Quick take: A quality WiFi Internet radio tuner with a decent feature set. It’s too bad that the somewhat complicated setup will confuse some.
The Good Stuff: It works! I can’t say how nice it is to receive a new product, set it up, and enjoy all the benefits without diving into a random forum site for help.
This Aluratek radio tuner is just what I needed. I love listening to the radio, but I moved my office to a location where I can’t get any radio reception. This solved my problem and allows me to listen to every station I want via the extensive radio listings on the Aluratek website.
The sound quality is as good as can be expected from Internet radio. Don’t think this device will enhance the quality. Expect to hear the same quality as if you were to hook up your computer to your AV receiver and stream the radio station over the Internet.
That’s fine with me though. The device hooks up via analog cables to any AV receiver. It’s that easy. Well, the hook up is that easy. Setting up the device’s software and adding the stations is something else.
The Not-so Good Stuff: I configured the radio tuner just fine, but I don’t think my moderately computer literate parents or friends could have done it as easily.
There are numerous steps before this device starts streaming. First you have to get it on the WiFi network – or just plug in an RJ45 cable. That requires painstakingly entering the wireless access code via the remote. Each button has a number and a set of letters assigned. It took me a few minutes to discover you have to hold the appropriate button down to input a letter.
Once that’s done, you have to jump online to setup a playlist. This isn’t the best designed site on the Internet. It isn’t the worst, but it could be so much better. It does allow you to find and add to a playlist the stations you want to listen too. Just don’t mislabel your playlist because I don’t think you can rename it. At least I haven’t figured out how.
Like I said, the setup isn’t that hard for our average CrunchGear reader. But I think the overall process will confuse others.
So…I like it. I like it a lot. It’s a good little device that works as advertised. If you are in need of a way to listen to radio but can’t pick up any stations due to reception, buy this. You won’t be disappointed.
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