Thanks to a couple of Christmas additions, Internet radio now rules. It comes with irony, because WBZ AM in Boston, at 64 Kbps, now sounds much better than the FM stations WBUR, streaming at 32k, and WGBH with its piddling shortwave-quality 24k. [Note: Two days after I posted this item, WBUR went to 64K, and a few weeks later WGBH did likewise.]
I’m tickled to have BBC Radio 2 as a preset in the bedroom on the Logitech Squeezebox Radio. Santa delivered it from Amazon, but it’s on sale this week at Best Buy for the same $150 price. I have quibbles with the buttons that could have been prevented by making the navigation knob a bit smaller, but other than that — and a couple of lock-ups that came up when I was flipping between menus rather abruptly — I give the Squeezebox Radio a rave recommendation.
The other Wifi radio is a fun, but quirky, device in the kitchen called a Chumby One. Being much more demanding to set up than the Logitech, the Chumby is a techie’s delight, but it is not a consumer-friendly product, and its $120 price makes the Squeezebox a better deal when it’s on sale; however, the Chumby is more than an Internet radio.
At first I was worried about the Squeezebox not having a regular FM tuner, but the Chumby One’s tuner is next to useless, and because I installed a battery there’s no place to store the antenna, so I’m actually considering cutting it off. But now that I’ve had a couple of days to enjoy Internet radio that’s been freed from the need for a full-blown computer, I’m OK with letting go of broadcast AM and FM radio.
Yeah, we also saw a look of disappointment, but we worked it out. I now have a RAID 1 (500 GB available) USB drive, and I’m going to install a Squeezebox server in Windows and start ripping Carol’s CDs, so she can play them in the kitchen. I may even remove the Sony under-counter CD radio she’s enjoyed for the past eight years.
Glad you’re enjoying the squeezebox. My SlimP3 is still going strong in the kitchen, as is the newer (but purchased refurbished) Duet Receiver in the living room. I need some flavor of Squeezebox to connect to the basement stereo (thanks!) but with the Classic gone from the lineup, not sure what’s right (& worth it). The Touch is very nice, but very pricey. The receiver would be OK, but would want the Controller as well, which makes it another expensive solution. eBay is short on classics at the moment, but perhaps I can be patient…
Emma, after initial disappointment on Christmas morning (her face saying, “What the heck is this thing?!”), has grown very fond of her Chumby.