Sangean WR-2 AM/FM-RBDS Wooden Cabinet Digital Tuning Radio (Walnut)

I'm giving this a five, but I've had it for only a month, so time will ultimately tell! I needed a clock radio (or, if you prefer, a table radio with an an alarm clock) to replace a Boston Acoustics one that I loved but which didn't last nearly long enough. The BA radio still has great sound but the alarm became unreliable and it started losing time faster and faster. This one is just as good, but I hope the clock function will do better in the longevity department.I like to wake up to a clock radio with good reception and sound. For me, it sets the tone (so to speak) for the day. Static or tinny music first thing in the morning makes me grumpy. So does being awaken too abruptly. I continue to listen to it while I get dressed and so forth. So that's where I'm coming from with this. I don't do AM. I'm not concerned with attaching gadgets.As others have said, this radio has excellent sound for the price, with adjustment possible for treble and bass. I was blown away by the FM sound it had right out of the box on the internal antenna. I still haven't attached the small wire external antenna, though I do intend to do so. I haven't tried the remote control yet either.I really like the way this radio looks - it makes me happy. Its footprint is only slightly larger than the Boston Acoustics radio that I had, which is good. It has a "humane" alarm feature for both the radio and buzzer alarm. This is okay but the BA radio either started out softer or took a slightly longer time to reach full power. I liked that better, but this is adequate.The only problem I've had is that the RDS automatic time setting worked for setting the time but for 5-10 minutes or so after it first connected, it showed the time as exactly five hours earlier than it was. I found this unnerving upon waking up in the morning, so I changed it to manual and there's no problem. (I've never had any luck with this feature or with atomic-set clocks where I live.) I do like the idea of the automatic set and might try it again eventually.I find the buttons and the instruction booklet to be pretty simple and intuitive. I say that as someone who first bought a less expensive Sangean clock radio (RCR-5BK Digital AM/FM Clock Radio) that I did return to Amazon because I found it more difficult and unintuitive than I would potentially need to deal with late at night. For me, this one is much better. I think this is partly a matter of what one is used to. The WR-2 settings are similar to the the Boston Acoustics radio I was using.Either there has been some improvement in the radio's features since the earliest Amazon reviews or people were missing things. For example, the product description on Amazon as I write this seems to me to be accurate in terms of things like the length and function of the battery back up and it does have a snooze function If you're looking at this radio now, don't necessarily go by early criticisms regarding a lack of specific features..

Overall, this is a really neat little package, with very good sound quality (for a 3" speaker with bass ported out the back), and useful features like the in/out jacks, remote, presets, and cool blue-ish display with scrolling RDS info. The sound is crisp and clean with good separation. The bass is there too, but not overdone (as I truly disliked on my early bose wave radio- too much artificial resonating through the 'soundwave' tunnels, which made it sound muddled at times, and no way to reduce the bass effect.. perhaps better for having more presence in a bigger room and giving the impression of a larger system, but also not as clean as a $350 radio should sound- for what I prefer anyway..). Now, there still is one radio that I feel sounds as good as the Sangean for half the price, although without the digital tuning and other nice features, and that my friends, is the original GE Superadio- Excellent reception, nice sounding 2-speaker system, and pretty much bullet-proof for as long as they've been around. I still have mine (at work) and will keep it until it dies or is stolen. Highly recommended also, if all you're after is manually tuning in a couple of favorite stations on a good sounding radio, but you won't have the line-in/out features, or presets, or remote, or slick display with RDS, which brings me back to the WR-2....Like I said, the sound quality is very good, without artificial boosting of the bass to muddy things up. And being able to fine-tune the bass and treble is extremely sweet. I think all radios over $100 should have it! Even the budget GE Superadios have it, so why not the Bose's and Tivoli's? P.S.: also considered the Boston Acoustics radio- but the reviews and evident problems scared me off, seems like they overpowered some circuits and were prone to failures... and that quite a few reviews said they were very bassy units.. I like 'cleaner' sound and better separation. Back to the WR-2... The black case, the fit and finish, the display, the features, the overall impression that they wanted to balance the usability, reliability, and sound quality, in a very well-rounded and well-built little package, for a reasonable $119.00 (with free shipping).... priceless :). I DID NOT intend to use the alarm clock features (as I understand they're less than friendly), so you might do what I did- buy a dedicated $15.00 alarm clock, and then you can focus on finding the BEST table radio with oustanding features and reliability. YES, I'll give the Bose Wave credit for having a very, very user-friendly alarm clock built-in, but in the end, I wasn't thrilled with the muddy bass sound (at certain frequencies). As far as the reception, it's been fine on FM (which is my main usage), with the suppied FM pigtail wire attached. I also tried a Radio Shack rabbit-ears antenna, which did nothing extra for me. A simple ribbon-type dipole antenna may be the best way to go, so I may throw one of those on there later. Of course, with the radio switched to 'external antenna', I pretty much LOST my AM reception (which was okay with the internal AM antenna), but I didn't buy this for AM/talk radio anyway. So... if you must have AM also, you'll probably want both an external FM and AM antenna.Overall, I'm quite impressed and very happy with my purchase (through Amazon...with quick FREE shipping). I have extremely pleasant, very well-balanced sound, which is also user-tuneable, for the moderate levels which I prefer, in a very slick and well-built unit. My FIRST Sangean, and it's a KEEPER! :)