Internet Radio Tuner

[ls99]

Anyone with experience with standalone internet radio tuners? WiFi or cabled. Either will do.

Since Jazz died in Pittsburgh a few months ago, The station is now all politics all the time NPR style, I have no more reason to turn on the radio. Well occasionally do listen to the Classical station, what with begathons almost constantly, the radio is mostly off. Don't do TV either except for dancing or skating shows. Am too far, and shaded by mountain ranges for digital radio reception even with very high gain antenna. There is a digital sub-channel with jazz.

Now that I joined the Gizmo crowd, with the ipod, had to install the massive bloatware iTunes. As a minor benefit, there is a huge list of internet radio broadcast in one of the tabs.

Not wanting to keep the 'puter on all the time, even if on, don't want iTunes bloatware sucking up memory, I'd rather invest in an internet tuner.

A quick internet scan shows they are available in both receiver and tuner versions. Since I have good quality receiver/amplifier with a now useless FM tuner, id rather run a Tuner into the amp section and have uninterrupted by drivel internet jazz, Chanson ie, Edith Piaf etc, along with Salsa and Tango music, as they are readily available

Any insight would be appreciated.

[TromboneAl]

I've got a few radio stations that I listen to on the iPod: Jazz.fm91, Jazz88.3, KPLU, and AccuRadio.

But better, I use StationRipper. I launch it (on the PC), and have it grab music overnight. Each tune is labeled. I go through them and listen to find the ones I like, and then add those to the tunes on my iPod.

[F M All]

Try Logitech Squeezebox. I have 2, connected to Linn systems, very satisfied.

[FIREd]

I forgot which iPod you have. If you have a Touch, check out the TuneIn Radio app. Lots of stations available for streaming directly on your iPod.

[easysurfer]

I don't own one myself. But while browsing a CCrane catalog, saw some and they looked interesting.

CC WiFi Internet Radio - C. Crane Company (800) 522-8863

[walkinwood]

The ipod touch should be able to stream music form web sites (I don't own one to verify). Connect your ipod touch to your stereo (radio shack will have the required cable) & you have an internet radio!

There is a great jazz station out of Newark NJ called wbgo (Home | WBGO Jazz 88.3FM). They have live streaming.

[Alan]

For radio I either use our netbook, output into our amp, or Pandora radio which I access through my Roku. (I set up the stations through my PC).

[mh]

i use an apple tv since my stereo is below the tv. it has the same radio capability as itunes. they're about $99 has both an optical and regular stereo output's for hooking up to your sound system.

[mh]

if i remember correctly w/ icloud and the newest version of ios you don't need itunes

[HFWR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ls99 Since Jazz died in Pittsburgh a few months ago...

"Jazz isn't dead; it just smells funny." Frank Zappa

[NatureBoy]

If you want to connect a stereo system to the Internet, consider this little device:

WiFi / Wireless Internet Radio Tuner, Home Theater Edition | Aluratek

I've had one of these for over a year and been quite happy with it. It connects to your router via ethernet or wi-fi (no computer required) and allows you access to thousands of internet stations via the vTuner.com server. It will also stream audio from your networked computers and has a USB port for flash drive/mp3 players.

Nice gadget at a reasonable price.

NatureBoy

[ls99]

Thanks for the ideas. I have an iPod touch 4th gen. It is intriguing to use it as a radio tuner, but don't want to tie it up for that purpose. Using the ipod as standalone tuner is not appealing, don't like headphones, besides I have really good Infinity speakers hooked to a very low noise Mosfet amp.

So I'll look into the standalone tuners like the Apple tv, or Aluratek. Or some pandora version.

An other option is a used laptop, there is currently one on craigslist for $35 with 40gig drive and Linux already installed, just add a software tuner and line out the amplifier.

Options, options options, will mull it over some more. May go the ipod touch route if I can find another one cheaply, say at $50- with a bad battery and just feed it power from the stereo. There is 5 Volt I can tap off from inside. and run it through the USB cable.

Saw an "Apple TV" on craigslist for $65 Jailbroken no less. Only a 120 miles from my house.

Thanks again for the input.

[TromboneAl]

To brainstorm, think about when you want to listen. Would it work to have headphones plugged into the iPod touch? If you are walking around, an armband might work. If you want to other things on the iPod, you can play music while running other apps.

