cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
ukbobboy
Legend

Internet Radio

@schnapps

 

Hi Schnapps

 

I guessing that you are a man that likes your electronics and are not afraid to experiment with or try out new equipment.

 

I say the above because I wanted to know if you have ever owned or still have an Internet Radio?

 

You see, I have been bouncing around the idea of getting such a radio for myself but, I must admit, I am somewhat hesitant. 

 

So, I guess, I want to find out about your user experience, if you have any, and if you can say whether you enjoy or regret owning such an item?

 

Later.

 

 

UK Bob

 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
schnapps
Legend 5
Legend 5

Hi @ukbobboy

 

Forgot to mention that there is Tunein App on both the Roku Players and NowTV boxes in the Channel / App Store if you fancy a listen and just to dip your toes in the internet radio stations Smiley Happy

View solution in original post

17 REPLIES 17
Mark_Weinreb
Legend 5
Legend 5

@ukbobboy  I’m not @schnaaps but I do have, and love, an internet radio. It’s a Roberts 93i which has 2.1 stereo (tweeters on the front and sub-woofer on the back). Mains powered but an optional external battery pack is available. I have absolutely no problems with my favourite internet radio stations.

 

Additional features are a sleep timer and two alarms for which you can select a buzzer or the last listened to internet / DAB / FM radio station.

 

Neither the radio or the battery pack are cheap, but worth it in my humble opinion. The radio itself is well built and luggable more than portable.

 

Hope some of that helps. 

schnapps
Legend 5
Legend 5

Hi @ukbobboy

 

When I was using my Squeeze boxes around the house, I used to have certain internet radio channels on in the background depending on my mood in music at the time, but nowadays the only time i tend to listen to the radio is in the car using bog standard FM.

 

Most of my music listening now is via Spotify or if i fancy watching a music video Youtube is my go to site.

 

Suppose with your existing Chromecast you could try the Tunein Free Radio App that has thousands of Radio channels which you can cast to your Chromecast from your mobile device or PC (just don't waste your money on the paid premium service, where there is plenty of free radio stations out there).

 

I am sure there are much more Free internet radio Apps out there that you can possibly cast to your existing Chromecast devices then pipe the music through either your HiFi system or powered speakers (google is your friend) Smiley Wink.

 

Not sure if i would invest in purchasing any new hardware purely for receiving internet radio channels, where your Chromecast will suffice and should do a half decent job Smiley Happy

ukbobboy
Legend

@Mark_Weinreb @schnapps

 

Hi Guys

 

Thank you both for your replies, I'll now answer each reply in the order they were received:-

 

Mark

 

I can see from your reply that you enjoy owning an Internet Radio, you get what you want from it and, above all, you see it as a worthy, but expensive, addition to your existing equipment.

 

And yes, your views have been very helpful.

 

Cheers.

 

Schnapps

 

Your assessment and views are very much where I am now, I do have the means to pick up Internet Radio channels right now, without having to bother with an actual physical radio, but I was not thinking solely about music.

 

You see, back in the day I used to listen to a lot of talk radio and was thinking that maybe I could rekindle that interest again.  Plus, the Internet aspect would allow me to listen to news coming out of other parts of the English speaking world as well.

 

However, as you and Mark have pointed out, this could be expensive, especially as I would use it to try and recapture a time when there was much less entertainment and readily accessible worldwide news around. 

 

OK, I am going to have to think on this a bit more.

 

Cheers.

 

Well Guys, both views are two sides of the same coin and, rather than jump in with both feet, I'm going to try and listen to some talk radio to see if it still holds my interested.

 

Thanks guys, both your inputs have been appreciated.

 

 

UK Bob

 

schnapps
Legend 5
Legend 5

Hi @ukbobboy

 

Forgot to mention that there is Tunein App on both the Roku Players and NowTV boxes in the Channel / App Store if you fancy a listen and just to dip your toes in the internet radio stations Smiley Happy

ukbobboy
Legend

@schnapps @Mark_Weinreb

 

Hi again Schnapps

 

I'll check out that Tunein App asap.

 

Cheers

 

 

UK Bob

Mark_Weinreb
Legend 5
Legend 5

@ukbobboy@schnapps I also use the Tunein app on ROKU/NowTV/ Amazon Fire, but I don’t always want the TV on when just listening to the radio, especially when I’m using it as a sleep aid. That alone convinced me that forking out for the radio was well worth it.

Andy
Legend 5
Legend 5

@ukbobboy I'm also not schnapps but if you're looking for a device that doesn't need to be connected to a TV  take a look at Amazon's Echo devices (other makes are available) as reasonably cheap connected devices that can double as Internet radios (they access via the TuneIn service). @caseyb1993 has one if you want to know more.

Andy
Legend 5
Legend 5

Alternately you could just connect a portable speaker to a smartphone/tablet and use TuneIn on that. You can't tell it to order you a pizza that way though.

ukbobboy
Legend

@Andy @schnapps @Mark_Weinreb @caseyb1993

 

Hey Andy

 

There is no way I could mistake you for anyone else, you are uniqueSmiley Happy

 

Anyway, I briefly thought about going down the Amazon route but did not think that it was for me simply because "if God had wanted machines to talk.....etc.", i.e. I don't like talking machines, weird I know but that's the way it is.

 

I think my choice boils down to two things:-

 

1) I could use the Tunein app and see how far that takes me, it will also allow me to see if I can reconnect with talk radio.

 

2) Take the plunge, buy the radio and risk being disappointed a few weeks from now.

 

At the moment, option 1) seems the wise choice.

 

Later.

 

 

UK Bob