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 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.
Customer Review: Grace radios
Summary: 5 Stars
I highly recommend Grace Wifi radios, but with MANY reservations. I own 4 grace radios.
My first ITC-IR1000B stopped working after a few months and just before the guarantee expired, but I never had the time to return it and it's waiting to be junked. My second radio is a GDI-IRP600. This radio is complete and utter rubbish and a waste of money. It is not Reciva based (see below) and has a station selection which is severely censored. It also has terrible sound unless channeled into a big stereo. It has some good features but they are drowned by the bad. My opinion gets worse every time I turn it on. My third Grace Wifi is a Grace reconditioned ITC-IR1000B which is Reciva based. The reconditioning was done by Grace in the U.S. This radio performs very well. By now you will have noticed that Grace does not actually make radios, they sell whatever crap the foreign sources deliver - from suppliers with variable quality control.
My forth Grace Wifi is also a Grace reconditioned ITC-IR1000B. It was bought recently before they become completely unobtainable. The same comments as above apply. General notes on the ITC-IR1000B radios;
They all have excellent sound quality both as stand alone and when amplified. They have a slight background clock-like noise when you listen with audio very low. These radios have no batteries. U.S.(Canada) power only. They have no remote. And they can self destruct if there is a power failure while you upgrade the firmware. All of this is minor compared to what you can get on them - which will blow your mind. The Reciva U.K. based software is very light on censorship. As a world news and free speech freak I find that pretty much any politics goes. There is also Pandora for your personal radio, MP3 locker to upload your own computer MP3s for playing anywhere at any time, and 356live. It has play-again on-demand stations, such as BBC and Democracy Now, and there are literally zillions of Podcasts to hear.
Customer Review: 16,000 stations to pick from!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I was lucky enough to land this radio from a JCPenney Outlet one day sale for $89. Although mine is the older base model ITC-IR1000B, replaced by the GDI-IR1000 in 2009, CNET feels sound quality is better on the older model with very few option changes.
This internet radio is amazing. Several years ago I lost interest in the music scene and was strickly a talk/sports radio listener of my 4 local stations. This is going to change all that.
I had this radio connected to my FIOS router, a local sports station searched, and playing in about 20 minutes. I was also able to easily upgrade the firmware in minutes over the connection. It's been flawless since. I've had no connection or cutting out issues found on some of these type radios. The display is clear, informative, and easy to navigate. I also signed up to to Pandora site with no problems. You simply create an account, add stations and/or streams, unplug and replug in your radio and you have your list stored on the radio. This helps the only 5 preset disappointment so many people mention. I also think it connects to the stations rather quickly considering it is pulling them in from the internet. You can even connect the radio to a stereo system with the provided cable to expand on the listening experience.
I will say that some (not all) stations with stream rates under 31k might sound tinny, crackling, or distorted. There are more than enough stations that stream way above 31k that this isn't a problem. When you do find a high streaming station of 64k or even better 128k or more, the sound is wonderful for a mono speaker. Overall, the unit feels solid and looks estically pleasing.
HIGHLY recommend this radio or other Grace radios if you are in the market.
Customer Review: Amazing! The world at your fingertips (wihtout a clunky computer in the way!)
Summary: 5 Stars
This radio far surpassed my expectations. I bought it for the price, but the quality is amazing. I'm far from a techie, yet in a few minutes from opening the box I was browsing the radio stations of the world: jazz from Istanbul Turkey, Cambodian folk music and indie rock from Wellington New Zealand.
The quality of the sound depends mainly on how the station is streamed in kilobytes per second (kbps) - and this information is displayed along with the station name on the display panel. High quality streams (128 kbps or above) will have a CD quality-like sound - however even the lowest quality stream I listen to (16 kbps from Mali) is decent enough - a sort-of AC mono type of sound. Your wi-fi network also has to be up to snuff - in the two weeks I've had this I only lost my connection once for 20 seconds while listening. A friend of mine with an older wireless router loses his connection more often, but not enough to make it a hassle.
The instructions are easy enough to understand - like the previous reviewer it took me a minute to find the enter button (push the biggest dial in), but that was the only feature that wasn't adequately described.
There are only five presets, but you can create a station list on the reciva website which gets sent to you radio. It is a lot easier to browse the stations by genre or location on the webstie as well - and you can search by keywords. Any changes you make to your play list get automatically updated to your radio next time you turn it on.
All in all a great value for the price. Now I can listen to an almost infinite variety of radio stations while cooking, cleaning, entertaining, etc- and not have to be in front of my computer.