Customer Reviews

Asus Internet Radio (Air) Black Supports 10000 Worldwide Broadcast Stations

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

A)
Have you ever seen a manufacturer who does not support it's own product? Go to asus and check what they offer you for this radio. Be sure, once you have problems with this radio, you get lost. I bought two of these radios and none is working well with wireless. But, wireless is ... why I bought them. Don't have cable running in every room. Manuf. product pages tell you it is working with WPA/WPA2. In fact, wireless sucks, totally. Well, if you google you will figure out I'm not the only one who has this problem. Worst of all, no information at asus regarding this problem. No information asus might offer a new firmware. If you own this radio you have to wait for asus until asus helps you out. Helps you out will work only, if asus wakes up, asus is willing to help, if they send new firmware or whatever else to these radios. (Right now ...) There's no way for you to update these radios. There is also no way to reconfigure it by a webinterface or by USB. There is no webinterface and there is no USB. Only way to configure it is by pushing buttons on the radio or the remote control. Doing this is painful. No direct way to enter letters or numbers, it's like cursor up and down until right number or letter shows up and finally pushing enter for every single digit.

Radio #1 : It's display shows, there are 13 networks it can see. Three of them are own cloaked networks. But, you see, of course, no information what cloaked network belongs to one of these three lines. Unfortunately, there is no way to enter the SSID which could be very helpful. You need to check all of them and ... if WPA/WPA2 does not work with these radios you really feel pi..ed off after endless trying thit'nd'that and ... and ... Guess you know what I mean.
Radio #2 : It's display shows - it is right next to # 1 at the table - three networks, only (not 13 as # 1). But, all three lines are empty like # 1 shows for cloaked networks. Hmmm, OK, I thought, I don't need the others. But, same problem, same trouble like # 1.

None of both radios can connect to the WPA/WPA2 networks. Well, it looks like they try it but with no success at all.
I tried to connect to an open network with # 1. After long long time of waiting, display shows connecting, it suddenly connects to an open network. But, I don't want to step down my networks from WPA2 to open. Not because of these two radios.

B)
Looks like there's no way to keep basic config once your radio does not get power. Both radios I have, don't keep information about date and time once you unplug the power cable. Guess, all you entered by hand like own information about radio stations they are not listed by asus/air and ... and ... and ... will be lost (?).

C)
My advice for you ...
Don't by this radio until asus as manuf. is willing to take care for it's own product.
Do not accept and support a manuf. who'll wind you up.

Since this is my first Internet radio, I can't compare it to other radios. That said, I love this radio. It was easy to set up, program and start exploring the stations that it is programmed to receive..Asus claims 10000 stations, but since there is no listing, that seems high to me.

The sound is good, and the features I like are the sleep times (I listen at night so I like that it turns itself off), the sound which is pretty clear (I listen to talk radio), the appearance (very classy woodgrain box), and the price (which is the most inexpensive on the market).

I don't think their customer service is knowledgable because when I called them to see if the automatic time set feature was working, they didn't seem to know how to even work the radio...as if they had never even seen one.

They also have automatic updates that download directly into the radio, which I assume updates station locations etc., but when I asked what the update consisted of, no one could tell me, and it is not posted on their website.

So even though some of my favorite stations (like WABC and WOR in NYC) are not on their station list, I am very satisfied with this product.

This radio regularly forgets what WIFI network it is supposed to be looking to. It will remember for a day or so, and then need to be re-connected. This is annoying and frustrating to my spouse, who can't remember how to do this. Moreover, although it lists a number of stations that we know are broadcasting and which we want to listen to, the radio cannot actually play their broadcast. I don't understand this, and again, it is a frustration.

Specs look good right? I thought so. The thing NO ONE TOLD ME was that ALL the stations I bought this for DOES NOT WORK! Are you freaking kidding? And typing in the URL only works some of the time. And it takes HOURS to enter a 60 character URL... and that is for real. So I cant get WQAM, WORL, and other stations because... hmmm... they dont update their product like they should. Last update was like a year ago. So the URLs change and they dont freaking care to update it. Probably wont be working at all in a few more months. Wake up ASUS and fix your product.