[ls99]

Listening to music is mostly when at my desk (actually it is old dining room table) with my feet upon it leaning back in the cool comfy chair and doing nothing, or working on something in my workshop, or garage. Stereo has enough power to feed there speaker sets.

I never listen to stuff when outside, or working out, except skating. My wokouts are either very short and highly intense, or am throwing or being thrown by a Ju-Jutsu partner, thus any hardware attached to any part of my body would get rapidly destroyed.

For skating, since in learning mode I only want images of skating moves, hence the iPod, don't need audio. Besides the rink has good sound system and accepts CD's, personal equipment connections are prohibited.

So really the most practical for me seems a device permanently hooked to the amplifier.

I'm getting familiar with ipod, has surprisingly good audio. Really like the video display.

Incidentally today I discovered in the internet cafe, that if there are af ew laptops running wifi connections within 5 or 6 feet, ipod wil not connect. My guess is it has a very sensitive radio receiver, it does pick up weak links, and connects to them, but as a result it gets overloaded by higher powered devices close by. No big loss, just interesting discovery.

Don't care for the keypad at all. Did download the voice to text app. Have not tried it yet. Be interesting to see how it deals with my still heavy feringi accent.

[walkinwood]

A high quality stereo will amplify any noise from the internet devices. My notebook, for example, has a low buzz that is pretty annoying when the music passages are quiet. My old ipod has excellent sound, so maybe the dedicated devices will have good sound.

[Alan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by walkinwood A high quality stereo will amplify any noise from the internet devices. My notebook, for example, has a low buzz that is pretty annoying when the music passages are quiet. My old ipod has excellent sound, so maybe the dedicated devices will have good sound.

My ROKU sound is fed through my stereo and is excellent for internet radio (Pandora) and movies.

[ls99]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HFWR "Jazz isn't dead; it just smells funny." Frank Zappa

Some experiments in internet music revealed that comcast music channels, uninterrupted they may be, are able to make jazz sound DEAD, smell and sound funny but not in a humorous way and what is worse emulate the goriest of elevator muzak, with really bad fidelity.

A try at various software internet receivers showed most to be a pain in the arse.

Finally found a simple receiver interface oddly named Screamer Radio. Reasonably good fidelity, runs minimized in tool tray, good selection of mostly uninterrupted music. Set it up running on a laptop feeding jazz the AUX input on my receiver. Only uses 11K of memory, no disk access, so 'puter can go into near sleep mode.

Oh, the price is right:free
Until I find something as good or better, simple to operate this is a good interim solution.

[Nodak]

If you happen to have a Sirius/XM subscription they have a 50% off sale going on for their radios.

[tryan]

We use Pandora exclusively (fed into the stereo) up a the lake ... really no choice since we're surrounded by mountians. We're addicted to the stations we like.

So then I tried the same connections at home (since we liked the stations) but it is always staticy. Will try a different computer.

[SJ1_]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ls99 Anyone with experience with standalone internet radio tuners? WiFi or cabled. Either will do. Since Jazz died in Pittsburgh a few months ago, The station is now all politics all the time NPR style, I have no more reason to turn on the radio. Well occasionally do listen to the Classical station, what with begathons almost constantly, the radio is mostly off. Don't do TV either except for dancing or skating shows. Am too far, and shaded by mountain ranges for digital radio reception even with very high gain antenna. There is a digital sub-channel with jazz. Now that I joined the Gizmo crowd, with the ipod, had to install the massive bloatware iTunes. As a minor benefit, there is a huge list of internet radio broadcast in one of the tabs. Not wanting to keep the 'puter on all the time, even if on, don't want iTunes bloatware sucking up memory, I'd rather invest in an internet tuner. A quick internet scan shows they are available in both receiver and tuner versions. Since I have good quality receiver/amplifier with a now useless FM tuner, id rather run a Tuner into the amp section and have uninterrupted by drivel internet jazz, Chanson ie, Edith Piaf etc, along with Salsa and Tango music, as they are readily available Any insight would be appreciated.

Same thing happened in Atl. a couple of years ago. Use to wake up to cool jazz and one morning I woke up to Rap!
I went to amazon and searched and found a wire that hooks up my PC to my stereo and that works find. Most of the time I just put the head phones in
the PC
good luck