Grace Wifi Radio (ITC-IR1000B)
by Grace Digital
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Our Price: $199.99 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $74.99 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Grace Wifi Radio (ITC-IR1000B)
Customer Review: Great wifi radio at first, falls apart after few months.
Summary: 5 Stars
I've had this for a little over a week now and I'm impressed. Setup was a breeze - I had it connected to my router (WEP encrypted) and playing music through my home stereo in less than 15 minutes. That included a firmware update downloaded from the website. Setup may get a bit tedious here and there as you work through the directions (which are very easy to follow) but it's quite simple. Sound through the radio itself is reasonably good but since I run the sound through my home stereo it's a non-issue and I'm just not that big an audiophile anyway.
Registering with the Reciva website (required to use the radio) is also straightforward and quick. Once you have that done, you have access to more radio station than you can really handle. My favorite is the Pandora integration - I love Pandora. I had to get a premium account for a whopping $36 a year but given how much I listen to it that's easy money. The Grace radio resets when that rather annoying Pandora "Are you still listening?" message stops the music; it takes a minute or so but it goes on with the music without my having to get out of the pool to click anything.
The only thing that could really improve this is a remote control. It's a pretty minor thing that would be a nice to have feature.
UPDATE 12/11/2008:
I initially gave this 5 stars but now that I've had it a few months, I would rate this 1 star (why can't Amazon let me change the stars?). It simply quit working on a number of features. The screen began getting flaky, fading in and out until now it's more out than in. It can no longer connect to my wireless router - other systems can and I know the router is fine and there were no changes made to the radio, it just lost the ability to connect. Even trying to let is scan for wireless networks fails to find the router. If I could see the screen, maybe I could get it working again ...
Support for the product is literally non-existent. There is a terrible forum for users that Grace made clear they do not monitor and it's basically useless (I don't even know why they bothered). There is a half page of troubleshooting in the manual. After that, you're on your own.
The reason this product is so inexpensive is because it's so cheaply made. Plan on using it for about 6 months and then replacing. If it's working for more than 6 months, count yourself lucky.
Customer Review: Terrible instructions but offers good listening at a decent price
Summary: 5 Stars
Two years ago I bought a Receiva WiFi radio for the bedroom night stand and now I can't do without it. Ever since getting the first one I've wanted a second WiFi for the kitchen and/or bathroom, A Grace WiFi refurbished by the factory in San Diego, seemed like a great deal at $95. It only has five pre-sets, but that's about all I use, anyway.
I read all of the negative technical issues listed on Amazon's feedback evaluations by other users, but since the factory said these have been addressed and solved I decided to take a chance. About 1/2 hour was required to set it up because I was already familiar with the Receiva system and firmware, which Grace also uses. Anyone unfamiliar with the system will likely be flummoxed. This is definitely a geek's plaything, and I'm not a geek.
The instruction manual, if you can call it that, is one of the worst I've ever seen and was obviously written by an amateur. An old tech writing rule says, "Don't write so you can be understood; write so you can't be misunderstood." The text is tiny and hard to read. Phrases and words are used that can have more than one interpretation. There is just too much wrong with this confusing instruction manual to address here, but I will cite one example: Frequent reference is made to the "enter" key, but nowhere in the manual could I find its location. I finally spotted the word ENTER lightly cast into the big black scroll knob and found that pushing the knob entered the command. After that discovery things progressed better.
I was about to start packing the unit for returning to the seller because data would not be accepted. On a hunch I thought the problem might be that I was too close to the modem and tried moving further away, into the next room. That did the trick, no thanks to the instruction manual.
I tried to pre-select two talk-news stations (KNX, L.A. and WBAP, Dallas). They wouldn't load because Grace, in their zeal to have instant "ON" stations doesn't allow enough buffering time between trys. I get these stations on my Receiva radio so It wasn't a big deal. I just pre-selected two more music stations.
The Grace is nice looking. Even with its ported base the sound is only average, but good enough for me. Its weight suggests quality. Another nice thing is that it plugs directly into an outlet instead of going through an external "wall scab" power supply.
Customer Review: Great Product
Summary: 5 Stars
I've not written a review before, but this is a great product. Its functionality should be included in receiver/amplifiers.
I hooked mine up to my whole house audio system. Unlike other media streaming devices, this does not require that you turn on your computer to stream music or audio to your audio system. It also has an alarm clock, which means you can wake up to audio through your receiver. For reasons I do not comprehend, reciever/amplifiers don't typically have an alarm clock.
