Herculodge First Look at the CCRadio 2E

 

With my twin daughters, now 4, presumably old enough to be trusted with not snapping off the telescopic FM antenna (don’t jinx it, now), I decided to replace the kitchen radio, a Sangean LB-100 worksite radio, with the new CCRadio 2E.

 

I purchased the CCRadio 2E a few days ago as it was on sale and I had accumulated significant Amazon points get the radio on the cheap.

 

There are two color choices, silver and black. I chose the silver one. I have a black CCRadio that works capably in the guest bathroom, so I thought I’d get silver this time and I looked forward to comparing the sound on the two radios.

 

With a DSP chip for better FM reception and a bass and treble control, the improved CCRadio 2E has a significant advantage and it can be heard. With the treble adjusted at 75%, I get much brighter sounds on both AM and FM. Any muffled sound on AM on the old model is gone on the new.

 

My Sangean LB-100, for whatever reason, gave me reception problems with KCRW 89.9. No such problem with the CCRadio 2E.

 

I heard some 2E models had an annoying beep when turning stations, but mine is free from any such beeping sounds.

 

I listened to 91.5 KUSC for some classical and the Baroque sounded bright, clear, and layered.

 

Talk radio on both AM and FM was less muffled than on my Sangean LB-100.

 

Using the supplied AC cord without the batteries, I had no interference on AM, so I doubt I’ll invest in D batteries unless I want an energy outage backup.

 

The CCRadio 2E is exactly what it is meant to be: a user-friendly table radio with bright sound, clear voices on talk radio, and topnotch AM/FM reception with weather NOAA alerts.

 

If this is the kind of radio you’re looking for, I can give the 2E a very high recommendation.

 

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Comments

[Gary]

Jeff,

I'm glad you like the CCR-2E. The one I tried had nice sound, with crisp treble and decent bass. The tone controls apparently have more effect on the CCR-2E than on the CCR-2 and earlier models.

BTW, the flaw that some of them have is not a beep. It is a "tick" sound when a station is first tuned. On some units it is absent, on some it is fairly quiet, and on some it is relatively loud. It was present on the unit that I tried, and it was somewhat annoying.

[herculodge]

Gary, thankfully, mine doesn't have a tick or a beep sound. The radio does what it's supposed to do.

[Tim]

This is good news, because this has long been one of my favorite radios, but I've found the AM tone to be annoyingly muffled.

Here's a question about another favorite radio of mine. Besides the gold face of the radio and its price, is there any difference between the Sangean WR 11SE and the regular WR 11? Is there a difference in audio quality or reception?

[4nradio]

I've loved my CCR-2E ever since purchasing one a few months ago. It's everything you've described, and mine has no beeps or tick sounds, either. Just clear, intelligible audio.

The 2E is quite the DX-getter too, but my #1 complaint is how the radio ALWAYS reverts back to the clock display on the LCD. You cannot set it to show the frequency continually... a real annoyance when tuning around.

[frobisher]

Jeff, how does your 2E fare in terms of AM dxing? I'm really torn between the CCRadio 2E and the Sony ICF-EX5MK2.

[herculodge]

If the Sony EX5MK2 has wide and narrow band filters, it might be a better DXer. It appears the 2E is only wide filter, which can cause occasional overload, but where I live it's not a problem.

[Gary]

4nradio,

I agree with you on the display. Every other digital radio I have on which the main display digits are shared between frequency and clock displays the frequency when the radio is on and the clock when the radio is off. I wish C. Crane would at least allow the user to set the default to their own preference.

[Ken K. in NJ]

Has Bob Crane ever directly addressed the issues that have long been a hallmark of the CCrane Flagship radios? I'm not talking about the many failures of the original CCRadio. Those they did address.

I'm talking about why there is still no useable handle on the radio, or why the display defaults to clock even though nobody on earth seems to want it that way, or now the mysterious clicking with frequency changes. He obviously cares very much about his product, but there's always so many irritating issues with each new generation of CCRadio radios.

[Doug T.]

The Sony EX5MK2 has only a single filter. However, it is a sharp filter (excellent selectivity) and it is sensitive, and it has a very good synchronous detector. (However, the synchronous detector, like all SSB detectors, works poorly with so-called "AM HD Radio.")

I have not yet tried CCRadio 2E, so I cannot directly compare them; I can only say that I very much enjoy my EX5MK2.

[herculodge]

Doug, how does the speaker sound on the Sony EX5MK2? I notice it's about 175 on Amazon.

[Doug T.]

I think the EX5MK2 is primarily known for AM-DXing -- if that's not your hobby, then I don't think it is worth it. The speaker quality is OK, but you can definitely do better.

The $175 price is better than I got -- I paid $222 for it back in 2010 directly shipped from Japan.