Sangean WFR-20 WiFi Internet Radio & Media Player by Sangean
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List Price: Our Price: Calculated in a shopping cart Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more digital camera details and other models |
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Digital camera reviews of Sangean WFR-20 WiFi Internet Radio & Media Player
Digital camera Review: What a great idea - and pretty well done, too.
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a product that hasn't received much publicity. I didn't know it existed until I saw a magazine article a couple of months ago. This radio receives its signal from your home wireless computer network, and it can receive almost any broadcast that is streamed on the Internet. Thousands of broadcasts, from all over the world. It is relatively easy to use (easier with the remote than the knob on the unit.) The sound quality is excellent, with better bass than you would expect in a tabletop unit. My only complaint - a minor one - is that on rare occasions a station will be unavailable for some unknown reason. That is, I can stream the broadcast on my computer, but not on the Internet Radio.Digital camera Review: Great product with less than desireable implementation
Summary: 4 Stars
I really like the ability to be able to listen to a much greater variety of programming than what is available on local stations.
Sound quality is quite reasonable.
I feel that they went overboard in designing a device with a single knob. For instance, it doesn't make sense to have to unplug the radio, then reconnect it to update the "MY STUFF" selections. I've no problem with the step down menus, but think that some functions such as clock and alarm functions could be more easily accesable with a separate control.
The display is too small and it looks cheap. Because the display can handle so few characters, the text is continuously scrolling which I find distracting. Also, if it were bigger, there would be space to display the time continuously. A color touch screen would have been a nice feature.
I find the credit card size remote with its miniature buttons to be way to small for my large hands. Also, discrete buttons rather that bubbles in the plastic would have been much nicer.
The first unit I received was DOA. Of course, not knowing how it should work I thought that I wasn't setting it up right and spent many hours trying to determine what I had done wrong. Its replacement immediately found my router as soon as it was plugged in. Entering the router key was tedious. Fortunately one only needs to do this once unless you change the key. After entering the key, it would not connect. I had to adjust some of the router setup settings to "grant permission" to connect. Not being fluent in router geek tereminology, this was a challenge, but somehow I stumbled upon the appropriate change and managed to connect. Laptops that I've connected wirelessly to the router did not have this issue.
Digital camera Review: Lots of good features
Summary: 3 Stars
The Sangean WFR-20 is nicely designed, easy to set up and simple to use. However, there are problems. I am not able to tell if the problems are in the radio itself or in the Reciva software which acts as the operating system. It is frequently difficult to connect to a particular station, and it is not a bit unusual to lose the connection once you have it. So while the stations are crystal clear, they cut out and have to rebuffer to come back on line. Sometimes they cut out and won't come back on line at all. Several times I have had to unplug the unit from the electrical source in order to reset it, because it pretty much stops working altogether. I imagine all of these problems will eventually be ironed out, but they are frustrating now.Digital camera Review: Best Streaming Media Product I've Owned To-Date
Summary: 5 Stars
Great internet radio. While I've never tried a Roku Soundbridge Radio or Logitech Squeezebox 3, I own 2 Philips Streamium products and an Acoustic Energy Wifi Radio. So I have a good base of comparison.
The Acoustic Energy and the Sangean both run off the Reciva software/platform (Reciva.com), which I like. In addition to the station list Reciva maintains, you can add your own stations and podcasts to a "My Stuff" directory and suggest stations for their main directory. There are numerous other internet radio station directories which you can use to find stations. To find the often hidden URL's of stations you want to add (but aren't in the Reciva database), it's helpful to have a free program like URL Snooper. Otherwise, you often can find the station URL's by viewing the station information within your media player (e.g. Windows Media Player, Real Player, Winamp) once you've loaded the station.
I had problems with the Acoustic Energy Wifi radio (google "AE Wifi speaker crackle"), including low level speaker noise (known defect) and was awaiting the next generation of wifi radios. I found one with the Sangean.
I'm completely satisfied with the Sangean. Clean sound, decent volume level, base & treble adjustment, plus a remote control, which is really handy if you have the radio on a coffee table or bedside table. Plus, if you have a large music collection on your hard drive, you can also stream it via a media server (a good free one is Tversity) or Windows Media share. And the Sangean supports a lot of formats, including FLAC. Reciva supports Real Rhapsody, but so far that's the only paid subscription service they support. However, since Yahoo Music Unlimited recently announced they've sold to Real, when my subscription expires, I may switch over and this would be another use for my Sangean.
I've bought several other radios from Sangean (2 pocket radios and one portable am/fm) and I've never been disappointed with the quality and performance.
Note: The sound quality depends on the individual station's streaming bit rate. To my ear, 128 kps mp3 stations and above sound the best. Other codecs (WMA, Real Audio, AAC) sound good to me at 64 kps and above. There are stations that stream up to 320 kps (e.g. check out Shoutcast directory).
Also, note that some stations won't work (e.g. Clear Channel) due to geographic issues and/or they want you to see their ads on a PC, but there are so many (thousands) of stations that are available, there is something for everyone. And the Reciva database lets you select from either Genre or Country and you can stream from the "On Demand" shows on BBC which is great. Note: Stations sometimes appear and disappear in the database as stations make URL/Server changes or stop broadcasting altogether, but this is the fluid nature of internet radio. Especially the non-commercial stations on the Shoutcast network. I think Reciva does a pretty good job of keeping their database updated though with a daily "pass/fail" test which I assume is automated on their end.
All in all, I highly recommend this radio if you like to listen to internet radio streams and don't want to tethered to your PC.
Digital camera Review: Best Bedside/Desk Radio I've ever owned
Summary: 5 Stars
The Display light can be dimmed all the way to off! No more blinding. If the power goes out, the unit will come back on with right time and date. The 4 alarms will remember settings also via chip - no need for a battery. All alarms can be set as daily, weekly, or just once. The latter is very nice to me and wife if I have to get up early once. Stereo sound is great with adjustable Bass and Treb. 12 presets are great - but you can create your own channel list! That's like creating your own radio dial with all your favorite channels - getting rid of everything you dislike. You can play stuff off your computer or ipod, scan songs and play them randomly. And if station you want is not listed you can connect to web and store it. Unit has a Headphone jack, line-in and line-out to connect to your A/V receiver and of course a LAN line if you don't want to go wifi. Hands down, best bedside radio I have ever owned.