Sangean WFR-20 WiFi Internet Radio & Media Player by Sangean
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Digital camera reviews of Sangean WFR-20 WiFi Internet Radio & Media Player
Digital camera Review: Does well what it is advertised to do
Summary: 5 Stars
This internet radio does well what it is advertised to do. It took me five minutes to set it up to work with my Linksys wireless router. I was able to save a large number of favorite stations as "My Stuff" after registering the radio at the Reciva Radio Portal. The single button/dial system is not difficult to use and, at night-time, in the dark, offers advantages over multi-button sytems.
Pros: Ease of use and set up; the Reciva linked system which enables easy access to thousands of radio stations and streams without having to use a computer; Real audio enabled, which the Roku R1000 is not, allowing listening to many streams, especially great BBC on demand streams, that cannot be picked up the Roku R1000.
Cons:
1. Low power speakers - will be sufficient for many listeners,but audiophiles will want to connect higher powered speakers, i.e. Logitech or Creative, via the auxilliary line out.
2. Does not accept DRM protected files. This deficiency is clearly stated in literature about the radio, and was, thus, not unexpected. Thus, Napster, and other media service files cannot be played on the radio. I do not think there is any device that plays both DRM protected files and Real audio streams, thus, when purchasing internet radio devices, it is necessary to choose between a device such as the Roku R1000, that plays premium service files, but has limited radio stream access, and a device such as the WFR-20 that does not play premium service files, but has extensive radio stream access. This is probably the most difficult decision that any purchase of these devices has to make. Since I enjoy listening to on-demand BBC streams, I opted for the for the WFR-20. I may one day add on a Roku M1000-like device so as to be able to access Napster, especially if Reciva does not add access to DRM streams, as they are, apparently, trying to do. The WFR-20 is not the right device for someone uninterested in international radio broadcasts seeking a device to wirelessly play their premium service playlists/downloads.
3. The clock is only visible consistently when the radio is in standby mode (off).
4. It would be nice if Reciva expanded the genres, eliminated radio stations that failed their listening tests, and subdivided the US stations by state.
5. Some reviewers on the internet have complained that this radio does not pick up analog AM/FM radio stations. I do not see this as a disadvantage. The internet radio probably picks up the local stations digitally via the internet better than most analog radios can pick them up, and a much less expensive conventional radio can be used to pick these stations up.
It can be useful, when looking for reviews, to know that the Sangean WFR-20 is the same as the Roberts WM-201 internet radio. The Roberts name is used in the United Kingdom, and the Sangean name is used elsewhere, including in continental Europe. Although the manual has pictures of the radio with 220 voltage input, the radio, as sold from Amazon in the U.S. has the U.S. 120 voltage input.
Digital camera Review: Don't do it
Summary: 1 Stars
I loved this radio for a few years (!) and discovered the new mantra of technology: an upgrade means reduced functionality. If you mistakenly upgrade to the current firmware, or it comes with the current firmware, this radio will take longer to turn on than a pre-transistor radio with bad vacuum tubes. There is no legitimate way to downgrade the firmware, and no appeals to Sangean will be answered. Mercifully there is one save out there, Sharkfin, and program designed to hack the radio. But be prepared to spend a lot of time setting up this software, all to downgrade to what you had. The upgrade has something to do with an EU requirement not to let the radio consume electricity in a ready mode. Consequently it goes through its entire logon procedure before turning on. Very nice radio otherwise, but Sangean's non-response to many US customers deserves less than a star.Digital camera Review: Exceeded my expectations
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this item for my grandmother, who up to now, was using a comparatively larger computer in the living room to listen to some of her Italian language programming. She isn't computer literate in the least, so I had the machine set up so that it would boot directly into whatever station she wanted. Basically, it was a lot of complexity for a simple task. I'd read the reviews on this radio and decided to bring it over and have her give it a try. So far, the compactness of the unit and the convenience of the remote make this much more convenient for her, especially so because she can bring it in the bedroom and listen at night, without having to get up to turn it off or change the station. About the only thing that's difficult is going through the station list through the unit's menus. If you don't know exactly what you're looking for, you will be scrolling a lot.
