WR-11 Wood Cabinet AM/FM Tabletop Analog Radio, Powerful Speaker

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 CR221 I 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-11 The 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 you want something that's just a radio, this is the product you want. Simple. Minimal. Analog. This radio does 1 thing and it does it very well. It's simple and easy to use. The front of the radio has 3 controls: a volume knob, an Off/FM/AM selector knob, and a large tuning knob. All the controls feel like they're solidly constructed and will last a long time. The tuning knob is larger than the rest and feels very smooth while turning. It provides a slight resistance compared to the volume knob and is geared in a way that makes fine tuning easy. It takes a handful of turns to traverse the entire frequency spectrum. When switched on, the numbers and notches on the frequency indicator light up and the FM or AM label on the left side lights up brightly depending on which band is selected. The tuning LED lets you know when you're receiving a strong signal. The speaker is surprisingly loud and sounds very good. Typically I listen with the volume knob at 9 o'clock. If I want to get loud, I'll turn it up to 12 o'clock and still have plenty of headroom left. As with other Sangean products I've tried, there is a heavy boost to bass frequencies. This can make music sound better, but also has the effect of de-emphasizing static and noise, making the radio sound clearer even when it's not getting a clear signal. With just the included FM wire antenna attached, it got very good reception and clearly picked up stations that other radios struggle to pick up. AM reception seemed very good as well. However AM reception can be problematic with a table radio as the radios orientation in relation to the transmitter can make a huge difference and if your radio is near a source of interference, you may pick up additional noise. If you don't want to move or rotate your radio, an external AM antenna can alleviate this issue. The design of this radio is minimalist and very easy on the eyes. It almost seems as if it was sculpted from a single mass rather than constructed from separate parts. The wooden cabinet and few controls give it a vintage look and feel, however the wood on the unit I received did have a couple knots in it, making it look a little less nice than the unit pictured. There is only 1 thing I do not like about this radio. When the aux input on the back of the unit has a cable plugged in, the radio turns off even when the other end of the cable is unplugged. This wouldn't be a problem if the aux input was on the front of the unit, or if it turned the radio off when the other end of the cable was plugged in, but when the jack is on the back of the unit the auxiliary input less practical to use. This is a shame as the speaker is surprisingly good. Even though it's only mono, it would be worth using. Overall, this is probably the best value for a table radio on Amazon assuming you don't need additional frequency bands or other bells and whistles. If you need presets, stereo sound, digital tuning, bluetooth or the myriad of additional features you can find on radios now, you should probably look elsewhere.

The Sangean WR-11 is a good, basic, table radio with excellent sound quality. It is a direct competitor to the Tivoli Model One and costs slightly less than the Model One. I have now used both the WR-11 and the Model One and can say they are both top notch table radios. The Sangean has an illuminated dial which is a nice feature when used in dark room, but the controls are very similar to the Tivoli. There’s a volume knob, A band selector that doubles as the power switch (very simple) and a tuning knob. This is a simple AM/FM radio with amazing sound. The back panel has antenna inputs for both AM and FM antennas, but the radio has internal antennas as well. The radio can be powered by mains (120 VAC 60 Hz for the U.S.A. and there are European 240 VAC 50 Hz versions available if that’s what you need). The radio also has a 12 Volt DC input that allows operation from a low voltage DC power source. This could be very useful if used in conjunction with a solar array or 12-volt battery. There is an auxiliary input if you want to feed audio from a source other than the tuner (like an I-pod, CD player, etc.) There’s a headphone jack and recorder output as well. The front firing speaker and tuned rear port produce sound that is far above the expectations of such a small radio. Sangean really meets the Tivoli Model One head-on in this regard. Cons – The radio is a little pricy for a basic analog table radio. The cabinet is not solid wood but rather MDF with a veneer on it. This is entirely acceptable, but the advertising is a bit deceptive about this feature. Pros – Amazing sound quality. Simple controls. Well equipped back panel. AC and DC operation possible. Illuminated dial. Small size. What’s in the box? You get the radio, an AC power cord, an external FM antenna with a push-on connector and a manual. The radio is well packaged and should survive all but the worst shipping conditions. Bottom Line: For a little less money than a Tivoli Model One you get a table radio with outstanding sound quality.

