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CC.CRANE RADIOS. . . JUNK ????

C

Casablanca

Guest
Several years ago - 6 to be exact - I purchased a CC Crane Sangean radio which you used to hear advertised up and down the AM dial because it allegedly would get better reception of hard to pull in AM stations. I never found it to be any better than a cheap radio of half its cost. In fact, I sent the first one back after about six months because it didn't work. CC Crane did replace it. However, the one they replaced it with is really no better. Now, none of the digital read outs of the stations can be read - they are jumble of half visible numbers where 9's look like 6's and 5's look like 4's and the like. Finally, this radio eats batteries in days not weeks and it will no longer run on AC power as intended. It will only work with batteries. Bet I have spent almost as much on batteries as the radio is worth.
And as to signal strength... when it has trouble pulling in WBZ Radio you know you have been conned.
Has anyone else fallen for this bogus radio and have you had any satisfaction from the CC Crane Company which no longer seems to advertise on radio.

Hope this post will stay on the Boston Board. No other discussion board really fits and it is after all ... about the ability to "hear" radio.
 
I've got a couple of these units, and my experience hasn't been quite as bad, but I am not thrilled with them by any means. In fact after buying these, I was fortunate enough to buy another old GE Superadio 1, at a yardsale for $20.00, and I was far more thrilled with the old GE. In any case, I have found the C Crane's AM sensitivity to rival that of the old GE Superadio 1s and 2s. The FM sensitivity is quite another matter, as is the fidelity. I've found the FM portion of these units to be fairly weak, and I don't care for the overall audio quality of the C Crane radios, either. At the present time, my C Crane radios are in storage, along with my
GE Superadio 3. I presently stick to using my old GE Superadio 1s and 2s. I'm starting to doubt that anything will come along to rival those...
 
Can you get a GE Super radio only at a yard sale. Heard that GE made an excellent radio but can't find them in any store. As to my C Crane - it is going to the junk yard where it belongs. Hate getting ripped off and I feel I was royally ripped off by their come-on ads. Perhaps, their reputation is catching up with them since I no longer hear them on radio.
 
The GE Superadio 3 is still available, and you would probably enjoy it alot more than your present unit. They also have very good audio quality, at about 1/3 the price of the C Crane. The C Cranes are still advertised heavily on Coast To Coast AM, overnights, locally on WRKO.
 
GE Superadio III'S can be ordered through any Radio Shack outlet, they are in stock
at some stores, I recently bought two at the Wilmington, Ma store for the sales managers in some of our stations in office buildings where reception is almost
non existant. They are thrilled with the results particularly on AM compared to
what they were trying to use before
 
Occasionally GE SuperRadio IIIs can be purcheased here in Maine at Reny's Dept. Stores. I got mine at The nearby Reny's in Ellsworth five years ago, and it is GREAT on AM, with the built-in AM antenna, and even better with an outside wire or other AM antenna. It has both AM and FM external antenna jacks..a big plus!!! Cost me only $40, although it was "re-furbished" (and clearly stated in the newspaper ad, as well as on the box).
Unfortunately, the FM on the SuperRadioIII is terrible; especially in the higher end of the FM band from 102-108mhz. Lousy tuning dial and atrocious selectivity. And a very flimsy FM antenna.

I recently trashed my 1983-vintage SuperRadio I original deition which I bought when stationed in Hawaii. Tuning dial pulley and cord snapped, and speaker was shot; A real sad loss... Now that sucker worked like a charm! I picked up WBZ-1030 several nights in Kodiak Alaska on it. And it worked great on AM in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.. A real DX machine!!
 
Channel Surf said:
I presently stick to using my old GE Superadio 1s and 2s. I'm starting to doubt that anything will come along to rival those...
Click to expand...

I worked for a radio station which used to use the GE Superadio for studio off air monitors. They were so good that we occasionally used them for ripping off audio for syndicated radio programs for broadcast when the Comrex went kaput.

I remember well when Art Bell used to peddle these CC radios because they, believe it or not, "were made to make AM talk radio programs so much better to listen to." Used to tie them in with the ads for the cellar-fulls of MREs you could buy in preparation for the Y2K computer crash collapsing the food distribution system. (I always wondered by they believed that broadcasting would be the only institution not adversely affected by the Y2K bug.)

I've often wondered if the credulousness of Bell and Noory was a put-on. Evidently, that of their audience wasn't.

Regards.
TSB
 
Never mind the C.C. Crane. The GE Superradios are much better.

Believe it or not, I've got 3 (three) GE Superradio III's and 2 (two) GE Superradio II's in my collection. One of the II's I bought at a second-hand furniture store for $10. The store obviously had no idea of what they had. It was dusty and had a set of leaking batteries (but really not too bad). I offered $10. They took it gladly. I cleaned it up, put in a fresh set of batteries and replaced the FM antenna. I also replaced the IF filters with a couple of 110's and man does that machine sing! It looks practically brand new. (In many ways, it is!) Nice thing about the II's and III's, they really save on the batteries. I've been able to get over 300 hours of life, out of a set of batteries (the cheap Panasonic ones at Ocean State Job Lot). Not too shabby!
 
C.Crane seems better known for their AM antennas more than their radios. I've demoed a few of the Select-a-tennas and they do work quite well, although there's only so much any antenna can do in high-interference situations...which includes any city these days with all the sources of RFI out there; dimmers, computers, plasma TV's, etc etc etc etc.

