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When Internet radio first hit the scene, I loved the idea of being able to tune into a cool San Francisco radio station whenever I wanted or to listen for the local news in Spain before traveling there for vacation. The appeal was limited by having to listen at the computer or by stringing an Ethernet cable from a radio to a router. Now a number of Wi-Fi options have sprouted up, enabling consumers to tap into the latest tunes from Latvia from the comfort of their living rooms over their wireless home networks.
The target listeners for Wi-Fi radios are people who want free access to an immense variety of stations; immigrants and expats who want to plug into their homelands for news and cultural programs; people who live in areas poorly covered by AM and FM broadcasts and those who want to diversify their cultural knowledge. Internet radio offers a great opportunity to eavesdrop on talk radio in Qatar or check out the music scene in Paris, but radios have to be simple to set up and use for the concept to work. Internet radio stations can also be a bit unreliable. A favorite station may be available one day, and disappear the next. The low bit-rate of Internet music prevents any Internet radio from being a true high fidelity component, but some come much closer than others. Wi-Fi does add a layer of complexity to the picture, but adds much needed flexibility to where you place the radio. We rounded up five Wi-Fi Internet radios, and here’s what we found.
Logitech Squeezebox Boom ($299)
www.logitech.com
Logitech offers the most comprehensive music library of the bunch, linking the Boom network music system to other Logitech networked music players in the house, to music from a PC, and to half a dozen Internet radio services (Shoutcast, Sirius, Live365 and more) broken up into dozens of genres with seemingly endless station options. Logitech’s Squeeze Network also integrates with six online music services including Rhapsody, Pandora and Slacker. Add podcasts, RSS feeds and special effects and you’ve got way more than you’ll ever use. With natural sounds like crickets, ocean surf, babbling brook and rain, you’ve got a sleep machine, too, along with sleep timer and alarm.
The Boom is shaped like a scaled-down boom box—with a big dial and six presets (again, not enough presets). Despite the look and name, it’s not portable. Its small remote has raised buttons and is comfortable to use, and you can navigate easily via the front panel buttons as well.
The setup process for the Boom was simple enough to understand thanks to display prompts. During setup, the Boom couldn’t find my router until a firmware upgrade corrected the problem.
The Boom integrates nicely with the Squeeze Network Web site. Pick a station to add to your favorites list and it immediately shows up on the radio. As with all the Wi-Fi radios, it takes a while to get used to which button does what in the menu process—when to hit down, right, back or enter. Fortunately, the Logitech remote has a Home button so you can always go back if you get mired in a sub-menu.
The Boom is understated in appearance—but aided by a large, easy-to-read display—and chock full of options including a line-in jack and headphone jack.
Com One Phoenix Internet Radio ($149)
www.com-one.biz
Com One’s Phoenix radio is a content machine, offering access to more than 11,000 radio stations, 11,000 podcasts, audio books, background sounds, RSS feeds, as well as access to users’ collections of MP3 and WMA music files stored on a thumb drive that plugs into a USB port on the back of the radio. The Phoenix is portable and is powered by four rechargeable AA batteries that charge inside the radio while it’s plugged into a wall outlet.
I registered the radio at Com One’s Web site where I could add stations to my catalog more easily than I could from the simple controls of the radio. The radio came loaded with stations organized by genre and with its eight presets pre-filled. It lists stations by category, and I first went to the Adult Alternative genre only to find that the first two I selected weren’t available. I saw messages that don’t appear in the over-the-air world: “Radio server overload or broadcast interrupted. Try again later”—messages that occur across the entire I-radio spectrum.
Presets were easy to reset, car radio-style, or you can do it from your PC, which automatically transferred to the radio in the other room. You can bookmark favorites using a heart button next to the presets, and can easily call up the favorites in the menu.
In the future you’ll be able to access music from a networked PC and play it back through the Phoenix via UPnP. The update will be pushed to the radio automatically. Currently, you can play tunes from a thumb drive through the USB slot on the back.
Audiobooks from 17 authors are included. You have to wonder what Homer would think about the Odyssey being read over such a device. Two alarms are included with the radio, and they give you a variety of sources to wake up to, but it’s a byzantine process to set them up through the menu system and even more annoying to try to shut it off.