This review takes a brief look at the tuning, reception and audio performance aspects of the Sangean WR-11 wood cabinet radio. Tuning--Very precise feel/resistance as you turn the tuner knob. No play whatsoever. During the limited test period I didn't notice any station drift on either AM or FM. AM--I didn't do a total station reception test on this band. A Select-A-Tenna unit helped clean up some signals on the lower end of the dial but I couldn't seem to get any signal improvement on the upper end. This wasn't surprising because my experience has shown me that higher quality AM tuners show less improvement with these kind of inductive coupling devices. So in light of the limited time I spent experimenting with this set, I'd rate the AM tuner in the WR-11 as respectable. This product was purchased primarily for monitoring of a strong AM signal. On that band it just didn't have the voice clarity I was hoping for so I returned mine to Amazon. Sangean seems to be known for their great tuners so I wish they'd invest the effort in at least one 2-band model that utilizes switchable wide-band AM technology as was included on the GE Superadio. FM--The WR-11 snagged 21 FM signals at my home location (ground level) using the internal antenna. Connecting a set of FM-only "rabbit ears" allowed the radio to pick up an additional 18 stations. A Friday evening listening session proved to me why a number of reviewers like the way this radio sounds while listening to public radio. Our local public radio station appears to use audio processing that is less aggressive compared to the commercial rock stations. That approach works well with the ported cabinet and "locked-in" bass/treble settings of this unit. Once I found a "sweet spot" in my living room (a bit more than 2 feet out from a corner), upright bass sounded no different than the bass from my main stereo which cost hundreds more. On the other hand, the overall FM treble response, clarity and presence of my main system was noticeably better than that of the WR-11. With the radio at ear level, the WR-11 presented a rather narrow sound field as there was a noticeable drop-off in treble response with minimal movement from side to side in the listening area. I didn't attempt any auxiliary source testing. A person must keep in mind that this is a monophonic table radio in the sub-$100 price class. So in spite of some audible shortcomings, the overall performance and features for the price make this product a great value. For me it's efforts like this that continue to make the high performance table radio category one of the most interesting and fun areas to watch in the audio field. Update--3/6/16 After sending this radio back, my wife wanted a radio for the kitchen. We tried a CCrane model but for various reasons it wasn't going to work out so that one went back too. Then I heard that a local box store was selling the WR-11. Since AM would seldom be used in the kitchen, we bought one and both of us really like it. In fact, I like it so much that sometimes I'll take it off the refrigerator, bring it into the living room and scan the AM and FM dials. I'm still disappointed with the AM audio quality but reception on that band is excellent. FM audio and reception is also great. One evening I hooked up an old GE Optima indoor antenna and received about 54 FM stations. Granted, not all of them were great quality signals but most were. As I recall, I had placed the antenna in the window. In our case, we live in a street level apartment so I feel this is fantastic reception. Just for fun I hooked it up to see how it would sound when reproducing over-the-air TV audio. It did a very nice job and I wouldn't hesitate to use it this way again if necessary. Listening with Koss Porta Pro headphones yielded far too much bass for me. All in all, this is still a neat radio.

