Review
Great radio, but... (August 08, 2012)
| Ease of Use |
|
(5/5.0) |
| Value |
|
(4/5.0) |
| Performance |
|
(5/5.0) |
| Overall Rating |
|
(5/5.0) |
Reviewed By: Eric F. - Washington, DC
I ordered my Sangean WR-5 radio from Vann’s through Amazon.com and have been using it for about 3 weeks now.
Overall, I'm very happy. First, I like the looks of the unit, which Sangean markets as Classic, Mid-century design. I'm not sure what this means, exactly, as I don't think radios actually looked like this in the mid 20th century 1940s, 1950s, & 1960s, but I will say that the WR-5 looks modern, yet vaguely vintage at the same time.
Regarding the sound, although I am not an audiophile, I would also go so far as to say that the sound of the WR-5 is excellent, possibly even outstanding.” Its speakers produce sound that is clear, deep, and full.
In fact, I recently bought another Sangean tabletop radio WR-2 for another room in the house and actually returned it because the WR-5’s sound was noticeably better. I plan to buy a second WR-5.
I think the WR-5 sounds so much better than its cousin for 2 reasons 1 the WR-5 has dual speakers whereas the WR-2 sports only a single speaker 2 the WR-5s speakers are simply better Sangean markets the WR-5 as having Passive Reflex speakers and 3D expandable functionality, technologies which may account for the superior sound or they may just be marketing buzz words, who knows. Whatever the reason, I think Sangean has incorporated fairly high quality speakers in the WR-5. Note This is not to say that the WR-2 is a bad radio…it does have very good sound, and, according to many Amazon reviews, actually sounds better than higher-priced, single-speaker competitors.
HOWEVER, there is a problem with my unit. It is, admittedly, a small problem, but one that’s so annoying that I actually plan to exchange my WR-5 radio for a new unit.
What’s the problem? The WR-5 is designed to display the date day, month, year on its screen. However, in what I hope is a glitch specific to my unit only, the month part of the date randomly switches to an incorrect month. At the end of July 2012, for example, it would switch to April, on the display, and then switch back to July, again, a bit later. Now that we are in August, I've noticed that it randomly changes to May, and then a little while later changes back to the correct month August. I have tried numerous times to manually override and correct the date, but to no avail.
One other small criticism---the WR-5 only allows users to pre-set 6 stations---which I think is too few for many parts of the United States, particularly urban areas.
Overall, this is a great radio and I highly recommend it based upon both looks and sound. I hope the date glitch is not a broad-based problem with the WR-5.