Best WiFi / Internet Radio

November 17, 2008 11:03 AM

As an English ex-pat, my fiancée really misses the BBC's Radio 4. We both do. Can anyone speak from experience about the best Internet/wifi radio for both listening live and the BBC's 'listen again' feature?

I've done some Googling but there is lots conflicting information and I don't feel like the reviews I've found have been informative enough to make a purchase. Is there a Mefite who owns one and uses it for this purpose?

posted by dance to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Or to put this another way:
should we just buy the Roberts WM201?
posted by dance at 11:39 AM on November 17, 2008

I have a Tangent Quattro I use for this purpose (actually Radio 7, most of the time). I like it, but it isn't perfect. The BBC often has glitches in its feed, so the listings aren't always correct -- and I sometimes can't connect to it at all.

That said, it's a lot of fun.
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:12 PM on November 17, 2008

Does the Squeezebox Boom (with the AlienBBC plugin) fit the bill?
posted by holgate at 1:15 PM on November 17, 2008

I do a lot of podcasting to get my Radio 4 fix. It also helps timeshift because I'm now 5 hours off. Then I just play off my laptop for my husband and I during dinner. (I realise you are asking about internet radio - but this might be a nice instant solution in the meantime.)
posted by jb at 8:06 PM on November 17, 2008

Thanks, all! It looks like the Intempo Digital GX-0 is a good low-price receiver, the Roberts a good mid-range and the Squeezebox Boom TOTR.
posted by dance at 6:40 AM on November 18, 2008

Get a Reciva-chipset-based radio, would be my advice. The GX-01 is one of them. Our one rules, and it certainly handles all your BBC needs without recourse to a PC. They seem to be more expensive in the US than here.

I can vouch for this, being the US version of the one in my house except with a presumably-better external aerial.
posted by genghis at 2:42 PM on November 18, 2008

For info, we went with the Intempo Digital GX-01, and we're very happy with it. It cuts out now and then if there's little bandwidth available (as of course it would) but that's more the fault of the internet in my organisation than the device, I'm sure.

I also think it should do more caching to save loading long lists of countries and stations, but other than that, it does what it advertises. I can also play my iTunes library wirelessly through it.
posted by dance at 12:27 PM on March 7, 2009