Sangean WFR-39 FM-RBDS/Internet Radio with Spotify Connect, AirMusic Control Rechargeable Portable Digital Radio

* Small portable beautiful gem with solid build quality. * Good sound quality, given the size. Largely it depends on the wide band strength of a broadcasting radio station. * Wide choice of stations worldwide, especially BBC 1-6. * Software outlay well designed. Wish software would have allowed making categories of favourite Presets. After all there are 250 Presets. But this limitation applies to all existing internet radios that I am aware of. * Needs fast/strong internet, otherwise would be momentarily disconnected. * Read Manual carefully and refer to it more frequently. I also called Sangean with a few questions. They were very helpful. * One important point. While Charging, the moment cable is connected, power outlet will become Green. It means charging is in progress. When fully charged, light on power outlet will Off. At low power, the light will become Reddish. Be ready to charge. * So impressed with this small wrf-39 that I ordered the bigger unit, wrf-32.

Radio is constantly buffering. It was ok for about the first month or two and then started to loose the stations to the point it was not functional. Not all stations are this way but the worse ones were the iheart stations. I have no trouble wit my other internet radios on the same stations and the radio in question is located 5 feet from the wifi router. NOT ACCEPTABLE. Unfortunaty the return time is one month past or I would return it. Maybe I will just throw it away. No more Sangean products. They use to me best buy for the money. No longer looks this way. This is not the only radio. This is the way all internet radios from Sangean are reacting from other owners as well.

I have purchased several Sangean radios in the past and they’ve all been solid performers. I saw this new wifi radio and read a very positive review from radio expert Jay Allen on his website so I decided to order it. Unfortunately, I decided to return it due to the following reasons: 1. It takes too long to boot up each time, especially under battery power. Approximately 60 seconds. 2. The radio directory service they use, has a more limited station database versus other internet radios. 3. Many of the listed stations (including popular ones like KCRW) take too long to connect, and then they constantly disconnect and re-rebuffer. And I have strong WiFi coverage (with full bars) and a very fast internet connection. This was my main complaint. If the stations connected more quickly and held their connection in a more stable manner I would probably have kept it. 4. The FM band is less sensitive versus other Sangean radios. Also, it’s hard to tune the FM frequency band as the tuning knob is slow and adjusts in step increments. The only pluses to me were the form factor. It’s small and can be held in one hand. And the sound quality is okay for the speaker size. For those interested in a portable WiFi radio, I suggest checking out the Grace Digital Mondo Elite. It’s a bit more expensive, but it has a better database, more listening source options and is faster and more stable for connecting to stations.

I had a WFR-28, but it suddenly stopped connecting to my wireless network. After some research, and probably against my better judgement, got another Sangean. Initially I was very pleased with the new radio, and to be fair, I still am. The interface is much much better, and connecting to my wireless was/is a simple and flawless process. The app used to tune and configure it is a little wonky, but that's fine. My only problem is what others have reported, and it's that annoying low tone crackle. Did they add this to make it sound like a real radio? I wish Sangean would address the issue.

I am very pleased with my Sangean W-32 Internet Radio I purchase last year and wanted a portable edition for travel and listening in another room of the house. I like that I could use the same remote APP on my phone. I saw a lot of reviews mentioning problems with connectivity or issues with the radio holding a signal. I have not had these issues. Maybe there has been an update that addressed this since those reviews were written? It does take a while to connect initially, but channel changes have taken little time to connect. Battery life could be longer (6-7 hrs at a time?) but this tends to come with a portable unit. I did purchase a USB plug that is compliant with what is recommended for the unit and this eliminates the battery issues. Charging time is average or a couple to three hours for a full charge which is what can be expected. I do wish the internet channel selection was more extensive as is with the W-32, particularly with local channels. That is not to say it is not acceptable but it is just not as good as the W-32. FM reception is very good. The FM tuning can be tiresome but I can save enough stations so it is not an issue unless I travel and have to find the local stations. But, I will usually go to the internet channels when I travel. Not a biggie. Overall, I am pleased with the radio and it does what I was looking for it to do.

Contrary to what some have said, it's not difficult to use. Take 30 minutes to read the instructions and you'll be good to go. The free android remote control app ("AirMusic Control" by Frontier Smart Tech) is excellent. Don't confuse it with a similar paid app that will also appear in the search results. The app allows to control the radio, as well easily search and add favorites from tens of thousands of stations around the world.

Let me begin by saying I love listening to the radio. I listen all day when I am in my shop, or inside my office. Consequently I have two other internet radios. One is an Ocean digital portable which I use in my shop, and a Sangean WFR-28 I use in the office. I intended to use this one at home. Also, I will point out that in general, I love Sangean radios and also have a couple of Sangean AM/FM and shortwave portables from the 80's and 90's that I use even today. Pros: - Excellent sound, nice full color display, long battery life. - Supports both 2.5Mhz and 5Mhz wifi. - Convenient size Cons: - Could not tune several of the stations which I like to listen to -- all of which are available on my other internet radios including my other Sangean's. - Lacks 1 touch station memory buttons. Selecting to a save "favorite" station requires going through a multi-step menu. - The radio has an awkward, built-in software interface for controlling the radio. To be fair, all internet radios are controlled by internal software, but this one is just not the most convenient to use. - The radio display has no full-time battery indicator, meaning that while using the radio on battery power, you'll have no idea of how much battery charge is remaining. That is until the charging port lights up alerting you that you are about to exhaust the battery. - Radio can be controlled using an app called Airmusic, which makes the radio a bit easier to use. Airmusic is available for Android, iPhone and IOS, but oddly enough, there is no Windows version. I was able to use it on my Android phone, but I'm left wondering why not Windows? It is after all, the dominate PC OS in existence. - Strange quirk that kept reoccurring - about once a week, I would turn the radio only to discover all of my saved preset stations appeared to be missing. Even weirder, by connecting the radio to the Airmusic app on my phone, all of my presets stations would mysteriously reappear. Airmusic would then prompt me that a software update was available. Whether it was an update for the Airmusic app, or the Radio's internal firmware it didn't say. Clicking UPDATE would change the Apps display, indicating that an update seemed to be in progress - this also caused the radio's display to blink slowly which I assume was some sort of indication that some software was trying to update. However this would continue endlessly until I finally turned off the radio. Nothing was ever updated. This became a reoccurring pain. I assume that the app was trying to connect to some software server, but could not, and became stuck in a loop..... I have been using Internet radios for years, including other Sangeans, and I've never seen anything like this quirky behavior. - The combination of the quirky, awkward software, lack of Windows support, lack of any one touch preset buttons and the unsupported stations turned out to be a deal breaker for me. Note....Some of the other reviews point to issues such as audio static and/or weak Wi-Fi. I did not experience either of these issues as the Wi-Fi and the sound were flawless while I tested the unit. The Wi-Fi supported both 2.5 and 5Mhz Wi-Fi - a nice feature. It could also be configured for DHCP or manual operation. As I said in my headline, I genuinely like Sangean and really wanted this radio to work out. It is generally a nice radio with a convenient footprint, excellent build quality, great sound and plenty of audio power. But silly flaws caused it not to work for me. Too bad!

Much easier station searches than earlier internet radios. Will lose a lot of its charge if left for a couple months unused. Fair to good local FM reception. Rubberized case is really nice. Color display is clear and good enough for its purpose.