Crosley CR31-WA Companion Retro AM/FM Radio with Full-Range Speaker, Walnut & Burl

LOVE it! Really nice finish and good FM reception. AM is strong and I can hear one channel over 300 miles away. You will love this Easy modification and it is cheap and quick and simple. Speaker is 2.5 inches easy to change. If you can't or won't change the speaker, I would not buy this radio (It's that bad). I removed the 2.5 inch puny magnet speaker and changed it with a GRS 3 inch model 3FR4 full range speaker With a heavy magnet for less than 10 bucks including shipping and sold on Amazon. The sound is sOOOO. much better! Power and loudness are good for a radio this size. The radio is made of real wood and beautiful with fantastic reception. I added antenna wire but I didn't really have to. I love the look without CD or cassette cluttering the face and ruining the vintage look. If you wanted bluetooth consider just getting an FM converter instead, and beaming your tunes through the fm antenna on the Crosley instead. If your light-bulb burns out....Just buy a nightlight at the dollar store Then screw a 25 watt LED into the nightlight socket. Wrap red cellophane tape around the LED or lightly spray paint it with red paint. You can get the red self stick cellophane at automotive stores for temporary tail light repair. The light will appear a soft beige, pink color not red, when radio is lit.(a very natural incandescent color) Open up the back of your radio after un-plugging it. Hot glue the nightlight just above the radio dial. Run a cheap extension cord to your nightlight. This makes your radio glow through the vent holes in the back like in the old TUBE radio days and lights the dial too. The picture is of the glowing dial with the modification added. A nice (tube-like glow is emitted from the rear vent holes as well).

Nice radio. Has a warm sound which I think is partially derived from wood case. Looks great on our nightstand. Just a fun radio to have, makes the room feel cozy and old-timey. I like the simplicity of it too. Just radio. I think with the Crosley products, the simpler the better. I have seen the Crosley version with CD player, which looks a little cheesy and not as authentic-looking of course, and reviews say that the CD player portion breaks often. We just like to play NPR on this radio or some classical music. The light is warm and comforting too on the dial. I have read reviews of light dying, but so far so good for us. We have had it for 6 months or so and no problems. We don't use it heavily and turn it off when we are done, so hopefully that helps. Definitely a good radio for people who want something extremely simple or who appreciate the antique look. If you want something technological, with iPod or Iphone inputs, this is obviously not the choice.

Wonderful, nostalgic radio. My great-grandparents had an old cathedral radio in their living room which they'd listen to the local polka station on. The radio has a nice finish, but uses cheap components, and does not produce the warm sound I recall from their radio. To its credit, the CR31 has an authentic look all around and does get great reception on AM and FM bands. I had mine for about six months before the bulb that lit the dial died. I was able to disassemble the radio and replace the bulb with a 2162 miniature lamp (used for lighting gauge clusters or HVAC controls in some cars). The old bulb is hot glued in very well and will likely break when removing it. The 2162 is slightly larger than the original bulb, but will fit if positioned correctly. Edit (3/26/18): I added a few pictures of the unit disassembled, highlighting a few screws and components that need to be removed if you want to attempt replacing the bulb yourself. I'm still on my "original" replacement bulb--so the replacement has lasted just under three years at this point. The radio gets about two to four hours of use per day on average, so I'd consider this a permanent fix as you won't have to re-do this process every few weeks or months (at least I didn't have to). (You would think Crosley would just install a better bulb at the factory. I picked up a 10-pack of CEC brand 2162 bulbs on Amazon for $4 a few years ago and still have 9 out of 10 bulbs sitting in the box.) The process isn't too bad, and honestly I struggled most with getting the AM/FM selector knob and switch aligned 'just right' during re-assembly. Here is the high-level process, and it really isn't bad if you're comfortable tinkering around with basic electronics: Step 1: turn off radio and disconnect from power before opening/servicing unit (sorry, this is just for anyone landing on this review from Google/Bing/whathaveyou). Step 2: remove the seven black Philips screws on the back cover. The cover is notched so you can move the power cord out of the way easily. The FM antenna should allow you to slide the cover off enough to move it out of the way while you work on the rest. With the back cover removed, you should see the main board. There are two wire leads for the bulb which should be labeled as + and – on the board. I tested these at 12VDC. The existing bulb is slightly smaller than T1.5, and it might have been a T1 operating at 0.7W vs 1W (making 7219 an option), but I wanted to ensure the replacement lit the dial up enough that I could see it during daylight as well as at night, so I went with a 2162. Anyway—I digress. Step 3: the main board is attached to a plastic frame by four silver Philips screws. At the bottom right, you should see the band (AM/FM) selector switch. First, while holding the AM/FM knob at the front, unscrew the Philips screw attaching the lever to the knob. It should slide off and just leave the slider/toggle switch exposed. At this point, you can remove the AM/FM knob and volume knob from the front of the radio (do not remove the tuning knob!). Step 4: remove the fours screws attaching the main board to the frame, and with the lever removed from the band selector switch during the previous step, you should now be able to pull the main board off its frame and set it aside to continue working. Step 5: at this point, you’ll see a plastic cover attached by two silver Philips screws, with the bulb right underneath. Remove these two, and gently pry it back (mine had a bit of adhesive holding it in place as well). Once removed you’ll now have access to the original, burnt out bulb, which appears to have been hot glued and super glued into place. I broke the original trying to remove it, and just ended up gently scraping bits of bulb and glue out with a soft plastic pick (to avoid damaging any of the finish/woodwork on the radio). Step 6: once the bulb is removed, just attach your new one to the leads. Polarity doesn’t matter (unless you're doing a LED conversion or something else entirely). Use a dab of hot glue to hold it in place, re-affix the plastic cover with the red station indicator, and begin re-assembling the unit. Step 7: I would start with re-attaching the main board to the frame. Ensuring everything is aligned, just screw the four silver Philips screws back down. Go easy on the torque/screwdriver as the plastic seems pretty soft. Just get it “snug enough”, and maybe an extra 1/8th turn. Then, re-assemble the AM/FM contraption. This assembly is keyed, so you’ll want to make sure it’s properly aligned when re-assembling, otherwise the knob might feel a bit loose or off when you change between AM/FM. I found it easiest to feed the splined part through the front of the radio after the main board was reattached. It should sink back pretty far but stop. At this point, slide the knob back onto the splines for resistance/leverage, and align and screw the lever onto it from the back/inside of the radio. Step 8: reattach the back cover, removing slack from the FM antenna and notching the power cord back into place, and you’re all set! Hope this was helpful. I attached a few pictures to my review outlining what needs to be removed, as well as a shot of the backlight dial to give you an idea of the brightness of the 2162 bulb. Again, a smaller one might work, but I went this route for its brightness and so far longevity hasn’t been an issue.

I love this radio. It looks great with my antiques. The sound and reception is great for a little radio. What more can you ask for? The design is perfectly suited for a home decorated in the 1930's style. The classic style will fit most homes. I find the quality to be very good, I can pick up many stations more clearly than other radios in my home. The size is great because it is much smaller than the original radios of the same kind that were made so very long ago. This makes it easy to decorate with as it fits well in a small space. It is important to note that the smaller size does not take away from the fine detail of the cabinet. My only recommendation to improve it would be to use a better quality grill cloth, and to make it blue tooth so that I could play my songs through it. Nevertheless, it makes me sad to think that an American company like Crosley can't manufacture this in the USA. It's so sad that most everything we buy these days is made in China.