Sangean WFR-20 WiFi Internet Radio & Media Player
by Sangean
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Sangean WFR-20 WiFi Internet Radio & Media Player
Customer Review: Radio for Everyone - From Everywhere
Summary: 4 Stars
I have been using the Sangean WFR-20 WiFi Internet Radio for the better part of a year now and it continues to work as advertised. I have the radio configured to my local wireless network router (an AT&T router) and have never had an issue with the radio failing to connect.
The radio does come preconfigured for thousands of radio stations but over the course of a year the URLs for many of those stations has changed. In some cases, such as with the BBC, the stations have changed broadcast format, causing the stations to have to be updated via Sangean's website. Set-up via the site is not quite as intuitive or quick as one would expect it to be and changing multiple stations can be a time-consuming task.
I have had problem with Live365 stations in recent months that used to connect with no problem. Live365 now sends a message saying that "Preferred Membership" is required to hear those stations. Granted, that's only $4 a month, but I can hear the stations on my PC just as always, with no extra fee mentioned. Also, I know the broadcaster of one of the stations I'm having a problem with and have verified that Preferred Membership is not required to access her station.
My biggest complaint with the radio and its remote is that push button access to "favorite stations" is limited to only six. More presets can be accessed by using the dial knob on the front of the radio, but the less I have to depend on that knob, the better.
Also, sifting through those thousands of pre-configured stations is like trying to find the proverbial needle in a haystack. Good luck with that. There are a few sorting mechanisms that can be used, but it is still a tedious process.
Sound quality from the speakers is excellent and I appreciate that the audio input jacks on the back of the radio. This allows me to connect a small digital audio recorder I carry to concerts directly into the radio to play what I've recorded through the radio speakers.
Setting the radio up to recognize my WiFi network was a little bit tedious but the manual that comes with the radio is a good one and that made the procedure easier to understand - even if I did mess it up on my first try.
I never did get the file sharing function or the other suggested method of getting my computer to share music files with the radio working properly. I blame that more on the router than on the radio, however, as I've had problems do similar things with other pieces of hardware.
Overall, I am pleased with the radio and have used it countless hours to tune into my favorite stations around the world and to access my Pandora stations. Set-up and tweaking are not all that easy but, once you have it all working properly, it is pretty painless to keep it functioning. Just sit back and enjoy all the music and talk radio a person could possibly want.
Customer Review: A Slightly Mixed Blessing
Summary: 4 Stars
Internet Radio is a very useful medium, and the Sangean seems to be a well-built, good-performing radio. It's good-looking, and its audio quality is adequate, unless you're a critical music listener. If there ever was a bug from backlight noise getting into the headphones, that problem seems to have been solved; on my unit, at least, the headphones work fine. Internet radio is more complicated than ordinary radio, and a bit of technical ability is needed to set the radio up--after that, it is fairly easy to use, at least for preset stations. I also have an Acoustic Energy internet radio, and in general (and despite two years' opportunity for progress) the Sangean works about equally well.
But there are some ways in which this product could be improved. The main unit has just one single control knob--no other switches or push-buttons--so everything has to be done by scrolling through menus. Some reviewers seem to like this (one said it had a certain "zen" quality) but I find it a nuisance, and in practice one has to constantly use the remote control, which has a more normal set of buttons. The remote control imposes its own discipline: for one thing, you have to find it, and then the radio has to be positioned in such a way that the signal from the remote can be received.
A great feature of internet radio is on-demand listening of previously-broadcast programs. The Sangean delivers this feature, but only after a tremendous amount of scrolling through menus with its single knob. If there is a way to set up a push-button on the remote to do this job, I have been unable to find it. What's more, if you want to listen to a program that was broadcast today (rather than yesterday or earlier) you have to download today's new station list. And this requires--would you believe it?--unplugging the radio from the AC wall plug and plugging it in again. Clumsier engineering can scarcely be imagined! In addition, the radio--like other computers--tends to crash occasionally, perhaps because one has issued too many commands in too short a time. Sometimes one gets an error message for no apparent reason, and occasionally the radio fails to boot up when power is turned on. After a certain amount of re-plugging and coaxing it finally comes on. This tends to detract from one's feeling of confidence.
Some of these problems--like having to download each day's station listings--may be inherent in the internet radio medium. But at least it should be possible to perform routine operations without pulling the power plug from the wall! I would guess that in the next few years, internet radios will become smoother and easier to use. Meanwhile the Sangean does a fairly good job, and it is probably as good as anything you can buy at this time.
Customer Review: Good sound, buggy network connectivity
Summary: 3 Stars
I have owned my Sangean WFR-20 for a little over a month. I appreciate the sound and ease of navigation on the menu wheel and the remote. The speakers sound very good at low, mid and high volumes. The selection of stations is large (though a bit cumbersome to find on the radio itself - I highly recommend registering the radio and using the Reciva portal to identify "My Stations").
