Why I'd Spend More Money on the C.Crane CC Radio 2 Coming Out in May of 2009

When a new version of a product comes out, many are tempted to get the older version on the cheap. I wouldn't do this with the CC Radio Plus. I'd get the CC Radio 2, coming out in May. As Mike describes his CC Radio Plus, we can only hope the "2" version corrects some of the following problems:

It's a great AM/FM radio in its way, Jeff, but frankly, it is frustrating as well. Many of the buttons are cheaply made and some of the controls oddly placed. Over time, it gets to where the presets and the power buttons have to be hit more than once to "take", one preset will tune to a station saved in another preset button, etc. The alarm function is too easily set accidently, and it defaults to go off at 6am with a painfully shrill beeping noise, as it did on the day I finally tossed it. I replaced it with a PR-D5, and aside from the odd look of the thing, the only advantage I would concede to the CCR over the PR-D5 is battery life.

Comments

[Angelo]

Reading this frustrates me. If I buy a $20.00 radio from China, by "Kaide" or some other obscure, meaningless combination of English letters, I MIGHT expect buttons that stick, flickering display, and so on. When a radio tops $100.00, it had better be top quality and built to last, without issues, with daily use, for at least 10 years. I just received a 51 year old GE 780 that's working like a charm. I don't want to hear that it's "less sophisticated, so there's less to go wrong." Look, if the world isn't ready for digital readouts and a dozen and a half dinky hard plastic buttons, don't make the radio. Give us premium internal guts that pull in stations like nobody's business and leave the "frills that fall apart" in China. Enough already.

[Mike W]

That gets to the heart of the matter, Angelo.

The CCR sold for as much as $159, yet we can all think of lower-priced gadgets we've bought that had controls which were simple, robust, reliable - including some of Sangean's own less expensive radios.

[Jeffrey McMahon]

Angelo's frustration is justified. I won't buy the "2" until I'm assured its quality control issues are ironed out. And even then, I'm skeptical.