I purchased a $170 C.Crane CC-Radio, sixteen months ago on Amazon. It's been a great performer on AM and FM but preset 2 is very sticky, almost to the point of not being functional. I'm tempted to replace it with a Sangean 909x or Tecsun PL-880.
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Although they're both great radios for their proper uses, I could hardly imagine two more dissimilar radios that the CC Radio 2E and the Sangean 909x. The C Crane is fine for filling a medium-sized room with sound. But the Sangean - although it has enough volume - has a much thinner tone and is designed more for voice, or else, music at a lower volume in a small room. It's a fine desk radio, but its audio is no substitute for the C Crane's.
Posted by: Tim | August 21, 2015 at 07:01 PM
Tim, then perhaps the PL-880 will do since I want a radio to fill the kitchen with rich sound.
Posted by: herculodge | August 21, 2015 at 07:30 PM
Maybe take it apart and clean around the button/switch. Sounds like something sticky got in there. I bought a CCRadio Plus a year ago, from an estate sale for $40. It's been perfect with no LCD issues! I wonder if I got a unicorn or it had been previously fixed.
Posted by: JMaff | August 22, 2015 at 07:18 AM
Do those preset buttons just pop off and then you snap them back on again? I don't want to mangle the thing.
Posted by: herculodge | August 22, 2015 at 07:43 AM
Well----other option (if you can't fix the pre-set) is to just pretend it only came with four pre-sets! If it's fully functional except for one pre-set, just drop one station from your pre-sets.
Posted by: Angelo | August 22, 2015 at 09:50 AM
Exactly what I'm doing, Angelo. Keeping my fingers crossed that other presets don't follow suit.
Posted by: herculodge | August 22, 2015 at 11:42 AM
Jeff, my CC Radio 2 has the same problem with three or four of the buttons on the top. I think a deoxit spray might help. But if you want another radio to replace the CC Radio 2E, consider the CC Radio-EP. The audio is great for AM talk and decent for FM music as well. And it certainly can provide the room-filling volume. Or else you could revisit the CC Radio-SW.
Posted by: Tim | August 22, 2015 at 02:06 PM
...And with the CC Radio-EP, you certainly won't have any problems with the preset buttons!
Posted by: Tim | August 22, 2015 at 02:08 PM
We've got a pristine C.Crane EP in the garage. Here's a first-world problem. In the morning I listen to 89.3 FM and my wife turns to 106.7 KROQ. That's a big divide for an analog radio in the morning. Ah, first-world problems.
Posted by: herculodge | August 22, 2015 at 02:22 PM
Have you ever considered buying a vintage analog set with presets? Some of the older Grundig models have 5 or 6 FM preset buttons, each with its own completely separate tuning knob on the back of the radio where you tune each knob to whatever frequency you want for each preset button.
Posted by: Brandon | August 22, 2015 at 04:12 PM
I'd love such a set but with my luck the tuner and/or volume control would get scratchy and I don't have the tech skills to refurbish it to make it sound new.
Posted by: herculodge | August 22, 2015 at 04:55 PM
Here's an easy first-world solution: buy a second CC Radio-EP.
Posted by: Tim | August 22, 2015 at 09:13 PM
It costs a fortune and WOULD be a nightmare to clean contact switches, but here is the top-of-the-line in vintage analog sets that have FM presets:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/221852236009
With 6 FM presets, 3 bandwidth settings for AM, and second-to-none sensitivity and selectivity on FM, I've been tempted to buy this "like new" set myself, but am just unwilling to spend that kind of money, especially on an import.
Posted by: Brandon | August 23, 2015 at 07:46 AM
Brandon, I love that Grundig but I don't have $500 of love for it.
Posted by: herculodge | August 23, 2015 at 01:09 PM
That analog radio divide brings back memories of my young teen years in NYC, when WMCA (570 AM) and WWRL (1600 AM) would both unveil their new Surveys beginning on Wednesday afternoon at 4 PM.
If Carpal Tunnel Syndrome had been A Thing in the 60's I'm sure I had it from spinning the analog dial back and forth between those two stations.
Posted by: Ken K. in NJ | August 23, 2015 at 07:45 PM