I have not demoed any C.Crane radios so I can't comment on them. But certainly I have used GE Superradios and they are impressive.

IIRC the Grundig portables are supposed to be good receivers but I don't remember if that was just FM or both FM and AM. IIRC, there's an exact copy called Tecsun that's much cheaper due to different branding.
 
While reading RJOC's post I had flashbacks to my vocational school training...and file cabinets full of SAMS FotoFacts ( if you know what these are you are older than you think!) and trying to replace or repair damaged tuner cords. For those of you who know nothing but PLL , the Rube Goldberg designed station indicators of years gone by were enough to make the best radio repairman tell the customer " it can't be fixed"
 
The only thing I've bought from them so far is a book (by now slightly outdated) listing most radio stations coast to coast (good for travelers). Some of the stuff they sell is available at stores for quite a bit less; one Sony
AM-FM-TV Sound-Weather walkman was about $30-35 in stores but they had it at $45.
(http://ccrane.com/radios/pocket-radios/sony-srf-m37v.aspx)

They also were
selling one of those mini-FM transmitters for $70 while similar products in stores were more like $30-$50(unless
the CC model is REALLY good...and actually, this one can do any FM frequency while some models,
like a Belkin one I have, only do 88.1 to 88.7)
http://ccrane.com/radios/fm-transmitters/fm-transmitter.aspx

Of course in the case of those 2 products it says "FREE shipping!" Yeah, free...so they jack up the
price of the product. Again I only have a book from them
not a radio so I can't judge the quality other than to say that at least in the case of that Sony Walkman,
the price was a little on the high side.
 
...that $44.95 Sony Walkman at C. Crane? J&R (jr.com) has it for $29.99 (plus shipping) though it says temp
out of stock. Again, the CCrane price includes shipping but as far as price goes (just as an f.y.i.)...
 
rjoc said:
Unfortunately, the FM on the SuperRadioIII is terrible; especially in the higher end of the FM band from 102-108mhz. Lousy tuning dial and atrocious selectivity.
Click to expand...

The same for the Sony SRF-42 AM Stereo Walkmans, manufactured in the 1990's. The AM reception on those, whether in C-Quam AM stereo or in mono, was actually quite good, but the FM was absolutely horrible, worse than Sony's AM mono/FM stereo Walkmans. Three miles from the Pru here in Somerville, it was nothing but intermod of all those stations. Anything that didn't transmit from the Pru itself was buried.

The earlier Sony AM stereo Walkman from the 1980's, the SRF-A1, was actually useable on FM because at least it had a Local/DX switch, which was discontinued when they switched to the SRF-42. It seemed like it also had a slightly better FM circuit as well.

I still have an SRF-42, I have it hooked up to an FM transponder in my car to broadcast WJIB in stereo at 88.5 FM to my AM mono/FM stereo car unit. But, if I want to use it as a portable outside, I have to also take along another separate Walkman to get semi-reasonable FM reception.
 
raccoonradio said:
They also were
selling one of those mini-FM transmitters for $70 while similar products in stores were more like $30-$50(unless
the CC model is REALLY good...and actually, this one can do any FM frequency while some models,
like a Belkin one I have, only do 88.1 to 88.7)
Click to expand...

The CC FM Transmitter is indeed *really* good. It's basically the only FM modulator/transmitter I've found worth anything.

But...you have to do a slight mod to make it sing.

http://www.xmfan.com/viewtopic.php?t=3257

Basically, you put turn a small pot with a small screwdriver. If you remove the label, you can get to it without even opening up the case. (NOTE: OMW is not responsible if you have difficulty with the transmitter after doing this, though it really is a simple turning of a pot.)

I'm not sure the units out there still have this, or if C. Crane got hit up by the FCC FM Modulator Police like the satrad companies did...
 
I have a Sony shower radio - costs maybe 60 bucks, and it pulls in stations much better than the CC does. Its a decent radio, but nothing that's worth the money.
 
Sony also puts out a very nice digital portable radio. It is small with about a 3 inch speaker, with 5 AM and 5 FM presets. The reception on both bands is impressive, particularly for its size. It is the Sony ICF M410V. It generally retails for about $35.00....
 
We are getting off my original thread. Why is the C Crane radio so poorly manufactured that even the read out digitals don't work and it uses up batteries in days not months as it promises. It seems to drain batteries even if it is off for long periods of time and it will no longer work with the AC adapter.
In sum, the C Crane Sangean Radio for which I paid nearly $200.00 is junk !
 
Companies make junk, slap a "quality" label on it, and overcharge for it...ALL THE TIME!!!

Christ, just look at all the "gold plated connectors" that Radio Shack sells at an obscene profit. I had one Radio Shack manager try to sell me an S-Video cable for $40. That's with a Walgreens two doors down that sells 'em for $6. Ethernet cables are equally bad, too.
 
My CC Crane radio works great.... I've had it for over 3 years now, all the lights work, it pulls in stations as far away as St. Louis, and Atlanta with ease. I do have a CC Crane antenna to go with it, maybe that helps. But I love this radio.
 
Anyone have the same battery and digital read out problems I have had with my C Crane? It is 5 or so years old and I guess out of warranty. Still, it is not abused, never moved and fresh batteries are always in it. As to the digital problems it make it near impossible to read the call out numbers and know what station you have turned to.

Any suggestions, short of dumping the radio which I would rather not do.
 
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