Product Description

With Grace Wireless Internet Radio you can listen to over 15,000+ radio stations, 20,000+ on-demand radio programs, and over 35,000 podcasts from around the world.streaming. The 4-line LCD displays the song and artist. The intuitive and easy-to-use controls let you browse over 10,000 global Internet radio stations with ease.You can browse by location or by genre. Have you ever wanted to hear what's going on in your home town, state or country? What about local sports scores or weather reports from other places? Well, now Grace makes it possible!The sleek and simple design makes it a fit in most living rooms as well as easy and intuitive to use. Get yours today!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23528 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Grace Digital
• Model: GDI-IR3000
• Dimensions: 6.00" h x 6.75" w x 14.50" l, 3.75 pounds

Features

• Listen to over 16,000 AM or FM radios stations in pure digital sound over your home broadband network.
• Select stations by region, country, search by radio station name or over 50 genres such as Country, BBC, News, Talk, Classical, Rock, Polka etc.
• Wirelessly stream your music library from your PC or MAC or internet radio direct from the internet via any wireless Internet connection (802.11b & 802.11g compatible)
• Supports wireless security protocols WEP & WPA 1 & 2
• Includes stereo speakers, headset jack, remote control, AC power, and manual

Customer Reviews

Beats satellite
We live in a fringe area where it's hard to get any variety in radio. Disappointed with satellite radio, we looked into internet radio. For our needs, the Grace WiFi seemed a good fit at $200 +/- and 100baseT or WiFi connection capability. It has an audio minijack in back which we feed into a small FM transmitter to broadcast around the house. The sound quality from the Grace is quite good.

The radio was simple to set up, we had it running 5 minutes out of the box. Setup instructions are clear and simple, and are available on the web ([...]). Loading stations using the Receiva website is straightforward for anyone familiar with using web applications. It can also do streams, podcasts, and can interface with Pandora. Even so, out-of-the-box access to thousands of stations all over the world does not require using a computer to program the Grace.

That the radio is field-upgradable is also a nice feature, enabling bugfixes and small feature upgrades without buying a new box. We have only two complaints: 1) finding the local network needs a retry mechanism, and 2) setting/using the remote for preset channels greater than 9 is a little hokey. Happily, if Grace decides to, both these complaints can be addressed in their next firmware upgrade.

Overall we think the switch to internet radio - specifically with the Grace - was a smart move. We figure that internet radio with its greater variety and no subscription costs will pay for itself in about 1 year relative to the cost for satellite radio.

Don't buy to listen to Sirius
Caveat: I purchased this (and a GDI-IR1000 before) primarily to listen to a handful of Sirius talk channels without turning on a stereo system. DirecTV provides all the XM music channels, and I have a minimum of use for the 15,000 internet stations the Grace radio successfully receives. I ultimately purchased a Logitech Squeezebox Boom, which works perfectly with Sirius with better sound, albeit at a higher price.

I've tried two Grace internet radios, and both have the same problem... Sirius really doesn't work (after weeks of interactions with Grace support).

The problem appears to be that the Sirius stream doesn't come directly from Sirius (as the Stiletto and PC streams do), but from a third party named Reciva.

The problems? When you turn on the radio already set to a Sirius channel, more often than not it reports "Unable to play", although pressing a preset button for the same Sirius channel immediately connects.

And then, after it connects, it frequently stops with "Stream ended", although, again pressing the preset button immediately connects and plays.

Grace claimed this was a unique problem, and wanted me to try another radio, and I did, with exactly the same results (this time directly connected via Ethernet, instead of WiFi). But the Grace and Reciva websites now have multiple reports of the "Stream ended" problem.

Grace support, while professional and responsive, seems unable to resolve Reciva/Grace issues.

If Grace can work out the problems with Reciva/Sirius behind the scenes, or with a radio firmware update, this will be a good product. Until then, if you're planning to buy this to receive Sirius (which requires paying Sirius for 'CD quality' streaming), think again.

One other comment on this model... the IR remote isn't very effective... it must be used from directly in front of the unit, and at close range.

Buy the 1000B instead
The device does do a decent job as an internet radio however it' build quality is marginal. One could easily describe it as feeling cheap. The sound quality is about the same as the sound quality of the built in speaker one finds in a desktop. It does have two speakers but for what reason I can't figure out. I have experienced problems connecting with Pandora. Most likely this is a firmware problem which might be fixed sometime or another. As for that glowing review of the unit it was obviously written by a Grace company spokesman. Amazon shouldn't allow them to do that. Overall I would say the Grace 1000B is a better radio.