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: Second defective unit
Summary: 1 Stars
This is the first review I have posted on Amazon, and do so only because of how frustrating this product has been for me. The first Grace radio I ordered from Amazon was poorly assembled and would not recognize a strong wireless Internet connection. I borrowed an identical Grace unit from a friend and had no such issues- an instant connection after entering the WEP key. Although it was in its original sealed packaging, the scuffs and inconsistent gaps along the seams that appeared to be caused by a poorly-wielded X-Acto knife suggested it may have been a previous return.
All this could have been overlooked if the second radio I ordered had not had the same problems. After several reboots and a firmware upgrade it was finally able to recognize my home network. Unfortunately, it produced no sound whatsoever on any station or setting- not even the typical speaker whisper. Once again, I compared this to my friend's identical unit to confirm that I had not made a setup error. The second radio also suffered from the same workmanship issues as the first, though it was newly packaged exactly as the first one was. I will be sending the second unit back as well, and am convinced that this is a sub-par product from a company that fails to execute proper quality control. For those lucky enough to receive a working radio, the sound quality and ease of controls are very impressive; otherwise, be advised that many radios appear to have manufacturing problems.
As has always been my experience with Amazon, they are fast and courteous with their returns, and I do not believe these problems are in any way their fault.
Customer Review: So much easier than listening to radio on my laptop
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been listening to various radio stations on my laptop but this has become a drag lately as it slows down some of my other programs and is a pain in the neck to change stations quickly. I have Sirius radios in 2 of my cars and was thinking about getting a home Sirius radio, but when I saw the Grace radio on line at Amazon I decided to give it a try.
Best part- no additional subscriptions- I can now get thousands of stations at the twist of the easy to use master control knob. I am a public radio junkie and they even have a public radio filter so I can browse among all of those stations in the US. This thing gets so many worldwide stations that I never knew existed....in many different genres.....amazing. I have it set up in my kitchen with a set of computer speakers and subwoofer- sound quality is pretty much determined by the sampling rate of the station.....pretty much identical to my laptop but this thing is much easier to use (turning dials rather than opening web pages and typing in passwords). I especially appreciate the analog volume control, too. Now my computer runs a lot faster since it's not having to process my radio feed as well. The Grace radio was pretty simple to set up. The directions are kind of sparse but it's pretty intuitive. I kind of wish it would take a standard ethernet connection instead of only offering a wifi connection...but for $160 I suppose I can't expect miracles. If you like to listen to radio and really enjoy jazz, classical and interesting stuff instead of the pop drivel on most stations from FM then you will love this radio
Customer Review: Some minor inconveniences, but on the whole very good
Summary: 4 Stars
Bought this for my wife for Xmas for use in the kitchen to replace a tinny alarm clock radio she was using.
Positives:
- looks quite nice (seems a little retro) and not too big for a kitchen counter top
- the sound is impressive
- listening to BBC radio from the United States! (we had it set up in time for Radio 3's Xmas day broadcast of Carols from Kings)
- hooks up seamlessly to the Reciva website allowing you to extend the 5 presets in your saved station list
- has not lost the WiFi connection so far, once connected
Negatives:
- a little slow to connect to WiFi on startup (my notebook is faster, so why can't this be?). It takes 20-30 seconds
- failed to connect once (had it a week now), but a reboot sorted it out (has been OK apart from that)
- as virtually every reviewer notes, there should be more preset buttons on the front - 5 is just not enough, even with the "My Stations" Reciva functionality (takes a bit of clicking through the menu to get there)
- also the 5 preset buttons should be more clearly marked and in their own separate area
- for some bizarre reason, the last row of the digital screen is one pixel shorter than the other rows, so the characters are ever so slightly chopped off. A minor issue, but how could the designers let that happen?!
- the panel on the front of the screen is VERY easily scratched. I did so whilst unpacking it and setting it up for my wife. Take care when opening it!
Overall, it's great value for money.
Customer Review: Great Sound, Needs Software Work
Summary: 3 Stars
I got the Grace WiFi to be our bathroom radio, and I'm really impressed by how good it sounds. The LCD display and knob controls work fairly well when navigating through radio stations. I often stream NPR or Deutsche Welle. The controls work pretty well with Pandora also, and I like how you can "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" tracks, just as you would on pandora.com. The major problem I have with the Grace, however, is its problem with local file shares. I run a Linux desktop at home with thousands of mp3s, shared with Samba. The Grace seems to have problems with so many files. To speed up its access to media files, the radio scans the files and caches an index on the file share. The radio seems to give up after a point, however, and when I look at the index file, only a small subset of my mp3s are listed. My tedious workaround has been to create a separate share per artist directory.
Beyond this, many of the files' track information (artist, album, etc.) isn't stored in the index (I'm not sure if the radio builds the index using the id3 tag or the file name), so often, the tracks from multiple albums get lumped together.
Oh well - this was a fairly inexpensive device, and it works rather well, but I wouldn't use it for anything other than a bathroom or kitchen radio. For the living room, I'd recommend the Logitech Squeezebox Duet Network Music System, which we've also gotten. This device has much better software.
Customer Review: excellent value
Summary: 5 Stars
Sturdy build, clean design, effective performance in this convenient gateway to thousands upon thousands of radio streams from all nations about the world gains five stars. It exceeds my expectations and has been a pleasure to install and explore. Audio quality through my media system is outstanding for the price.
Some reviewers lament that there are only five presets available. However, a feature that fully compensates for any such lack is the radio's ability to download a custom list of favorite stations that you create on the associated web site www.reciva.com . The process is automatic once you register for a free account at Reciva and also register your radio to associate your account with your radio. All stations you add to your "My Stations" list at Reciva automatically download when the radio powers up.
Be aware that Grace's antenna is not as sensitive as a lot of other wifi network devices. I had to install a Belkin wifi repeater (approx $35) to eliminate annoying signal dropouts. But I enjoy the radio so much that the extra outlay seems worth it.
My only trivial quibble, a peel-off label located on the speaker grill did not peel-off and proved difficult to remove. Applying a paper towel saturated with "Goo-Gone", letting the solution penetrate the label paper and scraping with a plastic card managed to remove the residue without marring the enameled metal grill.
All things considered, I am very pleased with the Grace Internet Radio.