sit reasonably close to the wall, though plugs do stick out the back. The plug is a small A/C adapter. One nice feature that the Crosley has is a selector switch that can choose between "Off", "FM", "AM", AND "Aux". As other reviewers have said, the Crosley does have a surprising amount of bass for such a little unit.Unfortunately, as much as I liked the style of the radio, there were a few flaws which led me to try the Sangean WR-11 instead. First, the AM radio reception was not as good as I'd hoped. Our major local sports station does not come into my house very cleanly. My cheap stereo tuner in the living room can pick it up, but with a fair amount of static. I had hoped that the Crosley, designed first and foremost to be a radio, would do better. Unfortunately it did much worse. No matter where I put it in the house I could barely get the station. Secondly, despite having some bass, the Crosley just didn't sound very good with music. I was really disappointed because other reviewers had described it as having good sound. Maybe they were just surprised that such a small radio could reproduce bass notes. It did produce more bass than my old JBL speaker, but there's more to good sound than bass, and it just didn't have a pleasant overall sound that makes you want to listen. I was disappointed enough that I decided I needed to try something else. Enter the Sangean...The Sangean WR-11The Sangean, like the Crosley, looks good in a retro kind of way. I actually like the natural wood look of the Sangean better. The Sangean is a bit bigger than the Crosley, both in depth and width, but it's still small and looks good on a kitchen counter. It uses a regular power cord rather than the wall wart A/C adapter of the Crosley. This is both good and bad. The good side is that the plug takes up little space on your wall outlet, and it's not constantly sucking power even when turned off like A/C adapters do. The bad part is that the cord is thicker and sticks out further from the back of the radio, meaning you can't get it as close to the wall, and it's harder to hide on a countertop. Also, the selector switch doesn't have an "aux in" setting on it like the Crosley. When you plug an auxiliary cable into the back of the Sangean, it automatically switches to aux in. You then can't turn on the AM or FM radio without unplugging the auxiliary cable first. This would be a hassle if I were constantly switching between the radio and my computer, but since I don't switch back and forth too often it doesn't bother me.After the Crosley, the Sangean was a huge improvement. The first thing I noticed was the sound. It was everything the Crosley was missing. The sound is full, deep, rich, and just sounds great for music. It brought an involuntary smile to my face the first time I heard it. For it's size the Sangean has good, warm bass. It's not overwhelming, and it doesn't have the precision or the depth of a speaker system, but it just sounds good. The rest of the sound is very well balanced. It's shocking to hear such good sound coming from a 3 inch speaker in a small unit like this. Of course, it's not incredibly loud. It's great in my kitchen, but this is not a replacement for a stereo system, and it won't keep up volume-wise with more expensive speaker docks.The other big improvement over the Crosley is the AM reception. It does much better at pulling in that sports station.All in all, I highly recommend the Sangean WR-11. It actually costs less than the Crosley, but I would have chosen it even if it cost a bit more. At $80 it's just a great piece of equipment. I'm very satisfied with it.

If I could, I would rate this radio a 10! I have been looking for a radio that fits nicely on a small bedside table that has excellent FM sound and this radio has it all! I purchased it as a birthday gift for an elderly disabled relative who loves the Philadelphia Phillies.Both FM and AM sound are crisp and clear and finding the radio Phillies station was simple. A little green light goes on when you find the best sound for the station, and I find this to be a great idea so I don't have to keep moving the dial needlessly. The wooden design is beautiful and the set-up was very simple.It has an earphone socket plus and internal system and an external antenna terminal as well as a stereo jacket.If you want a solid, easy to use radio, I highly recommend this one.

Absolute most fabulous plug in am/fm home radio. Been trying radios for months. This has strong signals, clear sound, dial lights up when on. Thrilled I finally found atop of the line radio and wroth the $. Exceptional quality.

