The wireless on WiFi

[brockers]

More of a rant really, but what's the big deal with internet/wifi radio?

Seeing as I seem to spend much of my time in the kitchen these days as it's the room with the kettle in it, with the laptop, and listening to the radio (an old NAD FM tuner with a good aeriel feeding a couple of PC speakers). Usually R4, BBC London, and when I want to listen to the tirades of the common man and woman, LBC. Sometimes though this gets too much and I crave 6 Music or 5 Live. Now, as I can't be bothered to unplug everything and connect in my phone (using the very good Tunein app) or laptop, I thought I'd ditch the NAD and buy an internet radio, thus having everything on one device. Sourced an old Acoustic Energy AE17 which I finally got to work (after needing to disable WPA encryption between my other wifi devices and the router...).

The sound is pants. Even at 128k wma and feeding the external speakers. My 30 year-old tuner is clearer and has better stereo separation and greater dynamic range. So the AE has now become my bedside clock radio. (Not all bad though as I fell asleep last night listening to Melvyn Bragg and assorted experts wittering on about neutrinos from Radio 4's on demand service.)

Are there actually any good wifi radios out there ? Radio on Freeview fed through my hifi is excellent mind, but I refuse to go DAB. I just wish the BBC and others would put out all their national radio stations on FM and stop plugging what in my view is far more complicated and inferior technologies.

 

[LosingFocus]

Whats the issue with DAB? Much better quality that internet radio.

 

[BSRU]

I have heard Apple AirPort is good.

 

[rualexander]

I've got a Revo Pico and it is excellent, sound quality varies between stations depending on bit speed etc, but for me its perfectly good. It's one of the few with a built in rechargeable battery so I can take it out to the garden or in the bathroom to listen during a relaxing bath. Apart from the usual BBC stations etc, some of the foreign stuff is good, e.g. Bolivian Web Radio (if you like pan pipes), and Birdsong Radio is nice!

It can also stream stuff from my PC so thats handy too.

 

[brockers]

Whats the issue with DAB? Much better quality that internet radio.

It's just that if I try it, I might find that my prejudices are unfounded ! (Depends on the bit rate and compression codec though, no ?)

The Revo Pico looks like a nice piece of kit; portable, rechargeable, and all of that (and I missed picking one up for a song on eBay last week), it's more an issue of sound quality. FM through an old tuner and a good aeriel just seems unbeatable, and doesn't require a knowledge of networks and a couple of spare hours to get it working.

 

[ohnovino]

I've got a very cheap DAB radio (it's the £25 Currys one, but I got an ex-display model on eBay for a tenner). The in-built speaker is awful, but when I plug it into a proper stereo the sound's pretty good. The biggest problem with DAB is the compression on the low-bitrate stations, but I only really notice that when listening through headphones.

I'm not convinced we'd need DAB or internet radio if it wasn't for all the garbage that's on FM. Apart from the BBC I can receive about 10 commercial FM stations, and 6 or 7 of them have identical playlists, interspersed with identical adverts and identical news reports. Surely one of those licences could have gone to someone willing to try something different?

 

[brockers]

Problem solved! Have just found a site listing 320kbps MP3 streams. Even played through my Android phone feeding the relatively low-fi kitchen speakers the sound quality is pretty amazing and is possibly better than, or at least upto FM quality. You can keep your DAB and its paltry 128kbps MP2! (The phone's getting worryingly warm mind...)

 

[gavintc]

I have a sonos system - excellent quality and it allows me to stream a range of radio stations over the internet. My morning alarm here in Naples is Radio 4 - love it.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

I have heard Apple AirPort is good.

indeed, coupled with a free app for ipod touch/iphone/ipad called 'the radio'…

 

[BSRU]

indeed, coupled with a free app for ipod touch/iphone/ipad called 'the radio'…

The problem with "the radio" is it's very limited choice of channels, where as AirPort, and similar products, is connected to your PC so you can listen to any internet broadcast radio station or your own music.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

an airport express just needs to be connected via 2.5mm jack to amp/speakers and can be placed anywhere where it can receive the wifi network signal. then you can use itunes to stream music (and some radio), or, by using an app called airfoil, any app (including a web browser) can send the sound through to the connected speakers.

 

[Cardiac]

....Sourced an old Acoustic Energy AE17 which I finally got to work (after needing to disable WPA encryption between my other wifi devices and the router...).

The sound is pants. Even at 128k wma and feeding the external speakers. ....

Half of the problem here is the AE radio I think. It's an old design.

In the UK, BBC national stations are generally 128kbps WMA (Radio 3 is 192k) and pretty good. (Either is better than the UK DAB broadcast.) Overseas BBC listeners get 48kbps WMA for all BBC national stations.

Personally I love internet radio - so much choice and plenty that you'd not find any other way. Try and get a listen to the Roberts Stream 83i if you can - there you have a choice of internet, DAB or FM as needed with a pretty good speaker set up as well as EQ adjustments. They can play files from USB sticks as well. I have two of them, one in the bedroom, one in the home-office. I would not be without.

 

[brockers]

Half of the problem here is the AE radio I think. It's an old design.

In the UK, BBC national stations are generally 128kbps WMA (Radio 3 is 192k) and pretty good. (Either is better than the UK DAB broadcast.) Overseas BBC listeners get 48kbps WMA for all BBC national stations.

You're probably correct! The old (2006 is old nowadays..sheesh) AE is a bit of brick and spends much of its time buffering right at the critical bits of a broadcast, but that might be a router/internal dongle issue. Tbh the AE isn't a whole bunch better than using the excellent Tunein App on my HTC Android phone, so it's on bedside radio duties for the time being. (I found a website (since lost) showing how to dismantle an AE and rehouse the guts in an old 1940s radio - which appeals to my mad-inventor sensibilities !)

As far as I can tell though, most speech radio (apart from R4) is ~48 kbps WMA and sounds compressed. As this seems to be what I listen to most during the day, I prefer these stations on FM as they're less tiring on my ears. If I listen to Late Junction on R3 it tends to be on Freeview (again at 192k at the last count) through the hifi in the living-room.

Don't get me wrong - I think wifi radio is a fantastic idea. I mean having 20,000 stations from around the world at your fingertips is just outstanding - it's more the quality of some of the broadcasts that I find irritating. FM is a pretty straightforward technology and requires a simple and cheap piece of kit to get good results. I'm not that old, but am somebody who's idea of bliss would be listening to the radio on an ancient but calibrated LEAK Troughline tuner feeding a Sugden amp into my LS3/5a speakers (in a workshop while tinkering with old bikes and motorbikes, with a fridge full of Trappist beers..think James May).

I guess I'm just one of those retro-grouches who enjoys getting old technology to work as it was meant to, and finds that a lot of the new stuff isn't automatically better!

 

[goo_mason]

The biggest advantage of Internet Radio is that I have access to all of the Listen Again programmes whilst I'm cooking in the kitchen. Sunday breakfast isn't Sunday breakfast without The Goons and Hancock's Half Hour on whilst it's being prepared / washed up afterwards!

If only Radio 4 Extra would sort out the issue of the Listen Again service actually being populated with shows before midday. Never had a problem when it was BBC7; ever since the switch, I've lost my Sunday breakfast listening (though it usually populates sometime after 12.00)