Update your firmware and radio stations!!!!

Good looking radio, with a solid feel. Would not connect to either secured or unsecured routers despite two days of trying in different surroundings. Ran only on ethernet connection which kind of negates it's purpose of bringing internet stations anywhere in your home. Contacted Asus customer service, but their response was that it was probably a defective wireless circuit. Returned to dealer, but they were out of stock on it, so received refund.

I was exposed to this radio when staying at a friend's place in Australia. It was very easy to use and quite reliable, and I loved being able to listen to news from my local radio station back in the states. I decided to buy one when I got home.

When the radio arrived, I had a terrible time getting wifi to work. After a half day of pulling my hair out. I discovered that if I changed my wifi security from open to shared key authentication it would work. Some people would find this an unacceptable drop in security, but I decided I could live with it. As an experiment, I tried connecting to a totally unsecured network on an old linksys router, and it didn't like that either. This thing is finicky, and the instructions in the box and on the web are pretty unhelpful.

Once installed, it has been very reliable for a couple of weeks. It hasn't had any problems connecting to the network. The sound isn't great, but it is more than adequate for talk radio. The sound from the headphone jack is actually pretty good. There is downside to using headphones if this is a bedside radio, the alarm will be inaudible unless you are wearing the headphones. The other problem it has, as a bedside radio, is that the display is way too bright. Even at the dim setting it illuminates the room. I have had to turn the back light off. I might try to find some neutral density film to apply to the display.

On balance, I like the radio. If they fixed some of the quirks, it would be worth full price. As it is, I would only buy it at a sale price.

Half the stations I try do not connect. Many typical stations, such as BBC World Service are not listed. You can input your own stations, but it is a cumbersome process. ASUS support for the product is virtually non-existent.

I bought three of these to date, none of them will connect to my Fios wireless network, only work if hard wired. No support from manufacturer, buy the Squeezebox or Aluratek brands, they do connect wirelessly. The Squeezebox is the best, color screen, can add other apps to menu, very please with the other brands, NOT ASUS!!!

This Radio feels well built. I have not experienced any problems with it. Inputing a radio station address for your favorite stations can be a pain. The WIFI reception is incredible the range is far. I was camping in a motorhome and it picked up a open signal from far away with one bar and it played stations flawlessly.

The sound is impressive for a mono speaker. There is a headphone jack and rca plugs in back for hooking to your stereo equipment for full stereo sound.

One thing if you are new to internet radio , you need to understand the nature of them, sometimes there can be radio connection problems, radios can not be available for many reasons. Its not the Asus radio fault.

And if you want to put in your favorite station you need to understand http:// formats for a stations stream.

UPDATE:
After thinking about it awhile i realized that , I think it is awsome but alot wont because, yes alot of stations dont work. So if your looking at this radio thinking you will be getting a radio with all the stations you will be extremely disappointed. For me I had a bunch of stations that i listen to all the time already, so when i bought this i just put in the streaming address for my favorite stations. I never even really looked through the ones that came listed on the device.

So in conclusion if you are new to internet radio, you will probably be frustrated with this thing. If you already have a bunch of stations you listen too and know the streaming url of them, you will be happy.

I would recommend using winamp to find new stations. When you find one click on properties and copy the http:// address and then put it in your asus. I havent had any problem adding new stations.

About two years ago I purchased this radio and enjoyed it so much I purchase two more during 2010.
One of them quit working after two months. I called the Asus company who informed me that the warranty had expired even after I faxed them my invoice. I have not heard anything from Asus after this. I had purchased this item in March 2010 and it went bad in May. My advice is not to buy this item unless you get it at extreme discount. The company will not support this product.
I have the problem of losing info if the units are unpluged. I have one on uninteruptable power supply now.