I've been using the Sangean WR-3 for almost a year now and still consider it my "A" radio. I had both the WR-1 and the WR-2 before I got this and was hoping that the WR-3 would be twice as nice as the WR-2 due to it being a stereo radio. I wasn't disappointed and have only some minor quibbles after having it on my bedside table all these months.
The sound is very good, better than the Bose stereo system in my opinion. A friend who owns the Bose system was blown away by it in a side-by-side comparison. For some reason, Sangean likes to make their products heavy on the bass side and the WR-3 is no exception. You have the option to adjust the bass and treble from -7 to +7, just like the WR-2. I have to turn the bass down all the way (-7) for talk radio to avoid getting a muddy sound. Listening to music, I seldom have to jack up the bass past the flat setting of 0. I like a lot of bass capability but this is ridiculous. (The worst offender is the WR-1 which has no tone adjustment at all. It has impressive bass response, just too much of it. I wonder if the new WR-11 is any better in this regard?)
AM sensitivity is outstanding. I have both a Select-A-Tenna and a CCrane twin coil antenna and neither one makes any difference to the WR-3. If the WR-3 can't grab the signal, it just ain't there to receive. Sangean must have made good use of the available room and installed a good size ferrite rod antenna. I would even put sensitivity on a par with my Sangean ATS 909 shortwave set. My location is almost exactly 50 miles from both Philadelphia and Baltimore and the WR-3 is sensitive to the point that I am bringing in 2 or more stations on the same frequency at night.
FM performance is also excellent for my location. They ship it with a telescoping antenna that gives pretty good results. To really see what it could do, I hooked up my CCrane FM Reflect antenna and was very pleased with the reception. It performs right up there with my commercial-grade rack mount Parasound TDQ-150. The only thing in my arsenal that's better is the legendary Accuphase T-100.
The CD player performs flawlessly and it also plays MP3 CD's with no problems.
One of the reasons I purchased the WR-3 in the first place was its ability to play MP3 files on either a USB memory stick or an SD card. This capability makes the WR-3 a great unit to use for parties because it can literally play music for days without repeating a song.
The few negatives I have are the following:
- The WR-3 is basically useless without the remote control. All you can do without it is adjust the volume and turn the unit on and off. Since the remote is rather small and easily misplaced, I ordered a backup remote from http://remotes.com/ and got their customized replacement rather than another OEM unit which they also offer. I was hoping it would have a stronger output than the original, which it does, because of another weak point the WR-3 has:
- The remote control sensitivity is the worst I have ever seen on any device. You literally have to be pointing the remote directly at the unit. Trying to get it to work off-axis is an exercise in frustration, even with the dual-LED remote from remotes.com. Bright sunshine makes the situation even worse. The remote I got from remotes.com has a longer range but doesn't help with the off-axis problem.
- Sometimes I like to listen to audio books and the file sizes can be fairly large, some with runtimes of an hour or more. While the WR-3 has the ability to fast forward, it does so at a snail's pace. (This applies to the SD/USB function, not the CD function which is fine.) Holding the Seek button down for 1 minute will only advance the time by 5 minutes. You'd have to hold the button down for 6 minutes to get halfway through a 1 hour file! They should have it set up to increase the fast forward speed the longer you hold down the button.
- I know this is really nit-picking but the USB socket is installed upside down.
In conclusion, the WR-3 is a fantastic radio that does everything well and looks great doing it. Mine has a beautiful black piano finish that would look great in any room in the house.
I should receive my Acoustic Research AV100B this Wednesday and I'm curious to see if it will displace the WR-3 as my "A" radio.
Russ, you mentioned the Accuphase T-100, which is the tuner at the top of my "A-list wish list." There is one on ebay right now for a buy it now price of $850. I'll probably never own one, but am impressed that you put the FM performance of the WR-3 at just below such a legendary tuner.
Maybe one day I will have an Accuphase T-100 to hook up to my yagi antenna. Then, I'll really be able to get in that fringe jazz signal I'm always trying to get in clearly.
Brian
Posted by: Scooby214 | January 31, 2010 at 01:19 PM
Brian, the T-100 is just awesome. It's a hand-wired work of art that not only had the best FM reception ever seen in its day, it also had a killer AM section. I pull the T-100 out of its storage box once a year just to bask in its radiance. I don't want to put too many hours on it because repairing it is beyond my current capabilities. Also, some of the FETs it uses are no longer available. My location doesn't present much of a challenge as far as adjacent channel rejection which the T-100 excels at. The WR-3 may fall short in several other categories in an urban environment so my comment was based on it's ability to pull in weak stations with very little noise using a non-directional, unamplified antenna. Sangean is making some of the best performing tuners available today and the WR-3 is their flagship model as far as I know. And why is it that jazz stations always seem to be the ones that don't come in clear?
Posted by: Radio Russ | January 31, 2010 at 02:02 PM
My Sangean is one of my most selective tuners, just second behind the selectivity of my two DSP radios and my Sansui tuner.
Believe it or not, my properly aligned Sansui T-60 (one of Sansui's more basic analog tuners) successfully separates my favorite jazz station at 103.7 from the much closer urban station at 103.5. It certainly outperforms any modern bookshelf stereo I have found.
Brian
Posted by: Scooby214 | January 31, 2010 at 03:10 PM
Thank you for this review. I've been looking for an independent review of the Sangean WR-3 for a while. Looks like a quality table radio. If I didn't own a Kloss 88 I most certainly would get this.
Here is a suggestion for a next version: I wonder if it is possible to design a radio that stores in a stations memory various EQ settings tailored to the station, i.e., less bass for male talk (Bill Wattenburg), less treble for high-pitched nasally female talk (Laura Ingraham), flat EQ for jazz & classical, and smiley face EQ for pop music.
Posted by: ¾ Blind | February 01, 2010 at 07:19 PM
Great idea, 3/4 Blind. I was thinking the same thing with respect to my Logitech Squeezebox Boom.
Posted by: Gary | February 01, 2010 at 08:32 PM