Morning all,
I’m after an internet radio for the kitchen. I’d prefer stereo with fm. Nice screen etc. My budget is £100, no more. I’ve seen some Pure and Roberts but over budget. There are also names like Auna and Majority which are nearer budget. There’s also a Sharp with good reviews. I have an Echo Dot and Echo but want something with a more solid sound. Any ideas?
Why do you need a screen?
If you're sure you don't need a wired internet connection, and you just want something while cooking, I have a Roberts Radio Stream104 and for voice and background music and it does the job fine. But no ethernet as I say so you need to be really sure that your wifi will be up to it. I have much bigger and more expensive internet radios, Roberts, but quite frankly I don't appreciate their sound any more than the little cheap one. We're not talking hifi, but it's perfectly listenable.
I also have old cheapish bluetooth speakers, Sony SRSX55, which I can use with a tablet or phone for radio -- what I've found with this is that its sound quality is very position dependent, it wants to be up against a wall. But it's fine for just a bit of background music or radio.
But if you have a decent tablet or phone, try just using that with no additional speakers first. You may be surprised how well it works when you're close to it at least. I was.
A general word of warning with internet radios, at least Roberts (which are the only ones I've experienced.) They are well made pieces of equipment, but sometimes they can fail and you don't know why. It may be the router, the wifi extenders, the radio station signal, the radio. And it's easy to come to the conclusion that it's the radio when it isn't. Be careful you don't throw one away when in fact the problem is external -- I have, it stayed in the bin for a couple of weeks and just before giving it to the binmen something told me to give it another chance. I did, it worked, that was five years ago, it's still working.
