Sangean WFR-28

Good Internet Radio but questionable build quality – Its great to be able to listen to stations from different parts of the world at the touch of a button on a radio rather than a "device." However issues with my model are 1. the whole exterior has yellowed (apart from the battery cover) and 2. the surface of the selection buttons have started to crack and fall away. Seems rather poor after only 4 years on a fairly pricey radio. Show details

Very useful in office buildings with no radio reception – I bought this device because my workplace has next to no radio reception. I connect it to my WiFi and get to have plenty of background music all day. It works quite well and although it won't win any HiFi awards it sounds reasonably good. I would describe it as sounding a bit muddy out of the box, though choosing your own EQ settings can improve… Read more

things. There is a line out socket to allow connection to an amplifier and speakers, etc. I haven't done this but have read only positive stories.

It comes with five preset buttons for your favourite stations but more presets are available if you use the Undok app on your smartphone. You must be connected to the same WiFi network being used by the radio to use it. The app also controls many other aspects of the radio setup and operation.

The radio makes use of a huge database of international stations and podcasts, maintained by Frontier Nuvola. They may be found by browsing the menus within the radio or by looking on the website. You can make yourself an account, add your radio (link to the website with an access code - similar to pairing Bluetooth devices) and attach any stations you like to your radio. Those stations will appear in the "My favourites" folder in the radio's menus. "My added stations" contains any stations you've added that are not in the database but that you have the stream's URLs for. You don’t have to use the website to make the radio work but it can be useful.

Spotify is built in though I haven't used it.

Apart from internet radio the unit covers FM/DAB and USB input to play stored music. There's an AUX input as well as headphone output, both in stereo.

I'll only be running mine with the supplied AC adaptor but it also takes 4 x D cells, alkaline or NiMH (nickel metal hydride), the latter of which can be charged inside the unit. The battery compartment is exceptionally tight and ‘I hope I don’t break this thing’ is something that is sure to cross your mind when inserting batteries.

Overall I highly recommend this radio. It’s certainly better than streaming audio on a smartphone’s tiny speaker/s and more convenient than using a PC for the task if size and/or portability are important.

Excellent design and features – Excellent radio - easy to set up. Just enter wi-fi details and choose stations. DAB works very well. Has line out so can be connected to an external amplifier. Wish there were more than 5 presets per band. Battery compartment is rather tight for the 4 size D batteries.

Where to next – This might be a good product but only if it can be set up. Unfortunately, I'm not well versed in computer gobbledegook language, and after two days of trying to set it up I am about to return it to the buyer. This is a great disappointment, especially as I had no problem setting up a 'Cord' internet radio, which took only a few minutes.  Show details

Great product with one limitation – I live in country NSW with poor terrestrial radio reception, I rely on VAST for ABC Radio. All other radio services I stream from the internet. So when I had to replace my bedside internet radio I selected the Sangean WFR-28C that I could only purchase from JB HiFi. This is a great little unit with good sound out of the mono speaker. Excellent… Read more ·  1

sound when coupled to a Bose MiniLink II speaker or HiFi Headphones. The radio is relatively easy to set up with an easy to understand menu system. Internet radio offers the choice of thousands of world wide radio stations of many genres. Pre-recorded audio can be played using a USB memory stick. The FM seems to work well, I don't use the other features. My only complaint is that the batteries do not hold the clock settings if the radio is not turned on and the mains power is interrupted, so the alarms can not be relied on. The sleep timer goes up to 90 minutes in 15 minute increments.

Overall a great little radio if you want to listen to the world, or just get reliable local "radio" reception via the internet.

Versatile radio but with a major design fault – The Sangean WFR-28D is a well-built battery/mains radio suitable for desk or shelf use. It will play FM, DAB+ and Internet stations (the last only via wifi, not ethernet cable) with five button presets for each band. There are line-in and USB input sockets as well. The sound quality through its mono speaker is quite good while stereo from the… Read more

line output to a hifi system it is excellent. Like several other Sangean digital radios it has a built-in charger to allow use of four D-cell NiMH rechargeable batteries, a great feature as digital radios chew up power, but remember to set the tiny switch inside the battery compartment to NiMH when using rechargeables. Response to switch-on is slow: 15 seconds for FM and DAB+, 30 seconds for internet with the connection time.

The Internet chip is supplied by Frontier Silicon who control the internet station database accessed by the radio, enabling searching by categories. Many but not all internet stations are listed. You can request via a website a specific station that may not be listed, just for your radio. Streams in MP3, WMA, Real Player and AAC compression algorithms are supported but not the later AAC+, strange as this is the compression used for the Australian standard DAB+ digital radio, which the radio can play. This radio is great for quality playback in places where one may have a reliable broadband wifi but poor FM or DAB+ reception.

The big drawback is that the two alarm functions cannot be relied upon as the internal clock setting is lost when the radio is only powered by batteries! The clock is backed up only by mains power connection, "for energy conservation" according to Sangean, which is absurd as clock back-up power can be negligible. Thus if you had the alarm set to wake you up with the power pack connected, a power outage during the night would wipe the clock and you would not get the alarm. Similarly, if you unplug the radio to move it and it is not switched on, the clock is lost. Setting the auto update function to DAB+ will restore the clock to local time when the radio is switched back on to a DAB+ station but that is too late for the alarm. Setting auto update to the internet will reset the clock to the time where the last internet station is broadcasting, e.g. UK! The whole clock thing is sloppy engineering.

The first two of these WFR-28D radios that I tried were faulty, one had a bad speaker, the other would not initialise, so make sure you try it before leaving the shop. If you don't want internet radio or alarm functions the Sangean DPR26 with its two speakers can be recommended.