A Radio to Get Excited About? The Sangean WR-15 Analog Tabletop Radio

 

 

I think I'm in love with this Sangean WR-15 radio selling on Amazon. It's got that cozy radio-listening-time feeling. It comes in 3 colors, black, silver, and walnut. Its size is 8 inches tall and 4.72 inches across. It's slightly larger than the similar Tivoli PAL, which is 6 inches tall and 3.75 inches wide. The WR-15 has a 3-inch speaker, perhaps the same in the WR-2. 

On the Sangean site, you'll see that you attach the wire FM antenna to the back of the radio. I used to prefer telescopic FM antennas but some, including my Tivoli PAL, get stripped and loose and become a problem. Also they can bend and snap, especially if you have small kids in the house. So I'm more than okay with the wire antenna. 

I may get this to replace my WR-2 on the bed as the WR-15 has a smaller footprint and I can put the WR-2 in my office. Now I just have to decide among black, silver, or walnut. 

Because Amazon says available in 1-3 months, it is no doubt a future release. 

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Comments

[Angelo]

They're all nice----but in order: Walnut, Black, Silver. Of course, much of that depends on personal taste and décor. But based on the style of the radio, I think the silver is too "high tech" to match the retro look of the radio. The black with white stitching sort of has a retro look to it. But I think the walnut captures the mood the best and I'm a sucker for the organic wood look.

[herculodge]

I'll go with walnut. I emailed Thomas at SWLing Post and he said correctly that the leatherette is cheap and dated like an 80s piece. The silver looks cheapish. Walnut captures the mood of the radio, for sure, Angelo. I wonder when I can pre-order it.

[Gary]

I like the look, but I'm not a big fan of table radios without bass and treble controls. I think Tivoli started this minimalist trend. If you get it, I hope it sounds OK.

[Scooby214]

I have both the WR-1 and WR-11 in walnut, and they both look nice. I wish I could see the black leatherette in person, as it looks really tempting.

[Ulysses]

I'd really love to continue collecting radios but the sad reality is, everything I listen to is now digital only. That means expensive, cheaply-built ugly radios that suck juice and get hot. I like the look of this one, but can't justify owning it.

[Randy in Cleveland]

Great, just great. I just received my Skywave couple of weeks ago, tell myself that I'm satisfied with my contemporary offerings for now, and now Sangean comes out what appears to be both eye and ear candy. In moments like these I rationalize a purchase like this, I truly don't own a table top unit, this purchase will be justified. Black or the tan wood is the big debate for me as well.

[Stan]

Was on the Sangean site and got the user manual for the radio.
Looks like there is a BT/NFC model. Both are listed in the manual.
WR-15 & WR-15BT

[bill]

The vertical format looks nifty, but it usually means a small AM antenna. Thank you, Stan, I looked at the manual you found. It shows the radio has terminals for AM and FM external antennas. That's likely to be critical to its performance, at least out here in The Sticks.

However, the BT version doesn't have the AM terminal. The manual also says that's only on the US model of the standard radio.

[nathanjr]

I feel like we've down this road before with the WR-12, Jeff. This is just a single speaker system so it shouldn't have the muddled sound the WR-12 did.
This does look cool, definitely from the Kloss school of design. I have so many vintage radios now I'd have a hard time finding a place or rationale for this bad boy!

[Gary]

I don't like using analog radios for bedside use, for a couple of reasons:

1) Lack of presets. I like being able to easily change among several stations. Radios with dedicated presets are the best for this, and one can learn to operate them without even seeing the radio. Among currently-available radios, the Sangean WR-2, PR-D5, PR-D15, PR-D7 and the C. Crane CCRadio-2E come to mind as having this feature. My bedside radio is a Sony ICF-2010 from around 1986. I think it has 32 dedicated preset buttons.

2) Frequency drift. All of my analog radios exhibit drift that increases with time and the amount of temperature change. Use for eight hours overnight in a room where the temperature is probably dropping is a good test of frequency drift. My GE Superadio (original version), GE Superadio 3, CCRadio-EP and Tecsun R-308 all exhibit noticeable drift.

So I'll stick with a digital radio with dedicated presets as my bedside radio. If you only listen to one station all the time and you can find an analog radio with no drift, then a digital radio with dedicated presets might not be needed.

[Drive-In-Freak]

So much for "I've got what I want",eh?..lol
It's true, my friend; there is no cure.
I don't really get the table radio thing in this day and age..with a couple of exceptions:

- If you're going to use a real (outdoor) FM antenna. Nothing cuts it quite like a good old fashioned up a mast over the rooftop FM antenna. There's a good reason why people used to (and some still do) put up TV antennas, and FM is no different. They both work on line of sight, and that means the higher the antenna the better.
If it's going to be stationary anyway..and it's not like your going to be able to move a radio around with twinlead or coax cable sticking out of the back of it..you may as well go all the way with it and get a table set.

- Sound. Does something have a nice big speaker in it, and/or some real output power? Well then it's worth taking up the space and it having to be stationary...
....but isn't that what a stereo system is for?
Alright, so you can spend big bucks on a Bose and get something small that sounds like something small trying to sound like something big, or you can spend that same money and get a killer receiver and some good speakers on the used market...maybe even most (if not all) of the components to go along with it. You'd be surprised at what you can find at a thrift shop. ePay may have put a dent in it, but speakers are too heavy to ship, and big (real) ones have fallen out of favor in this day and age, so you can often get them for a song.
It's kinda hard to fit all of that on your nightstand, though.

Then there's the too much junk down the AC line making a ton of static problem. An AM radio plugged into the wall in this day and age of digital devices and cheap switchmode power supplies galore is bound to be overloaded with noise. IMHO the FCC really dropped the ball on that one.

[Richard McLeod]

Get a good Zenith from the mid-1950's and you'll be satisfied. Nothing like the old vacuum tube technology for that warm sound, not to forget the history behind the radio itself. Remember though the radio will have a 15 to 20 seconds warm-up period, but the sound reproduced will be well worth it.

"At Zenith The Quality Goes In before The Name Goes On", and that is especially true with most all of the middle to upper end AM/FM Zenith or comparable radios of the period.

The radio will now be 60 years old or so, but it can easily be upgraded by a trained technician for another 60 years of service. The tubes seem to last forever or certainly a long time and they are readily available on-line.

Be sure and get an RCA Victor, Zenith or a comparable radio with an RCA (Phono) Jack and you can attach just about any modern device and use the radio as an amplifier.

The vintage cabinet designs are quite varied, and far surpass the designs of their modern counterparts with unique Dial faces which will become a conversation piece in any room where the radio may be placed..