The Sangean WR-12BT arrived from Amazon today and I got listen to it for half of the day. The black and walnut looks nice and it is quite the solid block. It's handsome radio for sure.
The tuning issue you guys experienced seems to be fixed, I found the dial accurate and the tuning sensitivity to be OK, but not as good as the WR-2 I had sitting next to it. AM reception is nearly non-existent in my building, so I can't really comment on that.
The Bluetooth feature works well and is easy enough that a Mac user could figure it out. There is a bit of delay every time you move the dial to Bluetooth while it opens itself up to pairing, about 5 to 7 seconds.
Now we come to the sound quality. I'm not sure that Sangean did enough here, or that maybe the radio's three speaker design isn't just inherently flawed, but the radio just sounds a little off. You guys described it as having a muddled sound, and I would have to agree. I messed with the bass and treble knobs to try and get a better range of sound, and the amount of bass the little bad boy can generate would impress the average weekend DJ, but it sounds like the highs, mids, and lows are haphazardly bouncing off of each other inside the radio with only the occasional clear tone escaping.
The WR-12BT does seem to sound better when the volume is turned up, part of the problem might be that I'm just sitting too close to it at my desk. It reminds me a lot of an old boombox, in fact if you ever had a mid-size Sony boombox with MegaBass then I would use that as a sonic reference for the WR-12BT.
It's too bad, I feel like if they had taken the passive bass speaker design of the WR-5 and just made the cabinet larger and the two speakers a little more powerful this would make a fine radio that could fill a large room and still sound great if you're sitting three feet from it.
Comparing it side to side with the WR-2 I certainly would say the WR-12BT sounds much fuller, but not nearly as clear. Compared to the WR-5 (which I didn't do side by side) the WR-12BT also sounds fuller more powerful but the stereo separation of the WR-5 is much better, and while the WR-5's mid range gets a bit lost between the taught highs and punchy bass, it is not distracting like the WR-12BT muddled middle.
The Bluetooth version of the WR-2 will be out soon (the WR-22) and maybe I'll try that at some point. I agreed to sell my WR-2 already, so I'm going to pick up a Proton 420 on eBay and go retro for a while at work.
Peace Out,
Nathan
Reading Nathan's description of the speaker sound, this radio sounds like a loser to me. I feel more intrigued by the upcoming Sangean WR-22BT.
Posted by: herculodge | February 07, 2013 at 08:08 AM
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3697372
...and look, Rat Shack is selling an old friend of ours.
Posted by: Angelo | February 07, 2013 at 08:09 AM
Of course, Amazon is selling our old friend for less. If Amazon has "another close-out" and they are back at 25 bucks, shipping included----I'll probably get one.
Posted by: Angelo | February 07, 2013 at 08:23 AM
Angelo, I'd think twice about buying one if Amazon has a $25 special. I bought one for (I think) $21.95 from Amazon on closeout a few years ago and it was awful. Misaligned like crazy, images all over the place, bascially unusable, both on AM and FM.
Posted by: Ken K. in NJ | February 07, 2013 at 09:11 AM
Ken: Reading the reviews, you see some that are what you describe---and others who love the sound and reception of the radio. So it would be like buying a 25.00 lottery ticket and either hitting the lottery or losing----but maybe a 50/50 chance! Sad but true---the quality control is that bad and the lots are that inconsistent.
Posted by: Angelo | February 07, 2013 at 12:58 PM
"The Bluetooth feature works well and is easy enough that a Mac user could figure it out"
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!!!!!!
You really made me laught !!!....
Ha, ha ha ha ha ha ha ah !!!! Thanks Nathan.
Posted by: Huesby | February 07, 2013 at 02:01 PM