Sangean PR-D4W Review with FM Wire Antenna Upgrade

I was content to not buy a radio for a while since every room had a strong-performing radio, and my twin girls demonstrated a tendency to bend antennas and knock over the radios, chipping them and in some cases cracking the casing like in my Grundig G4000. But Southern California Edison without warning did work in my backyard resulting in a colossal surge, resulting in the outage of my central AC’s transformer and the frying of my beloved Sangean WR-2 (my neighbors suffered worse losses, including fried TVs, computers, and even a scorched floor. We’ve all filed claims).

Part of me wanted to replace my 8-year old WR-2 with a new model since I knew the long FM wire antenna would get KPCC Pasadena 89.3 FM, an NPR station that is 40 miles from my house. My radios grab KPCC easily enough in the kitchen, but my bedroom is problematic.

But the radio enthusiast inside me wanted something new. A reader, Tim, mentioned his curiosity in the PR-D4W, so when I looked at the specs on Amazon it had what I wanted:

One. Small bedside footprint

Two. DSP FM tuner

Three. Runs on supplied AC or 4 D batteries (good backup)

Four. Price was under $70, which is $100 less than my CCRadio-2E.

Fit and Finish

When the radio arrived, I liked the look and feel out of the box. I liked it better than my CCRadio-2E, which doesn’t scream $170 quality. This is evidenced by a stuck FM preset 2 after one year of use.

The black PR-D4 with gray accents is more appealing and the preset buttons seem better built.

Performance

In the kitchen, I played the PR-D4 side by side with the CCRadio-2E and FM and AM reception seemed nearly identical. This surprised me because the 2E has an 8-inch ferrite. The PR-D4, a 9-inch wide radio, probably houses a somewhat smaller ferrite, but I didn’t notice any AM reception difference.

Additionally, the PR-D4 has a Band Width button that gives you increments between 1 and 6 KHZ. The default was set at 2. I find my sweet spot is 2.5. To use the Band Width button, you hold the button till it beeps. Then you use the tuner up button to scroll through the KHZs, which are in .5 increments.

Speaker Sound

I prefer the speaker sound of the PR-D4 to the 2E, which surprised me since the 2E has treble and bass controls. The PR-D4 does not.

Another point about Sangean radios is that many of them are calibrated to be bass-heavy. Perhaps Sangean was listening to customer complaints because the PR-D4’s 3-inch speaker has well balanced calibration and is less bass-heavy than my Sangean WR-2.

FM Wire Antenna Upgrade on the Sangean PR-D4

In the kitchen my CCRadio-2E and Sangean PR-D4 grab 89.3 easily. But both falter in my bedroom. Keeping the 2E in the kitchen and using the PR-D4 in the bedroom, I decided to take the Sangean WR-2’s FM wire antenna, coil one end to the PR-D4’s telescopic antenna and stick the other end to my window blind. The FM bar for KPCC shot up from 2 to 4 bars and there is no static. I haven’t tried the 2E with the wire antenna upgrade but my guess is it would improve in my bedroom as well.

Ergonomics and Presets

The PR-D4 is very easy to use. Truth be told, I did not consult the manual. I’m someone who’s been in the trenches with Degen 1103 radios and other Degen and Tecsun radios that require 2-day seminars in engineering. Not so with the PR-D4.

You get 2 bands of FM and 2 bands of AM on the PR-D4. Each band has 5 presets for a total of 10 each. This beats the 5 on the CCRadio-2E and my 2E has only 4 presets with the stuck 2. Deoxit helps for about 3 days before it sticks again.

This radio “plays dark” with no clock illumination. You can press a display for 10 seconds. I can now feel all the controls in the dark and feel comfortable “playing it dark” at night.

Conclusion:

The PR-D4 gives you 97% of the CCRadio 2E’s performance (and then some with the added presets). If you want to spend $100 more for treble and bass controls and possibly sticky presets after one year, get the 2E. If you’re happy with the well-balanced speaker calibration of the PR-D4 and want 10 presets instead of 5, get the PR-D4.

 

Comments

[Gary]

The PR-D4W seems like a nice upgrade of my slightly smaller PR-D7. The PR-D4W has a DSP tuner with multiple bandwidths, weather alert, and twice as many presets as the PR-D7. It seems the sound quality of the PR-D4W may be similar to that of the PR-D7. I far prefer my PR-D7 over my PR-D5 for listening to talk radio, because it's less muffled and doesn't have bloated bass.

[RadioFlynn]

How does it sound through headphones? The specs list 3mW output, which seems pretty low, but if the amplifier is low noise you can turn up the volume a bit.

[herculodge]

Using my cheap JBud 1 earbuds (under 7 dollars), the sound seems fine, just as good as on my Sangean WR-2.

[StarHalo]

But there's a charging cradle there in the background; a cellphone/tablet with the free TuneIn app receives KPCC's online stream in studio feed-quality without all the wire trickery..

[john]

One feature they dropped from the CC Radio is the ability to charge batteries in the unit, so I'm still using my CC Radio Plus. The PR D7 has that as well. Does this, I couldn't see in the descriptions online?

[herculodge]

You can recharge the batteries in the PR-D7 but I am using non-rechargeables.

[herculodge]

Let me take that back. They DON'T take recharges. There is no switch for that. I read an Amazon review incorrectly. Sorry.

[Gary]

Jeff,

Where you said PR-D7 I think you meant PR-D4W.

The PR-D7 does indeed charge batteries internally, but charging batteries in series is not the best thing to do for their longevity. Batteries should be charged individually if possible.

[herculodge]

Gary, sorry, I meant the PR-D4.

[RadioFlynn]

Thanks. Sounds like a good upgrade from the more portable PR-D9W, which was unfortunately crippled by introducing a signal-burying hiss into headphones. Otherwise a nice little unit, but It makes me worry about Sangean cutting corners on the under $100 models.

[RadioFlynn]

According to the Sangean website, this model has "AM auto tracking". I wonder what that is? Some sort of antenna tuning?

[herculodge]

I haven't figured out the "AM auto tracking" though I'm happy with the AM reception.

[Tim]

The PR-D4W is the long-overdue replacement for the Sonido radio. My wife and I have used the Sonido as our bedside radios for years and have been very happy with it. The two models are more or less identical, except that the Sonido had the old TV band. I'm really looking forward to the PR-D4W.

[Paul]

Jeff, does the PR-D4W really have multiple bandwidths on both AM *and* FM? Thanks!

[herculodge]

Yes, two bandwidths for AM and FM, so you get 10 preset each for a total of 20 AM/FM presets. The radio is easily worth the 65-69 dollar price tag.