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The sound is great and I don't notice all the bass that others have mentioned in reviews. It's so simple to use. I am very happy with this radio and would recmmend it to friends. This is a very good looking radio. It's nice to have a product that doesn't come with a whole booklet full of directions.
I've ordered a 7.0 mh inductor from Parts Express using Amazon. Theoretically covering the resonsance port would make this worse, but it seems move the boom to a less objectionable frequency. The only reason I kept this was that it's tuner is so good. The cabinet is not "wood" except by the most liberal definition of the word. I took a piece of packing tape and put it over the resonance port in the back, which took enough of the edge of the bass to make it marginally acceptable. To see if the radio could be salvaged, I opened up the box. It's not that the speaker is bad, far from it. I like the old school analog tuner, which is easy to use and pulls in stations really well.
Aside from the compact transformer based power supply, the radio is contained on two circuit boards, one in front containing mostly radio stuff, one in back containing mostly power amp stuff and back connectors. It is a wood resin composite -- something like bakelite. The more I think about this, the more I am convinced the best course of action would be to replace the speaker with a more appropriate one. In this case it seems poorly matched to the speaker, which is perhaps too much speaker for a cabinet this small. Amplification duties are handled by a single, unmarked IC in a heatsinked, single inline package. The audio quality would be great, except it has waaay to much bass. We have ours on the kitchen counter, and even at moderate volume, the junk on the counter resonates when somebody is just talking on the radio. The objectionable "boom" is actually subsonic; you can feel it in other parts of the house.
It might be possible to add weight to the case to shift the resonance lower.In any case, this case is certainly not "walnut", it is wrapped in tough synthetic sheeting with walnut grain printed onto it. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with this, but the material is extremely dense and the cabinet is definitely resonating. The first is the speaker, which is a rather massive 3.5" unit similar to those used in car audio. Although the radio is still bass heavy, the boom seems somewhat attenuated.
Given that the speaker is 4 ohms, this should result in a low pass filter with a loss of 3db at 180Hz, 9db at 90Hz, 15db at 45Hz etc. Putting this in parallel with the speaker should net no noticeable reduction above 200Hz, 3db at around 130 Hz, and 12db/octave thereafter, yielding a 15db reduction at 64Hz, a more dramatic reduction of subsonic boom. It's just too much for this cabinet.Second update: I soldered in a 220 microfarad non-polarized capacitor in series with the speaker. A great radio should make it sound like people on the radio in the same room as you, not speaking over a PA system at the bottom of a well.In fact, the bass was so objectionable, it was almost unlistenable.
She sheet is actually overlapped on the bottom of the cabinet, and if you actually look at the "wood grain" you see it twists around the corners in ways that wouldn't happen on a real wood cabinet.That said, the fact that this is not actually wood isn't necessarily a problem, it's a high quality plastic cabinet. Replacing this with a different unit might help, either a cheap unit with less bass capability, or a more expensive one with an aftermarket crossover.The second issue is the cabinet, and some people might find this important for different reasons. I'd avoid this model, or any similar Sangean model unless it had a tone control.Update: my wife found the bass so objectionable, she went out and bought a cheap clock radio to replace it. This is possibly a TDA1010 or similar, which is mainly targeted at the car audio market.There are two issues, I think, that cause the objectionable "boom" sound.
The sound is "big". Not necessarily the clearest sound, but better than the puny speakers of cheaper radios. I got this radio to replace one of those cheap tabletop radios found at the local drug store. There is a low-frequency resonance that makes the radio sound like a beefed-up car stereo. Like other so-called "hi-fi" radios, the its big sound is an illusion. The Sangean WR-1 definitely has better FM reception than anything costing less than $50, including comparative radios made by Sony. The Sangean looks good, has dials that turn smoothly (not quite as nice as the weighted dials found in the expensive stereos of old), and looks to be of solid construction.
For the price, youcan't beat it. In a side by side test, the Sangean and Tivoli do great with FM reception, but on the AM side, the Sangean picksup WAY more AM stations. Just a cool little radio. I also own a Tivoli Model One. I really like the old fashioned verniertuning dial. This Sangean far surpasses the Tivoli.The sound is mellow and clear. It's also illuminated.
Even at low volume the sound is rich and clear. I bought this radio for my 90-year old aunt because she wanted a simple, easy to operate table radio without a clock, alarm, and other "bells and whistles". Very satisfied with this radio and it's worth every penny of the price. She's very pleased with it and everyone who has seen it has remarked on how nice it is and how great it sounds. This radio is just that and more. It's a beautiful radio, just the right size, and oh, what terrific sound.
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