There’s no power button on the Phoenix. To turn it off, you have to go into a menu to put the radio in standby. You can’t unplug it to shut it off because then the battery power takes over.
Tivoli Audio NetWorks Radio with FM ($599)
www.tivoliaudio.com
Tivoli Audio is known for its compact, high-quality radio tuners that are a model of straightforward operation. While the NetWorks is an IP-based product, Tivoli wanted to distance it from the PC by making it look and act like something for the living room rather than the home office. That begins with the “block of wood” look, in real cherry, walnut or wenge finishes. The radio is operated by a credit card-style remote with a membrane keypad with five number keys for presets (you can store more in a favorites menu). Once into the network you can navigate via genre or location. One of those classic Tivoli tuning dials would be welcome here. Although there is a navigational keypad on the back of the radio, it’s not always easy to get to—so don’t lose the remote. On the plus side, there’s a flat volume knob on top of the NetWorks that also mutes and powers off the radio.
Once you’re connected to the network, you can immediately select from five pre-loaded stations: BBC, MVY Radio, Radio Italia, WGBH classical from Boston, and Cool FM. You can easily reprogram the buttons with your own favorites. Tivoli also adds an FM tuner boosted by an integrated antenna.
Tivoli doesn’t have the kind of partnerships with Shoutcast, Sirius, and RadioTime that some other radios offer, but there are more than enough options in each genre. If you find a station you want to add, you can send Tivoli with the URL to have them add it to their network.
My favorite feature on the NetWorks radio was the local station array, a sweep of both commercial and utility bands. In addition to interesting low-power college radio stations, I can also tap into the Manhattan Fire Dept. channel and check out activity in the Atlantic Ocean. Anyone who wants to keep tabs on Chinese American culture or the Lubovitch community has a place to go. My flying friend sits and listens to broadcasts from the JFK Tower for long stretches of time.
You can also add auxiliary sources through a rear-panel input and play music from a thumb drive via the USB port on the back.
NetWorks sounds terrific for a tabletop radio, especially when paired with a stereo speaker (add $150 to the price).
Sony Playstation Portable ($169)
www.playstation.com
When you get a PSP you get access to a free Internet Radio player. Right there it’s the best I-radio deal around. You download the player from the Sony Web site and then have access to 50 radio options from Shoutcast whenever you’re in range of a Wi-Fi signal.
Setting up the Wi-Fi connection was a bit tricky, and the Playstation Web site wasn’t any help. A call to tech support solved the connection issues and the PSP connected easily to the I-radio function following initial setup.
The joystick on the PSP moves the cursor across the Shoutcast interface. It’s easy to overshoot the genre you want to listen to and can get a bit frustrating to figure out which button does what in the I-radio player. But free is free (sort of, the PSP costs $169). Who else can sit at Starbucks and listen to folk music from Ireland without having to lug a computer around? Of course to fill a room with music, you need to connect the PSP to external speakers.
Aluratek Internet Radio
($129)
www.aluratek.com
Where the Tivoli Networks aims for the high-end enthusiast, Aluratek is the entry-level buyer’s I-radio. It connects to your network via built-in Wi-Fi or Ethernet. For a Wi-Fi connection, you navigate the set-up screens with the small remote and enter your SSID and password via the number keys.
Like the Tivoli, this one doesn’t synch with any subscription services such as Radio360 or Last.FM, but you can easily search by genre (about 30) or location (state or country). Aluratek claims you can access more than 11,000 stations, but as before, some Internet stations can be unreliable. Adding a station to your favorites list is just a matter of pressing the favorites button. You access your saved stations from the on-screen menu, not thru favorite buttons on the radio or remote. Searching thru the available stations isn’t difficult, but often I found the station names were too long for the screen to display properly, which slows down searches while you wait for the entire station name to scroll across. Once a station is selected, most begin playing within 20 seconds.
Sound quality is about on par with an average bedside clock radio. It only has one speaker, so there’s no stereo separation. However, RCA outputs allow you to connect external speakers. Like some of the others here, the Aluratek can also stream MP3 WAV and WMA (non-DRM) files from a PC. This feature worked for me, but not as reliably as dedicated media bridges. An FM tuner and alarm also are nice touches making this a good choice for a bedroom or office, but it’s not loud enough to adequately fill a living room.
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