I absolutely love this radio! I've actually bought two of them because I liked them so much. One has a slight issue which I'll explain later. First, the sound quality is fantastic for a tabletop radio. I do not find it too "bassy", but keep in mind that I mainly listen to classical music. I could see where some people might think it sounded too bass heavy on an NPR newscast. If that is the case, you can place a cotton ball (or other sound dampening cloth) in the port on the back. It absolutely will not damage the speaker, so feel free to try this if you want to.The sensitivity of this radio is great on both AM and FM. Way better than my Tivoli Model One on AM in particular. It does not have 'soft muting' between AM stations. It has full sensitivity. If you are picking up noise and interference on AM, it is due to where you have the radio located. It is not the fault of the radio. AM is very much affected by interference from lighting, computers, motors, and just about everything else. The only solution is to move the radio or connect an external AM antenna (there are terminals for this). Do not blame the radio! I have no problem picking up weak stations. This radio was not designed for "DXing" but it will pick up a lot of distant stations at night. It's a good compromise between selectivity and fidelity. It is not a communications receiver with narrow filters. The FM sensitivity is surprisingly excellent. I use (and recommend) an external FM antenna. Internal or line cord FM antennas are poor at best. They may work for you in your situation; you can try it and see. I have my WR-11 connected to a large rooftop yagi and I use it to listen to a classical station more than 60 miles away. That is a pretty good feat these days considering the way the FCC has allowed the FM band to be degraded with a lot of additional FM stations as part of their so-called "AM Revitalization" program. In reality they are turning the FM band into an interference-ridden mess, just like the AM band. The sensitivity of this radio on FM compares favorably with my much more expensive tuners. The selectivity is also pretty good. The classical station I listen to on 90.5 if flanked by stations on 90.3 and 90.7 and I am in an area with dozens and dozens of strong local stations.I like the fact that this model has the power supply built in rather than being a wall wart (like the WR-15). The power supply does not draw much power when it is turned off. I measured it with my Kill-a-Watt and it actually draws only 1.1 watts when it is off (not 5 watts like another reviewer said). That is insignificant. When it is playing at moderate volume it draws 3-4 watts. And it has no audible hum (like the Tivoli has).A couple of notes about the audio. Yes, if you plug a cable into the aux input on the back, it will automatically disconnect the radio given that there is no separate switch for this function. Also if you plug in a pair of stereo headphones, it will play in both ears but the sound will be in mono, not stereo as claimed by another reviewer. Therefore, you can't use this radio as a tuner for your stereo system if you want full stereo sound.As far as the tuning dial accuracy is concerned, I would judge it to be excellent for an analog slide-rule type of dial. And the tuner stays tuned in quite solidly on one of my two sets. The other one does drift a bit, and this is the issue I mentioned earlier. I don't know why one of them drifts and the other one doesn't although the one that drifts is in my cabin where the temperature is not as well controlled. Temperature changes do affect tuning elements and that could certainly be part of the problem, but I have a feeling that even so, that one is just not quite as stable.If you get this radio, I think you are sure to love it. The wooden case is also very nice. It's a high quality product.UPDATE: Watch out, the tuner in the 40th Edition model is different and not as good as the original! Unfortunately, Amazon does not differentiate between the two models in the reviews, and this happens with other products also. They have changed the tuner design and it now incorporates the "soft muting" characteristic on AM. If you want to listen to a weak station, it will be heard at greatly reduced volume. I found that AM reception was generally poor compared to the original model, and also picked up a lot of static. I am not sure whether the static is coming from the internal power supply or just being conducted from the AM line. There is no high end on AM, it is all bass. Subjectively it sounds like they rolled off the frequency response above about 500 Hz!Unfortunately they also changed the tuner on FM as well and it has also been degraded. When tuning across a station, it comes in at three distinct points, accompanied by a distinct "click" sound as it locks onto each one. The middle one is the strongest one and the two outer ones will be heard at slightly reduced volume. In addition, stations can be heard at even lower volume beyond those points. This seems to be true even for stations that are not very strong. I don't know what they were thinking when they changed the design of the tuner. It is not an improvement.That said, the sound quality on FM is still excellent, and it is superior to other small table radios that I have tested. If I could give separate ratings for various features of the 40th Edition model I would rate it like this:* Sound quality on AM - 2 Stars (mediocre)* Sound quality on FM - 5 Stars (awesome)* AM tuner performance - 1 Star (horrible!)* FM tuner performance - 2 Stars (mediocre)I am not sure, but I suspect that Sangean may have changed the tuner design in the current production of the regular model WR-11 radios to the new design. I am not going to buy one to find out, because I already own two older ones which were fine. But if you buy either model of this radio, be advised that it might have the issues discussed above. Because of the poor tuner performance of the current design, I have decided to drop my overall rating from 5 stars to 3 stars.