I am not an audio expert. I understand that a device of this size, with a single speaker can have its limitations. I definitely took the large number of positive reviews into consideration when I made my purchase. Totally paid off. I wish I could give 4.5 stars for two minor reasons. No tone control, and no Aux In control. Minor problems, but they are the only reason I wouldn't give a perfect rating. This is a great radio at just about every level. Without an external antenna, reception is pretty remarkable. With it, the reception's even better. Controls are obvious, easy, and effective. The tuning dial has a firm resistance that really lets you fine-tune with ease. I do wish there was a tone dial, because the bass can be a bit much with some rock/hip-hop/etc music. I listen to a fair amount of radio, but one of the really important criteria for me was the ability to play music from my mp3 player (a SanDisk Sansa Clip+). The audio quality is excellent here as well. Any device with a standard-sized headphone jack on it will work just fine here, just plug it in and the radio defers do your device. There's no control which is a bit of a letdown since you have to get to the rear of this device and unplug your cable any time you want to change back and forth. The ability to control this and leave the cable plugged in would be great. Great size to get on most shelves/countertops. Approximately the size of a loaf of bread (think Brownberry/Pepperidge Farm rather than Wonder though). That's about it. It's handsome, sounds lovely, works very well as a radio or audio-device speaker, and has only two minor setbacks: no tone control, no aux-in control. I would definitely recommend it, just know these little things prevent a perfect rating.

Great sound and pulls in stations better than my Bose. Great radio and good price.

I bought this radio to replace an old Sony portable that I've had in the bathroom for about 20 years. Not long ago, the Sony gave up the ghost, and I was looking for a replacement. I guess you get used to how bad a radio can sound after a while. The old Sony was never a particularly high end radio. The antenna or tuning dial often needed adjustment to get good reception, and the sound quality was, frankly, lousy. But for listening to the news in the shower, I guess it sufficed. Enter the Sangean. I'm thoroughly taken with the amazing difference in reception and in sound quality. I tuned into my local NPR station when I got the new Sangean. The reception is perfect. No drifting, no need to be always adjusting the tuning dial or the antenna. But it was the difference in sound that really blew my socks off! Full, rich sound came flowing out that made me realize just HOW terrible that old Sony was. At first, I thought it was too bad that the old radio gave out. But once I turned on this new one, I realized that the demise of my old radio was nothing less than a blessing in disguise. The radio is an appropriate size that fits inside a small closet in the bathroom, taking up little space. The port in the rear produces rich base, but the sound is not muddy. I've been using it for about a month now, and am very pleased with the radio. Haven't tried the AM band, but impressed with how well it remains locked in on my FM station. And I DON'T have a long telescopic antenna getting in my way in the closet like I used to with the old Sony. I also like that it turns on with the band selection knob, rather than the volume control, so that it is always at the same volume I left it. Easy to read lighted dial for easy tuning, and only 3 simple knobs - One for volume, one for on/off/FM/AM, and one for tuning stations. Everything you need in one easy dashboard right up front. If you're looking for a small tabletop radio with nice sound, and ridiculous ease of use, this could be just what you're looking for. It's just what I was looking for!

My Dad owns this radio and I have admired it for a few years so I decided to order one for my home office. I like the wood cabinet and retro look with the analog dial. It is easy to tune in stations and the green light above the dial goes bright green when you are getting the strongest signal. I live in the Los Angeles area and get excellent reception on both AM and FM with just the built in antenna. I hooked up an external antenna and I did not notice any difference so I just use the built in antenna. I own several radios and notice this radio has the best reception by far. Have you ever noticed how most car radios get the best radio reception? Well this radio seems like it gets car radio type reception. The best part about this radio is the sound. It has deep, rich, beautiful tones. It is difficult to describe the sound, but there is just something different about it that you don't hear with other radios. I have also noticed the sound does not get distorted when you turn the volume up full blast. Of course it only has one speaker so it will not replace an expensive stereo system and fill a house with music for a party. But if you want to hear music or talk radio in a large living room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom, patio, etc., this radio does a great job. I can turn this on in our living room and the music sounds good in our kitchen and dining room too. While this does have a MP3 jack for your iPhone, the only down side to this radio is no blue tooth or no remote control. I've heard you can get a device that plugs in to the MP3 jack that is a blue tooth adapter so you can stream to it. By the way, I was so happy with this radio, I ordered the Sangean WR22 for my office at work because it has a remote and blue tooth. I was really sorry I did. I returned the radio because it just did not have the sound excellent reception and sound as the WR11 analog radio.