I'll probably purchase at least one more of these for her, since the convenience of the wireless connection means she can easily install one in another room.
Digital camera Review: Excellent Radio
Summary: 5 Stars
My radio arrived last week. It is my first wifi radio and I had waited a long time before purchasing in order to do as much research as possible and read all the available reviews. I'm very glad I finally took the plunge.
The radio set itself up, pretty much as advertised, right out of the box. I did have a brief unknown problem finding an IP address or something, but it worked itself out when I restarted the radio by unplugging and plugging back in.
My results have been great. This radio basically brings the world of radio right to your home without the antenna systems, signal fade, and interference problems of shortwave and with high quality clear audio. And, it offers the thousands of stations and streams that you'd never be able to recieve on a shortwave radio.
While I appreciate having one-button operation on the radio, I do find it convenient to have the remote control handy in order to use the "back" button and to navigate up and down in menus while listening to a station. If you want to go "back" in a menu using the radio itself, it can sometimes take awhile to get where you need to be, and if you want to look for other stations while listening to another, using the radio button requires you to start at the top and then dive back down into the menus. With the remote, you can explore the stations in the same subcategory listed before and after the station you are listening to at the press of a single button. If you are the type who just wants to find your favorite stations and spend less time searching around eventually, this would become less of an issue. The remote also seems to have good range across a room. The battery for the remote was included.
The radio only has 12 presets, and it really should have more. But, this is not really a problem because if you register with [...], you can add an unlimited amount of stations (at least I haven't hit a limit yet) to your "My stations" folder. In effect, this list becomes your presets, and though there are a few extra steps to get to the list of "My Stations" as compared to accessing a preset station, it's not inconvenient to access these at any time. Anytime I find an intersting station while tuning around, I make a note to add it to "My stations" from the website later.
I have had very few occasions where a station didn't connect, and that is probably just because it is offline at that time. The sound quality is awesome. My radio has never been more than about 50 feet from my linksys broadband router (with cable internet) and I have had almost no problems with buffering, the notable exception being with BBC1, which, ironically, is the station that comes preset in preset 1 on the radio. I believe this has to do with the BBC1 stream; I know BBC1 is their most popular stream and I imagine that many people are trying to use it at the same time.
I have had a couple of experiences with an "internal error" message mentioned in other reviews. I don't know why this happens, but after about 20-30 seconds, the radio resets itself and reconnects to whatever I was listening to at the time. Really not a big deal for me so far, and as I said before, I've never had a perfect radio.
My media player function works really well and it is a pleasure to hear all the music stored on the computer through such quality speakers. The only problem I have had is with podcasts. To me, this is an extra feature anyway, so not a big deal, but when I try to stream podcasts from "my podcasts" which are saved in my profile at [...], the stream always stops at some point. Eevntually, the stream starts over but there is no way to fast forward to the point at which it stopped, so as far as my experience goes, the podcast feature is not a selling point on the radio.
All in all, I am very pleased with the unit and highly recommend it. It does everything I expected it to and more, and what it does, it does better than I had hoped.
Digital camera Review: Excellent radio reception, operating system a bit complex
Summary: 3 Stars
this radio is perfect for people who like broadcast band radio, live in an area with poor over the air reception, and have broadband internet access via a private or public Wifi network.
The sound is superb.
The downside is that one does not "tune in " a station. One has to locate it via a variety of menus, and listen to it later.
Thus it takes weeks to locate stations that one wants to listen to, as one's favorite stations may not be available .
in addition, it takes about a minute to change from one station to another.
The operating system is very complex, and will only appeal to those who are good with computers.
easier to operate than a full featured short wave radio, and much better reception of broadcast band stations. no short wave or ham bands.