Internet Radio Apps & Devices

Oh, I get that the smart speakers arent going to suit everyone, but at the retail price of that and given the comments that you’ve made its going to be a hard sell for a lot of use cases.

I’ve got a Sonos Play:1 which doesnt have the digital assistant (Google/Alexa) or a microphone built in - I can cast to it if I want, but mostly I use the apps built into the Sonos ecosystem (TuneIn, Apple Music, Spotify) that you can control via an app or another interface.

Its not perfect (Sonos’ decision to brick devices in order to give people a discount to upgrade was a pretty poor one) and there are all sorts of other options out there

I must admit I also got a refurbished unit for $180 and wanted it for a simple turn on radio that would work out while camping or down the park but also a good Internet radio at home. No need for a phone or Wifi when I’m out.

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They usually always use a Frontier Silicon chipset so appear the same.

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At launch, the global radio option backed by iHeartRadio and TuneIn will be available globally, but Sonos Radio’s original products will only be available in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland and Australia, with the company planning to expand availability in future.

I’m not sold on it. The custom channels seem to play a very eclectic mix of music (some may like it) certainly the few I tried.

I miss Pandora.

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A USA VPN still works. Though I found Pandora too safe for my tastes; perhaps I should have a look at Sonos.

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In the Netherlands they have a very nice app and website for a lot of there stations called Juke https://juke.nl/radiozenders

I just received the Blaupunkt today. Unfortunately this is true. With DAB here in Bungendore, all stations will scan in but I can’t get any sound. This is probably due to self interference which is horrible on the FM band (can barely hear Snow FM, which is very strong here). This radio is a dud if you’re after DAB+. My car radio gets full reception on all Canberra DAB stations throughout most of Bungendore.

The Internet radio section seems to perform quite well but I haven’t tested this at length yet. Sound quality is adequate for a small room but I agree nothing mind blowing. The Bluetooth function seems to only work one way i.e. you can play stuff from your computer/phone to the radio but not the other way round (e.g. bluetooth headphones). This is disappointing as it would somewhat make up for the sound quality issue. It also can’t play Spotify natively; you have to stream it from your phone or computer.

I would recommend the Sangean if you’re after a fully featured DAB/Internet radio, but I still can’t justify spending $300+ on it.

I think this radio may have also blown up my wall wart whilst charging- not sure if it’s some slightly dodgy powerpoints in this place or not. Still charges via USB cable/computer, though.

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@dxnerd Can you have a look for me to see if 4BH is listed on the Blaupunkt’s internet radio. I don’t seem to have it on my Sangean, and finding a stream link to put in it is like a needle in a haystack. I’m thinking this might be another purchase I will make for the office… even though I didn’t have the best impression of it to begin with, I’m warming up to some of the good points.

I changed the name of the group as we are now talking about devices as well… Hope thats ok with the @admins. Any Problems, change it back

Whats the directory like on receiver? I have just accquired an iPhone after many years of android… Radioapp appears to be working properly now but like you, I just want a plain Radio app without trackers.

Can you name the custom streams, instead of tunein’s approach which is basically using the link as the station name?

It’s OK, not great. In Perth it’s missing Mix 94.5 and all the Hit digital stations, and a lot of the logos and names are out of date. According to the about screen it uses https://www.airablenow.com as a backend.

Yep.

The things I don’t like about Receiver is that it takes a while to load as it seems to want to talk to it’s directory before doing anything, and CarPlay doesn’t show the custom streams.

I use Broadcasts (app store link) now. It does cost $8 to unlock adding new stations, but if you’re cheap you can edit the default Irish stations. Broadcasts uses http://www.radio-browser.info as it’s directory, which only organises stations by country. It has a pretty good CarPlay interface, is universal across iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Mac and syncs with your iCloud account.

Well a quick update for everyone, I made a decision to return the Sangean radio after the directory on mine failed to load several times… Through mulitple reboots and all kinds of things. I instead opted for the Sonos One SL, much better sounding speaker, and I find the Sonos directory to have many more stations than the Sangean on internet radio.

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iHeartRadio Australia is now available on Apple TV.

More from Radioinfo.

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Picked up one of these from Target for nearly $70 a few weeks ago, down from $150 IIRC:

Not too bad - uses MediaU for the internet radio, and has a nice selection built in, even without MediaU. Sometimes you either have to manually add stations, or submit them to MediaU to add to the directory. Did that with 2NM Muswellbrook.

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Looks like Target have sold out of those. I would pick one up at $70 but not $150.

Went to Target Rouse Hill - on clearance for $40.

I’m in Bungendore now unfortunately. I suppose I could ring up the Rouse Hill store and see if they’ll deliver one. Don’t fancy going to western Sydney at the moment.

You said you got it for $70 though?

This was a few weeks ago. I’d dare say they are getting desperate, thus the reduction in price.

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Just picked up one for a princely $40 at Target Goulburn. There were a few left. Belconnen also apparently has stock.

EDIT: It uses the same interface as the Blaupunkt radio. Same results on DAB (nothing); too much self interference from the internal electronics. The short whip doesn’t help either.

The Internet radio section works well and I could even add new stations on the unit itself. Sound quality is a lot better than the Blaupunkt. It also fits nicely on a bedside table.