Wayne Suffers Buyer's Remorse with the Disappointing C.Crane EP Radio

 

 

 

Wayne is disappointed with his C.Crane EP Radio:

The performance of the CRANE EP is very poor considering the hype of its performance. With dismal selectivity above 1200 KHz and severe overloading issues of locals, this is a piece of junk in my opinion.

The FM is equally disappointing with only average sensitivity and selectivity and poor image rejection. I am ashamed I bought it. The best ever "bang for the buck" sets were the GE Super Radios, whcih although not perfect, blow the CRANE EP away in temrs of both sound and performance.

Comments

[Paul]

From the few reviews so far it appears that this radio underperforms with respect to the GE Superadio I and II, the Sony ICF-S5W, and probably a few other vintage radios, perhaps the Panasonic RF-2200 and Sony ICF-5900.

What I don't understand is this: reverse engineering the circuitry of these older radios should be absolutely trivial, and very far from rocket science. We have full service manuals for these radios with all the details! Why is it that all the lessons learned and gained in these earlier designs are apparently forgotten or ignored by our engineers now?

[Kevin S]

Wow, not only did CCrane not catch the upper band quagmire, but this is not the usual fatal flaw in radios so there must be something unique about the design. As an urbanite, there is no way I would order one of these unless/until they tweak the design to fix it.

In the end, it sounds like CCrane has a decently sensitive receiver on AM and so-so FM performance: is this really any different than, or even on a par with, the GE Superadio 3??

I note that the initial reviews of the new Tecsun PL-660 are pretty good: not the room-filling sound of a full-size portable, but with synchronous detection and all-around performance that initially appears to be more balanced:
http://www.dxer.ca/the-forum?func=viewcatid=35id=3018limit=6start=6#3043

[Robin]

Wayne,
I'm sorry to read of your disappointment. Really was hoping this time we would get something that lived up to the hype.
Jackson, where are you now?
Sounds like C. Crane has fooled us again.