Review on SANGEAN WR-2 AM/FM-RBDS Wooden Cabinet Digital Tuning Radio (White) by Robert Aliraqi

This is an excellent desk radio alarm clock. I will give some tips on how to use it and mention some aspects that could be improved. All in all I would recommend this radio. A NOTICE. As of this date, the image on the product page is from an older, discontinued version! See the attached picture of the current version 2 front panel. This is a very attractive design. The radio uses an internal AM antenna and the power cord uses an FM antenna. The radio has connections for external AM and FM antennas. I'm using it in a place with very poor AM and FM reception. Even with antennas built in, the radio has surprisingly good reception - the best I've seen, including radios from Nakamichi and Boston Acoustics. I connected an external single-wire VHF antenna, reception is excellent. I suspect an external dipole antenna or maybe a boosted antenna would be even better if you're in a really bad reception area. The sound quality is pretty good. Bass and treble controls give you the choice! There are five preset buttons. They give you five presets for AM and FM. An alarm clock is provided which can be used with the buzzer or any AM or FM station. Assuming a radio station is in use: the alarm is set via the OSD menu which shows hours, minutes, frequency (once, daily, weekday, weekend), AM or FM, station or preset), volume. Press the alarm button for a few seconds and the menu will flash. Turn the dial to select an option and press the knob to confirm the selection and move to the next menu item. The time can be set automatically via the Digital Radio System (RDS), but this does not work in my area. I installed it manually from the menu. The display has 8 brightness levels, including fully off. APPLICATION TIPS, mainly related to the alarm clock: Do you only use the alarm clock for a few days? Set it to "one time" frequency. The radio remembers the settings. If you want to activate an alarm, just press the alarm button for a few seconds. If you are awakened by an alarm and you turn it off, it will remain inactive until you press the alarm button again for a few seconds. Do you use the same alarm clock every day? Set it to "daily". After waking up and turning off, the alarm will remember all settings and work again tomorrow. Just change the time and never want to change the AM/FM station or volume? There is no need to go through all the menus. Set the time you want and stop pressing any buttons. The display will stop flashing after a few seconds and the alarm will activate with the new alarm time. Required design improvements: No design change, but the above tips can be added to the user manual! The tuning knob is flat - it should protrude further from the faceplate for easier picking and turning. When waking up, the alarm can be turned off by pressing the blue power button or by pressing the alarm button (bottom row, third is the radio or fourth is the buzzer from the right). It would be nice to have a larger or more prominent "Silent Alarm" button. In fact, the display should automatically adjust its brightness based on the ambient light. Nonetheless, I highly recommend this radio. The changes mentioned will make it better - I hope Sangean sees this review.