Review Horizon

1. Introduction

Everything is now on the Internet and radio is no exception. Gone are the days when we would extend an antenna to catch that far away radio station at night, when the solar activity is reduced. Now, with a fairly cheap radio you can instantly access thousands of radio stations from every country or genres, premium or not with a simple switch of a button. And the quality is usually much better than the airwaves anyway. I own several internet radios (Philips NP1100/37, Aluratek AIRMM01F) and the last to find its place in my ever growing collection is Grace GDI-IR1000, the subject of the present review.

2. Unpacking

The content of the box is fairly limited, including the radio itself, the power adapter and an audio cable. No remote included, but I Read More…

Intro:

Hickory Dickory Dock, the mouse ran up the clock…except the Philips NP1100/37 is not merely a clock even if it looks like one. And if the mouse keeps running away, we’ll conclude that he’s a low-tech mouse with no love for gadgets (and for some weird reason, I remembered that the French translate all the tech words including mouse)

Well, before I bought the Aluratek internet radio for my bedroom, I actually got my appetite opened up by Philips NP1100/37. The long, pompous and official title is “Philips NP1100/37 Streamium Network Music Player with 3.0″ B&W Display” and it is exactly that. It streams music from the internet via the included Rhapsody music service (subscription required). It also streams music from any DLNA server on your network (Windows Media Player is one example, PS3 media server is another one). It also does a glorious job at streaming internet radio stations (over 10,000 at the last count). All these might features come with a puny little remote control. But we’ll talk later about that. Let’s get into some details. Read More…

I suppose I am old fashion, but I like to listen to radio, I always did. I still remember being a kid and listen in the dark at Radio Free Europe with my family when the electricity was cut of by the government to save money. But that was a different country and different life. The nostalgia remained though. So I looked around on the internet to buy a radio that would receive international stations (I already have a Sony World Band Receiver ICF_SW7600GR – who the heck comes up with these names?) which is a very good receiver in its own right, but the reception sucks in my city and anyway, they are very few foreign radio stations that broadcast strong enough to receive them in SOCAL.

Enough ranting, I managed to find two different internet radio receivers, a Philips NP1100/37 and an  Aluratek AIRMMF01F (another weird name). I bought both of them! The last one is the subject of today’s review. Read More…