Hi, I'm looking for something to hook up to the kitchen radio that gives me internet radio. For some reason, internet radio players tend to be mono, and devillishly expensive. You get cheap 'n cheary miniature stereo systems thrown after you, but as soon as it plays internet radio, up goes the price and down goes the speakersize. Any ol' smartphone would do, but isn't there something small that just receives internet radio and plays it over a headphone out?
Wow they really are expensive. I have an old iPhone 3g that I rarely use if you wanted it? Whats the going rate? £30? Its not in great nick appearance wise but works fine. I can get you some photos if you'd like. I've been using tune-in radio on it, and that works a treat for internet radio. There is an alarm feature that is pretty good as well. (Its £4.99). However if you can afford it I would just go balls deep and buy a Sonos Play 1 or Play 3. Its an AMAZING internet radio. (And mine had tune-in installed when I got it). edit: had a look at prices 40 was too much
I bought a cheap (reduced) Panasonic iPod dock/DAB which does net radio, cost me £60 brand new and for its size, its pretty impressive. It has line out but there's plenty of volume for a decent sized kitchen. Just checked play and it seems they have gone up. If its not desperate i'd wait for amazon's black Friday stuff and the Christmas deals they do. These are just the sort of items they seem to put in the sales. Also don't forget most £200+ AV amps have this functionality built in now, so its possible to tie in a home cinema upgrade with this.
Point is, I don't want to buy a new stereo, and the combination of a ~£30 phone with any cheap boombox will equal or surpass the squeeze/sonos/philips offerings for megaexpensive single speaker boxes. I just don't get why they're so expensive. The simplest way I've found yet is a WLAN-repeater that offers netradio, I don't need a repeater though.
The only phone that comes close to the DAC quality of the Squeezebox touch would be a Samsung galaxy S2 or S4. Both of which have high quality DACs.
Sadly quality Speakers are expensive and cheep china boxes are not. If your happy with the cheap stuff dont find the expensive stuff to have a listen. You would then understand the difference and want the more expensive option.
You mis the point, why buy new, very expensive, high quality single speaker!!! (hello, Stere0) Sonos or Squeezebox to replace existing good speakers? Why not keep existing good speakers and hook up something that receives wlan radio?
Mono vs stereo whilst in the kitchen? Sounds like a non-issue. You aren't going to be facing it head on at all times for accurately depicted directional sound I would think, correct me if I'm wrong.
No, you're right. But the arguement here was about high quality DAC's and why the SONOS et al are worth their money. If we're no even talking about stereo, does the DAC really interest me?
I've just got an old system with a Xonar DG thrown in hooked up to some vintage Pioneer cabinets which cost me £2 a piece from the local charity shop. Works well with XBMC and gets all the internet radio I want.
If you wanted to go really nerdy you could look at using a raspberry pi with a dongle. There is a 2 line Lcd board that can add push button controls. Plus you get the pleasure of making something from scratch that fits your requirements. I'm thinking of a similar thing myself for our kitchen as the DAB doesn't get good signal and sounds more tinny than a empty bean can in a washing mashing. Not that I'm in any way an audiophile. Although I do seem to be become a little more snobby as to how I listen to music of late. EDIT: Piface control and display. It also has an IR receiver, for remote controlage when you can't be bothered to walk to the unit. Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
I'm sorry I ddn't want to start a controversy or a sound quality battle... I just wondered why shops are selling silly little mono-boxes with a 2" speaker for ~50 pounds upwards. This discussion shows me why.