I am living in Trivandrum ,Kerala State, South India.I have been longing for a sensitive radio which can pick up distant stations in both AM and FM bands.After reading so many reviews stating that the SANGEAN WR 11 is a good radio,I ordered for this product. But the performance of the radio is disappointing.I am not using a Switch Mode Power Supply as it may cause disturbance in hearing AM band .I am using a converter of 25 watts to convert 230 Volts AC into 120 Volts AC to plug in the radio. This radio can accept only 120 Volts AC or 12 Volts DC, 1 Amp. . As far as the FM band is concerned, the sound quality is perfect.The prime quality of a radio should be its sensitivity which this radio lacks. It cannot pick up distant FM stations.My old Indian made PHILIPS radio could trace four FM stations from Tamil Nadu,my nearby state, other than five local FM stations of my state. Only local powerful FM stations can be heard through this radio.Regarding the AM band it is totally useless. Only some noise is coming out. Even at night I could not hear even a single AM station through this radio.I thought it may be due to the signals from some nearby electronic devices.But when I tried with my Indian made PHILIPS radio,it could pick up more than twenty five AM stations at night.,So if you want to hear only the local powerful FM stations in good sound quality you may purchase this radio.Don't expect anything more. The price is high when the overall performance is concerned. The vintage look and design of this radio with wooden cabinet is appreciable. Edit:- Now it is more than three months since I purchased this product. I thought that it might be due to the lack of a good out door antenna that this radio is not picking up distant stations. I purchased an omnidirectional FM antenna through Amazon and mounted it at the top of my house and connected it to this radio's external FM ant terminal using a coaxial cable.To my surprise,I could hear several distant FM stations clearly .I get FM stations even from Kochi now. I am sure this radio can pick up more distant stations if I raise the height of the external antenna.But due to the threat of lightning I can't do it now. I connected an external AM antenna too and now I am getting several AM stations .So now I am changing my rating of this radio to 4 star from 2 star. I love this radio .

J'ai longtemps hésité mais je suis très satisfait de cet achat. La qualité de construction est très bonne, l'appareil est basique (ce que je voulais), il est connecté sur la prise antenne FM du câble (la réception par voie hertzienne est mauvaise dans mon village). La radio fonctionne du matin au soir sur la même station. Le son est déroutant au début, Le petit HP et l'évent des basses à l'arrière donnent une grosse sonorité, les basses sont très présentes (trop pour certains) mais cela peut être corrigé en ne plaçant pas l'appareil trop près du mur et en évitant les coins. Une autre solution est de placer un morceau de mousse dans l'évent ce qui filtre les basses dans les éradiquer. Bref que du bon.

