Sangean WR-11 AM/FM Table Top Radio

There are a few surprises with the Sangean It looks like every small table top radio you’ve ever seen. Familiar. You plug it in turn it on, tune it to your favourite station and that’s it. Nothing fancy but then you start to notice a few things.
It feels a little heavier than most radios of similar size. It sounds quite clear and musical. There is very little station drift. It locks on to a signal and holds it. It will pull in an amazing number of stations.
The knobs and switches have a silky solid feel. This is a radio that feels like something you’ll be using 25 years from now.
Criticisms, it would have been nice if it was a stereo unit. A better antenna would be useful and it’s not exactly a bargain price but then again good quality rarely is.
Highly recommended.

I bought this radio for my Mother who is 90. She likes having a radio in her kitchen and didn’t like all the confusing buttons/gadgets on other devices. Her last radio died, and she was lamenting the lack of a radio in the kitchen, so this is the unit I ordered as a gift for her. It is really easy and straight-forward to use, just like radios from a generation ago. My Mom has spent a lifetime as an amateur musician, so sound quality is important. This unit fits that bill too. Yes, it is more expensive, but we’re very happy with the radio. Even my 20-something kids like it.

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.

I absolutely love this radio! I’ve actually bought two of them because I liked them so much. One has a slight issue which I’ll explain later. First, the sound quality is fantastic for a tabletop radio. I do not find it too “bassy”, but keep in mind that I mainly listen to classical music. I could see where some people might think it sounded too bass heavy on an NPR newscast. If that is the case, you can place a cotton ball (or other sound dampening cloth) in the port on the back. It absolutely will not damage the speaker, so feel free to try this if you want to.

The sensitivity of this radio is great on both AM and FM. Way better than my Tivoli Model One on AM in particular. It does not have ‘soft muting’ between AM stations. It has full sensitivity. If you are picking up noise and interference on AM, it is due to where you have the radio located. It is not the fault of the radio. AM is very much affected by interference from lighting, computers, motors, and just about everything else. The only solution is to move the radio or connect an external AM antenna (there are terminals for this). Do not blame the radio! I have no problem picking up weak stations. This radio was not designed for “DXing” but it will pick up a lot of distant stations at night. It’s a good compromise between selectivity and fidelity. It is not a communications receiver with narrow filters. The FM sensitivity is surprisingly excellent. I use (and recommend) an external FM antenna. Internal or line cord FM antennas are poor at best. They may work for you in your situation; you can try it and see. I have my WR-11 connected to a large rooftop yagi and I use it to listen to a classical station more than 60 miles away. That is a pretty good feat these days considering the way the FCC has allowed the FM band to be degraded with a lot of additional FM stations as part of their so-called “AM Revitalization” program. In reality they are turning the FM band into an interference-ridden mess, just like the AM band. The sensitivity of this radio on FM compares favorably with my much more expensive tuners. The selectivity is also pretty good. The classical station I listen to on 90.5 if flanked by stations on 90.3 and 90.7 and I am in an area with dozens and dozens of strong local stations.

I like the fact that this model has the power supply built in rather than being a wall wart (like the WR-15). The power supply does not draw much power when it is turned off. I measured it with my Kill-a-Watt and it actually draws only 1.1 watts when it is off (not 5 watts like another reviewer said). That is insignificant. When it is playing at moderate volume it draws 3-4 watts. And it has no audible hum (like the Tivoli has).

A couple of notes about the audio. Yes, if you plug a cable into the aux input on the back, it will automatically disconnect the radio given that there is no separate switch for this function. Also if you plug in a pair of stereo headphones, it will play in both ears but the sound will be in mono, not stereo as claimed by another reviewer. Therefore, you can’t use this radio as a tuner for your stereo system if you want full stereo sound.

As far as the tuning dial accuracy is concerned, I would judge it to be excellent for an analog slide-rule type of dial. And the tuner stays tuned in quite solidly on one of my two sets. The other one does drift a bit, and this is the issue I mentioned earlier. I don’t know why one of them drifts and the other one doesn’t although the one that drifts is in my cabin where the temperature is not as well controlled. Temperature changes do affect tuning elements and that could certainly be part of the problem, but I have a feeling that even so, that one is just not quite as stable.

If you get this radio, I think you are sure to love it. The wooden case is also very nice. It’s a high quality product.

UPDATE: Watch out, the tuner in the 40th Edition model is different and not as good as the original! Unfortunately, Amazon does not differentiate between the two models in the reviews, and this happens with other products also. They have changed the tuner design and it now incorporates the “soft muting” characteristic on AM. If you want to listen to a weak station, it will be heard at greatly reduced volume. I found that AM reception was generally poor compared to the original model, and also picked up a lot of static. I am not sure whether the static is coming from the internal power supply or just being conducted from the AM line. There is no high end on AM, it is all bass. Subjectively it sounds like they rolled off the frequency response above about 500 Hz!

Unfortunately they also changed the tuner on FM as well and it has also been degraded. When tuning across a station, it comes in at three distinct points, accompanied by a distinct “click” sound as it locks onto each one. The middle one is the strongest one and the two outer ones will be heard at slightly reduced volume. In addition, stations can be heard at even lower volume beyond those points. This seems to be true even for stations that are not very strong. I don’t know what they were thinking when they changed the design of the tuner. It is not an improvement.

That said, the sound quality on FM is still excellent, and it is superior to other small table radios that I have tested. If I could give separate ratings for various features of the 40th Edition model I would rate it like this:

* Sound quality on AM – 2 Stars (mediocre)
* Sound quality on FM – 5 Stars (awesome)
* AM tuner performance – 1 Star (horrible!)
* FM tuner performance – 2 Stars (mediocre)

I am not sure, but I suspect that Sangean may have changed the tuner design in the current production of the regular model WR-11 radios to the new design. I am not going to buy one to find out, because I already own two older ones which were fine. But if you buy either model of this radio, be advised that it might have the issues discussed above. Because of the poor tuner performance of the current design, I have decided to drop my overall rating from 5 stars to 3 stars.

I am actually a musician and a recording engineer/producer. I bought the WR 11 for my wife for Christmas and I can tell you it is a phenomenal combination of tasteful, simple design and very sophisticated internal technology.
We live in a poor-reception FM area and yet there was no need to use the provided External antenna. The internal reception and station locking is rock solid.
The sound is harder to describe. Yes it is very full and well balanced, but there is more.
It is the musical tone and the way the instrumental balances are rendered that is so remarkable.
One may find it hard to believe that critical listening of orchestral and other musical genres could be possible on a mono table radio, but I assure you that in this case, it is.
Oh, one more thing; audiophiles will immediately notice that the cabinet employs a port-tuned enclosure for the speaker!