Full FeedWi-Fi radios from Acoustic Research
Acoustic Research has just announced two new Internet radios that will have plenty of unique features without the hassle of a PC tether. The two models, the AR Infinite Radio 200 and 600i will both have Wi-Fi connectivity, AM/FM radio stations, and 512MB storage memory.
Without the need to directly connect to the Internet, users can now bring online radio to other areas of the home. However, you can still use the USB and Ethernet connections if Wi-Fi is not available. Listeners can customize their stations with the Infinite Radio as well as save favorite URLs through the Personal Portal Feature.
Acoustic Research has already developed several partnerships in order to give users a plenty of choices. The Internet radio models will have the ability to access the library found on the Slacker Personal Radio Music Service. Slacker has thousands of downloadable tracks, 100 genre stations and 10,000 artist stations. WeatherBug has also partnered with Acoustic Research. Listeners can receive instant one and three day forecasts as well as weather alerts in text to speech format.
The 600i will have a few more extras than the 200, including a subwoofer and an iPod docking station. The 200 will retail for $129 while the 600i will go for $199. Expect to see these radios released during the first half of 2009.
Product Page [AR Infinite Radio]
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I just tried the arirc200,
on February 8, 2009 at 05:41 PM - LINKworks well, but there is a background noise (hissss) that i could not support at the head of my bed. That noise starts as soon the ampli is quicked ON. It is not going louder with volume, so is only a problem with low volume.
I have a several issues with the ARIRC200. I got mine from futureshop on Monday and as of Friday I am still not using it in preference to my old, standard alarm clock. We have very good wifi in our house, even some of my very weak wifi gadgets can connect just fine every time I try them, even outside in the back garden, but the ARIRC200 seems to have issues keeping the connection to the router open, even though it is only about 15-20 feet from the router in a straight line with one wall in between. I am currently posting this from a laptop in approximately the same position and the laptop is happy to stream video without stopping for buffering after the initial couple of seconds.
I also find that I have the problem with the hissing which Frank describes - it is possible to make it stop, but I can’t work out the logical steps to make it do so, even though it seems pressing some button combination will make the hissing stop - if I can’t work it out and I’m a computer programmer, how are less logically-minded people supposed to do it? My wife doesn’t hear the hissing, but I have quite good hearing and it is very obvious to me.
Then there’s the blue LCD display. I like the room to be fairly dark for sleeping, so I turned the display down to the “low” brightness setting (out of low, med, high) but it still produces a strong ambient blue glow that casts obvious shadows on objects in the room and has prompted me to consider looking for some tinted plastic film to place in front of the display to cut down the brightness. However, I’m not going to that effort unless I can resolve some of the other issues (i.e. poor wifi and hissing).
Another seemingly obvious feature that is lacking is the option to set the alarm source to the device connected to the USB port. The sound quality from all sources I have tried (FM radio, internet radio - when I can get it to work properly - and a 2GB USB stick) is excellent, but there is no option to wake up to the most reliable music source - the USB stick! Even more annoying is that I had thought setting either FM radio or the USB stick (both of which should be quite reliable) as a secondary alarm source in case there is a problem with the internet radio would be a very sensible feature. Instead, the only backup option to wake to, in case of internet radio connection problems is the buzzer. If I wanted to wake up to a buzzer sound, I wouldn’t have spent $150 on an alarm clock!
Luckily, I purchased the ARIRC200 from Futureshop, which has a 30-day money back policy. I haven’t completely given up on the device yet, but I am getting very close. I am also concerned that if I take it back to Futureshop, even though they will probably accept the device back, hopefully they will not complain, because you have to register the device online before you can use the internet radio feature at all and, as such, if someone else wants to use the particular item brought back, it may already be permanently registered with my details.
Overall, I am frustrated and preparing to ultimately be disappointed - I had thought this would be a great product, because I was fed up of waking up to standard radio stations and was looking forward to getting woken up to a new world of sound. So far, the device has simply not lived up to my expectations for a $150 product.
I will try working with it for a couple more days, but if, after the weekend I still have not resolved the most important issues, it will be going back to Futureshop on Monday.
I hope this review is helpful.
on March 20, 2009 at 11:11 AM - LINK