It plays any of the 10,000 stations included in www.reciva.com or streaming music from www.pandora.com.
Easy to set up -- it found and connected to my ancient Linksys router.
I live in an area where there are three radio stations -- two that are the standard drivel of commercial radio and the other that fades in and out with sun spots and the seasons.
I considered XM or Sirius satellite rado, but rejected them because connecting them to a home audio system required a funky external antenna, a subscription fee, and was limited to the commercial programming of XM or Sirius. Access to internet radio is FREE and did not require running any wires or setting up antennas. With 10,000+ stations, you're not stuck with the local retarded shock-jock, a radio-evangelist, or stations that appear to have only 6 CDs in their collection that they play over and over again.
Competing units seem to include a Sanyo unit being marketed in Canada (why not the US?), and RCA unit and some other stuff marketed by C.Crane. I found that none of the local big box electronic stores carry internet radios except for Best Buy that carried this radio. That means internet shopping.
The cons -- this is not stereo. The stickers were really hard to remove from the unit. There are "only" 5 preset buttons, but when you set up your reciva and pandora accounts you can specify as many "favorites" to display on the unit under "My Stuff" so the preset buttons are really not relevant.
Now, if someone made a comparable unit to stream video from the internet to my TV ...
Customer Review: Great Radio 1st Time Wi_Fi Purchase
Summary: 5 Stars
After doing my home work I decided I would try this radio out.
It arrived yesterday and works well with so much to listen too.
IM a bit disappointed in Amazon as it appears the NEW Grace I bought was either reconditioned or sent back to them by another purchaser and then resent to me.
UPDATE: I now do not feel I was shipped a used Radio as many state they also received their Grace free of the infamous stickers!--))) It appears I was one of the very first ones to get a free of sticker radio--))))
This radio has lived up to my expectations and more and I have found this company to be very interested in their consumers. I can only HIGHLY recommend the Grace! It's a keeper and in 2009 they will be offering 6 new internet radios!
Why do I say this? Well all the reports about the infamous sticker removals does not apply to me. Why? Because there was not one sticker on my Grace and where the sticker(s) should have been there were rub marks that I can almost remove but they are still some what visible. There was also no literature that pertains to the Pandora 30 day free trial! That was no biggie to me but sending me a used radio when I paid for a new one is just not right and will sure make me think twice before I purchase from Amazon again. Very disappointing considering all the money I spend with Amazon.
Shipping service was fine, just not the used radio!
Other than that this radio is a keeper in my eyes. It took me about 20 minutes to set up due to my network restrictions I had in place on my Belkin router. The connection was timing out and once I saw that I knew why. So I retrieved the MAC address from the Grace configure menu and added that to my router settings and I was good to go. The audio quality was just fine and obviously dependent on the bit rate received from the station I choose to listen too!
Over all IM very happy with the radio but disappointed in what appears to be a 2nd hand one.
I would Highly recommend the Grace!
Customer Review: Looking to stream from your network or direct from internet?
Summary: 5 Stars
I saw some reviews on here that made me doubt my purchase desire for this item but around Christmas, when the credit card damage was already done, I decided to take the plunge.
SETUP:
This was a breeze as long as you follow the manual: You scan for your wireless network and when it finds it you can select it (make sure your router is set to broadcast your SSID if you use this setting). The Grace radio will automatically detect any type of wireless encryption (I use WPA TKIP)and prompt for the Key. After entering this in (using a simple GPS-like address entry method) the radio immediately connected to the internet at 97%^ signal strength.
You can then also configure the clock (could have used time server but is not built in) and display (e.g. backlight) settings and language etc.
USING IT
I heard people complain over the fact that there are only 5 presets. I'd like to counter this with the following: there are 10000+ stations available all over the globe. If you need to save more that 5 then configure the online (free) Reciva / Pandora account and make your selections there. I for one do not have that many favorites as I am enjoying different channels from different regions. With so many to choose from it is a waste to narrow yourself to only a handful. Again, the simple way around your limitation is to setup the Reciva account.
The speaker is quite good for a little radio like this but if you want better sound then hook it up to your Amp with the supplied RCA cables. Depending on stream quality, it is fine (but not for the audiophiles amongst us).
Finally, this works VERY WELL with my home media server (I use Tversity) software and I can stream music files without a hitch. Also try WMCONNECT, works fine too. The bottom line is: you can stream music files from your network as well.
I consider this a great blend: Internet Radio AND Media Streaming device in one. Kudos for the reasonable price point and solid construction. ***** from me.