Surfing with my tranny

A six-in-one Wi-Fi Internet radio with great sound quality, the Sangean WFR-28 provides access to more than 18,000 Internet radio stations from around the world. It also acts as a wireless music streamer, an FM tuner, a USB music player, a speaker system for an MP3 player, a smart phone as well as an alarm clock.

The WFR-28 looks like a classic transistor radio, measuring just 273 x 148 x 62mm and weighing a mere at 851 grammes.

The turning control rotary will also remind users of the old-style tranny though they’ll be quickly brought back to the present by the 2.32 x 1.32-inch LCD display with 128 x 64 pixel resolution that serves to select the player’s various functions.

The WFR-28 has one 3-inch full-range speaker and the player’s sound system is powered by a Class D amplifier with 1.2 watts music output. Despite its compact size, WFR-28 produced good-quality sound that was able to fill my living room. The mono-sound system was good enough for enjoying music from the FM tuner and Internet radio stations, but those who want to listen in stereo to MP3 songs from an USB drive, can connect premium stereo headphones to the WFR-28 or connect the player to a home stereo system using WFR-28’s stereo line-out jack.

I tested the player using Philips Fidelio M1 on-ear headphones and I was impressed by the music quality. The player offers eight equaliser settings to further enhance the sound effects: Normal, Flat, Jazz, Rock, Movie, Classic, Pop, and News as well as your own customisable setting.

I connected the player’s stereo line-out jack to my Denon AVR-1611 receiver and enjoyed playing songs from my USB drive on the WFR-28.

The WFR-28 does not come with a remote control but you can easily control and select various functions using the control buttons.

If you have an iPod Touch or iPhone, you can download the Sangean app from the App Store and use that as the remote control for the WFR-28. I tried it and found the functions of the WFR-29 were easier with the Sangean app controlling the player, especially browsing music files on my USB flash drive. The app even supports Thai-language music titles.

The WFR-28 has five preset buttons to store five FM stations and five Internet radio stations for faster access.

You use the Mode button to cycle through the available functions of the player, turning the Turning Control Rotary/Select knob to the right.

You also turn the rotary to select the menu items or stations on the screen and when your choice is highlighted, press down the rotary to select.

The rotary can also be used to perform searches for Internet radio stations. An alphabet list and numbers from 0 to 9 are displayed on the screen and you use the rotary to select the letters and numbers of the station you want to search for.

If you prefer to listen to genres that don’t feature on normal FM stations in Thailand, you will find this Wi-Fi Internet radio set very useful.

During the test, I enjoyed listening to classic rock music and songs from the 70s and 80s played on the several Internet radio stations dedicated to this music. I also listened to the news on the BBC and caught some commentaries on other current affair programmes.

The test found that the WFR-28 streamed music from Internet radio stations smoothly and with good sound quality.

It was very simple to connect the WFR-28 to my Cisco router. I selected the push-to-sync option of the WFR-28, pushed the sync button of my router and WFR-28 connected immediately. You can also manually input a wireless key or your router to the WFR-28 to establish connection.

As a network music streamer, the WFR-28 streamed music files from my Windows-7 notebook computer without any problem.

Its FM tuner also boasts good reception.

The WFR-28 can be powered by the provided DC power adapter or you can use four D-cell batteries to add more mobility to the player.

Sangean WFR-28 is available from www.Siammetry.com or the “Siammetry” page on Facebook for Bt6,500. With four 4,500 mAh GP D NiMH rechargeable batteries, it sells for Bt7,500. The WFR-28 has a built-in battery recharger.

 

      Key specs

_ Wi-Fi connection: 2.4 – 2.4835 GHz 802.11 b/g

_ FM tuner: 87.5 – 108 MHz

_ Audio decoders: MP3/WMA

_ Alarm: Tuner/Media/Buzzer

_ Display: 2.32 x 1.32-inch LCD with 128 x 64 pixels

_ Amplifier: 1.2W

_ Speaker: 3-inch speaker 4-ohm impedance

I/O ports: DC-in, Aux-in, Line-out, Headphones, USB

_ Power supply: 7.5V/1.6A; 4 x 1.5V (UM-1)

_ Dimensions (W x H x D): 273 x 148 x 62mm

_ Weight: 851 g