Review on 📻 Sangean WR-11SE 40th Anniversary AM/FM Walnut Table Top Radio - Enhanced for SEO by Juan White

I just love this radio! I actually bought two of these because I liked them so much. One has a small problem which I will explain later. First, the sound quality is fantastic for a tabletop radio. I don't find it too "bass", but bear in mind that I mainly listen to classical music. I could see where some people might think it sounds too bass-heavy on an NPR newscast. In this case, you can stick a cotton swab (or other sound-absorbing cloth) in the opening on the back. It won't damage the speaker at all, so just give it a try if you want. The sensitivity of this radio is great on both AM and FM. Especially a lot better than my Tivoli Model One on AM. There is no "soft mute" between AM stations. Has full sensitivity. If you experience noise and interference on AM, it is because of where your radio is located. The radio is not to blame. AM is heavily influenced by interference from lighting, computers, motors and just about everything else. The only solution is to move the radio or connect an external AM antenna (there are clamps for that). Don't blame the radio! I have no problem with weak stations. This radio was not designed for "DXers" but will pick up many distant stations at night. This is a good compromise between selectivity and accuracy. This is not a narrow filter communications receiver. The FM sensitivity is surprisingly good. I use (and recommend) an external VHF antenna. Indoor or wired VHF antennas are poor at best. They can work for you in your situation; You can try and see. I have a WR-11 connected to a large Dachyagi and use it to listen to a classic station over 60 miles away. That's a pretty good feat these days considering how the FCC, as part of what it calls its "AM Revitalization" program, has allowed the FM band to degrade with more FM stations added. In fact, they turn the FM band into a complete obstacle, just like the AM band. The FM sensitivity of this radio compares well to my much more expensive tuners. The selectivity is also good. A classic station that I listen to on 90.5 when surrounded by stations on 90.3 and 90.7 and I'm in an area with dozens and dozens of strong local stations. I like the fact that this model has a built in power supply and no wall wart. (as WR-15). The power supply does not consume much power when switched off. I measured it with Kill-a-Watt and it only draws 1.1W when off (not 5W as another reviewer said). This is irrelevant. At medium volume, it consumes 3-4 watts. And it has no audible hum (like the Tivoli). A few notes on the sound. Yes, if you plug a cable into the AUX input on the back, the radio will automatically turn off as there is no separate switch for this function. Plugging in a pair of stereo headphones will play the audio in both ears, but the audio is mono, not stereo as another reviewer claims. Therefore you cannot use this radio as a tuner for your stereo if you want full stereo sound. As for the accuracy of the scale setting, I would rate it as excellent for the analog scale type of slide rule. And the tuner stays pretty stable on one of my two TVs. The other drifts a bit and that's the problem I mentioned earlier. I don't know why one of them is drifting and the other isn't, although the one that is drifting is in my cabin where the temperature isn't so well controlled. Temperature changes affect the vocal elements and that could certainly be part of the problem, but I feel like even then it's not that stable. If you buy this radio, you will definitely like it. The wooden case is also very good. This is a high quality product. UPDATE: Please note that the 40th edition tuner is different and not as good as the original! Unfortunately, Revain does not differentiate between the two models in test reports, which is also the case with other products. They redesigned the tuner and it now includes a "soft mute" feature for AM. If you want to listen to a weak station, its volume will be greatly reduced. I found AM reception to be generally poor compared to the original model and also picked up a lot of interference. I'm not sure if the noise is coming from an internal power supply or just the AM line. AM has no treble but solid bass. Subjectively, it sounds like they've skewed the frequency response above about 500 Hz! Unfortunately they also switched the tuner to FM and it got even worse. When tuned to a station, it will appear at three different points, accompanied by a distinct "click" sound as it locks onto each of them. The middle one is the strongest, and the two extreme ones are heard at slightly reduced volume. Stations with even lower volume can also be heard outside of these points. This seems to apply even to not very strong stations. I don't know what they were thinking when they changed the design of the tuner. This is not an improvement. However, the sound quality on FM is still excellent and outperforms other small tabletop radios I've tested. If I could rate the various features of the 40th edition individually, I would rate them as follows: *AM sound quality - 2 stars (fair) *FM sound quality - 5 stars (excellent) *MW tuner performance - 1 star (terrible! )* FM tuner performance - 2 stars (fair) I'm not sure but I suspect that Sangean changed the tuner design in the current production from standard models of the WR-11 radios to a new design. I won't buy one to find out because I already have two old ones that were fine. But if you buy any model of this radio, be aware that it can have the problems described above. Due to the poor performance of the current design tuner, I have decided to downgrade my overall rating from 5 stars to 3 stars.