I've had this radio for six days now and have been putting it through the paces. I listen to radio a lot and was getting tired of my plastic cheapy and dealing with it and decided to treat myself to an upgrade. I didn't want anything fancy or big or too expensive as my needs are modest. I have been very happy with this solid little radio to date. I really love its retro looks and simplicity and have a lot of fun using the tuning knob. It can be a lot of bass and fuzzy at louder volumes but that in itself has its own warm appeal. Generally I do not listen to radio at high volumes anyways; I use my Bose sound dock and ipod for that. I've been moving it around from room to room depending on where I am and it functions well all over the house no matter whether day or night. I don't always get the clarity I would like on some stations I like to listen to (both talk and music) but not sure that is the fault of the radio. I was debating between this model WR 11 and a Tivoli Model One but the looks and price of this one along with the amount of positive Amazon reviews swayed me to the Sangean. I'm sure the Tivoli is a great little radio too and I may get one at some point down the line. I had originally ordered the WR-12 model for about $203 including free shipping from Amazon but they were out of stock and after waiting about a month or so for the order to get filled I cancelled and went with the WR-11 as it was cheaper and would most likely meet my needs. Must say I was totally shocked how fast it arrived as I don't have Amazon Prime and I ordered I believe late last Friday night and it was on my doorstep on Sunday morning....Bonus. Koodos to Amazon for such good packaging as the radio came in its original sturdy box packaged well inside a bigger Amazon box and arrived without being banged up at all. I decided to order the WR-12 as well as it came back in stock this week and I'd like to have another so I'm not carting this one around so much. I'm looking forward to trying out the base and treble controls. It just arrived by Fed Ex as I'm writing this up and am looking forward to un-packaging it and trying it out today. Amazon didn't do any extra packaging on this one by inserting the boxed product into one of their bigger Amazon boxes with some extra packing which may be a good idea as the Sangean box came banged up and dented. Luckily the radio itself is well housed inside and wasn't damaged. Overall, the WR-11 itself seems to be a good little radio and I'm happy with it. Update: I've unpackaged the WR-12 and have been comparing it up against the WR-11 model. I really enjoy having the treble and base control and subwoofer and I would say if you like your radio loud that this might be the better model...if you're got an extra $70. I find it is a clearer sound at a higher volume and really rocks with the subwoofer...wow. The WR-11 seems more pleasing to listen to at a lower volume on the current radio station I am on (fm music and talk mix). I currently have the WR-11 stacked on top of the WR-12 and have them both cranked up midway.....now that's a really thumping, nice sound ha ha! Don't think anyone can go wrong with either one of these cuties....they don't take up much room (the WR-12 isn't much bigger than the WR-11) and can easily be carted anywhere around the house and look great. I wanted two good tabletop radios so know I'll be more than happy with these two. Thanks Sangean.

Good product

Zuerst wollte ich mir das Vorgängermodell bestellen, wollte mich aber nicht mit dem AM-FM-Durchschaltproblem rumschlagen so dass meine Entscheidung dann doch zugunsten des 11ers ausgefallen ist. Der Klang ist für meinen Geschmack absolut perfekt. Zwar mit Bass aber nicht zu kräftig. Dadurch klingen Stimmen eher angenehm warm und nicht wie aus einer Mono-Metalldose. Das übrigens auch bei sehr leiser Einstellung (Das Gerät steht bei mir auf dem Tisch am Arbeitsplatz). Die Sender werden sauber und mit ordentlicher Trennschärfe gefunden, haben mit der integrierten Antenne einen glasklaren Empfang (Stadt im Rhein-Main-Gebiet) und müssen auch nach Wochen nicht nachjustiert werden. Insgesamt kommt das Radio schlicht und elegant daher, punktet dann aber mit sinnvollen Anschlüssen (AUX und Kopfhörer, sowie externe Antenne) an der Rückseite. Das Holzgehäuse (Echtholz) in Walnuss sieht phantastisch aus und verstärkt mit der cremefarbenen Front (dicker Kunststoff) den Nostalgiefaktor nochmals kräftig. Die Lautsprecherabdeckung ist aus Metall gefertigt. Die LED am Sendersuchknopf leuchtet bei starken Sendern und flackert bei schwachem Signal oder Rauschen. Die Feinjustierung wird somit erleichtert. Getestet wurde der Klang vom iPod touch G3 über den Aux-Anschluss. Wichtig natürlich die Lautstärke am Zuspieler voll aufzudrehen und dann über das Radio zu regeln um Verzerren zu vermeiden. Wie schon von einem anderen Kritiker bestätigt, ist der Klang qualitativ nicht zu beanstanden. Dass ständig Kollegen fragen, woher ich das Radio denn habe, spricht auch eine deutliche Sprache. Also: Kaufen - über Preis nicht nachdenken - an einem optischen und klanglichen Schmuckstück erfreuen.