My biggest complaint is the unreliability of the connection. My radio is only about 3 feet (through a wall, though) from my router and the radio issues will occur at times when my other devices or computers do not have a problem. The issue is that the radio will disconnect and go back to "Initializing Network" status. Once the connection is resolved, it goes right back to the menu and sits on the "Stations" menu item. The backlight doesn't go off and the radio doesn't play. This is highly annoying for me as I use the radio to assist in sleep. It is too frequent that the lack of sound wakes me and I find myself messing with my radio in the middle of the night. I have downloaded firmware updates, but the issue remains. I have searched for solutions but the only reliable solution is to "unplug, plug back in, try again." I am hoping that future firmware updates can identify better network connection testing, redundancy or quick reconnect and "resume" functionality to go back to the station that was playing before. I haven't tried moving my router and trying a wired connection (after all, this is a wireless internet radio!).
The other minor annoyance is that one cannot see the time when a station is playing. I know what station I selected, so don't need it to be what is displayed the entire time the radio is on. Since it has a nice clock feature, I would rather see the time displayed unless I am using the menu. And given the fact I have to unplug the radio several times a week, it would be ideal if the radio could just connect to the internet to identify the real date/time and use a saved "Time Zone" setting to auto-set the clock. As it is, I have to manually reset the date and time each time.
Other than these issues, the radio is solid, good-looking, great-sounding and a decent value. I do think that the Squeezebox Boom (though pricier) is a better overall internet radio. Plus, it has an easier interface to control from your desk/laptop. The Sangean can be controlled remotely, but it isn't elegant.
Customer Review: Works like a charm!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a well-built product from Sangean and it has surpassed my expectations so far. I was looking for something that can play continuous music like Smooth Jazz or Classical without having to pay for Sirius or XM charges each month. Sure I could play all the Internet stations on my laptop, but its not the same as listening to them on a stand-alone device. Another option was buying an HD radio, but you are still limited to 10-15 HD radio stations in the area.
Pros:
1) It performs its function as a Wifi radio very well. It updates the radio station list from reciva.com everytime it is rebooted (remove power and plug it back in). The buffering time for most radio stations is between 5-10 seconds and it seldom has problems with bandwidth (I have comcast internet with Wireless-G router)
2) Sound quality is very good. I am not sure how it compares to a Bose Wave radio, but it certainly compares will with my Panasonic audio system. I listen to everything from Classical to Techno and this radio has been delivering clear, crisp sound in every situation. Its very clear till about 75% max volume and at that volume it is loud enough to have a house party.
3) Podcasts are easy to setup via the reciva website. I have NPR 7 am news, and WSJ audio feeds setup and it works really well.
4) Overall menu and interface is good. Its not too hard to navigate, but having only one knob can make it a bit cumbersome.
5) As a media player over uPnP, this radio rocks. For those who are not familiar with uPnP servers, this radio can play streaming audio from your home computer on the same network. So, you just go to windows media player and set it up to share media and then you can play all the MP3's and WMA's on your home computer from the Sangean radio. You can search for songs by album, artist, genre etc and setup a queue/playlist of songs and they sound great!
Cons:
1) The remote is good, but sometimes you have to press the buttons pretty hard. I have noticed that about 1 in 5 times I have to press the buttons twice to get the response. It is annoying, but not really a big deal.
2) The menu system on the radio needs a bit of improvement. It works and does all the intended functions, but some of the features take way too may steps.
Overall I 'highly recommended' this product
Customer Review: Great for internet radio, a dud for streaming audio on home network
Summary: 3 Stars
I purchased this radio in January 2008, with high expectations. In many respects, the Sangean Wifi Internet Radio delivered.
Pros: Great look - sort of retro-meets-vintage with the modern lines and bakelite-like casing. The remote and radio controls are easy to use and intuitive. The sound is impressive. I am LOVING listening to a wide range of talk radio and music stations on this unit. Some stations come through with poor quality, but that is the fault of the streaming, not the radio. I love the Reciva.com interface. I can find what I want and add stations with a few clicks, and updates to the radio are quick and smooth. The Reciva.com forums are very helpful and interesting to read, as well. The fact that I have access to about 10,000 stations worldwide is overwhelming, but wonderful. I have been able to find some very interesting music options, including a dozen BBC channels, public radio stations from all over North America, and all kinds of news stations from everywhere you can imagine.
CONS: Although the online literature says that this radio can access and stream your computer-based music library through your wifi, I have yet to figure out how this is actually possible. I have followed the instructions and solicited help from users in the Reciva.com forums, to no avail. (And I am not the only one with this problem.) I finally gave up and transferred my library to an ipod, which I plug into the Aux Input on the back of the unit. Music sounds great through the input, but I would have preferred to keep the music on my computer and not buy the ipod.
Another big con is the range of the device's wifi. I have to keep my radio within less than 10 feet of the router to pick up the wifi connection, even though my wifi signal is strong enough to be picked up by my laptop two floors up and outside of my house.
Overall, this is a good unit that does a lot of cool things. I think they should improve the wifi range and work on the problems with sharing music from computer to radio. I haven't used any other wifi radios, so I can't compare them. I will say, however, that wifi radio is one of the coolest new gadgets out there. I am loving it!