What Internet Radio

[Huggy]

Very confused on this subject - please help.

Requirements:

1. Wife wants to hear internet radio round the house/garden, not just while sitting in front of the computer.

2. Plugging into headphones/hi fi/home theatre is a Must Have.

3. Working on batteries is a Highly Desirable.

4. Own (reasonable) speakers is a Must Have.

5. Access to music on PC is a Nice to Have.

6. Access to old/listen later material is a Highly Desirable. Particularly old recordings from Kiss100 FM.

7. £200 budget.

At the moment, the AE product and the MagicBox Imp hit all buttons except 3 and I am not sure about 6. Any alternatives?

Thanks

Huggy

[ajp558]

The only thing I can think of which matches 3 and the rest would be a PDA with wi-fi built in like a Dell Axim set up with some software to play internet radio streams - use headphones or the built-in speaker round the garden (with the PDA worn with a belt-clip like the cases from Proporta), and the connected via 3.5mm to phono sockets when connected to the main hi-fi amp or powered speakers when indoors?

I got my Axim X51V for £215 last month.

[Huggy]

Nice idea,

I have a PDA, and I may play with this, but my wife is a technophobe, and I sense it will be too Heath Robinson a set up for her liking. All she wants is a 21st Century tranny!

[Nick_UK]

The cheapest/easiest way to do it would be to connect one of these FM transmitter gadgets (which are sold to relay iPod/portable-CD to car radios) to the output of the PC sound card. You could then use any old FM receiver to receive what you stream through the PC - MP3's, internet radio, etc. My only concern would be the range that one of these gizmos would have.

Or maybe a pair of wireless headphones ?

[Huggy]

Thanks for the reply Nick_UK - still a bit Heath Robinson as a solution, and headphones would stop the rest of us hearing the music .

Anyway, I've decided to compromise on item 3 (we'll get an extension lead for the garden if necessary).

So it is between the AE Wifi unit or the Imp. I've just seen that the Imp is going for c£130 at Dabs, which is very favourable to the AE unit which I can't find for less than £190.

Word is that the units have similar but not identical components. Frankly, I don't like the look of either, but the AE unit looks slightly better from the photos.

Has anyone heard both? (connected to Hifi and standalone) Care to offer an opinion? I want to move fast while the Dabs offer is still open.

Thanks

[Alan_Semple]

There was an item on Radio Five Live today about this method of receiving radio / streaming audio.

Try here

http://www.play.com/Electronics/Elec...o/Product.html

and here

http://www.reciva.com


Alan

[Huggy]

Cheers Alan - good price on the AE unit.

Was it a thumbs up or down from 5 Live?

[RecordablDVDfan]

I brought the AE wireless radio when they first came out. It is IMO an excellent gadget, does what it says and very well. Some appear to have a few grumbles about it though which has been mentioned on the yahoo group I setup for the radio. There is also a new firmware update available in the next few weeks..

Please join if you want to know more about the radio etc here :-

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/wifiradio/join

[Alan_Semple]

Originally Posted by Huggy

Cheers Alan - good price on the AE unit.

I am still looking around just now but I am torn between the AE or the Pure Evoke 3 with EPG and its ability to save to SD card.

Was it a thumbs up or down from 5 Live?

Just a kind of "This is what it does, sit on the fence" piece.

Alan

[calvinavf]

I can heartily recommend the Evoke3. Minor issues have been resolved with the latest firmware update, sound/reception is excellent, timers are really handy; you can listen to the SD recordings on your computer via iTunes, although I convert them to MP3 and then listen to them while cycling to work, on an MP3 player. In Cambridge, I get around 29 stations, but check your reception where you are; online web checks are sometimes incorrect, so the best way would be to borrow one. Perhaps from a store with a return policy (16 days should be more than enough).
daved

[aekostas]

Originally Posted by RecordablDVDfan

Please join if you want to know more about the radio etc here :-

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/wifiradio/join

Interesting. I will follow it but can't be bothered to join another forum. Also, instead of diverting this thread, I posted some quibbles on http://www.avforums.com/forums/showt...87#post2977287