Customer Reviews

Phoenix Wifi Radio - White

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Actually I do love the radio,but as the first reviewer mentioned, adding stations not already in the Phoenix database is inpossible, at least for me--I'm zero for ten at that skill now. And, the customer support is non-existent. I've written three emails to support, and so far, no acknowledgement of any of them.

I was so excited to get this for Christmas and I couldn't wait to get it up and running.

As other posters have mentioned, Phoenix's Customer Support is non-existant. I have left countless voicemails and sent more than a few e-mails and I have not received any response.

I was finally able to get it connected to my wireless router, but I had to change my router's encryption to 128 from 64 (my ISP doesn't support 128 encryption). I can listen to most of the "pre-bookmarked" stations that came loaded into the unit, but adding stations I want to hear has been more of a challenge.

I have been able to add in 2 stations (including one that I'm involved with), but others I have put in I have not been able to listen to. The screen always says "Server Overloaded...or something to that effect", yet I can always connect using my PC.

I could not in good faith recommend that anyone purchase anything from Phoenix. The website where you are supposed to be able to load in the stations you want is in BETA mode and again, Customer Service doesn't seem to be in their vocabulary.

I am a HUGE supporter of Internet Audio/Radio and this is a very exciting time, but buy a Roku or something from the C. Crane Company. You'll pay a little more, but I know many folks that have them and LOVE them.

Ok, first I am a bit of a tech nerd so setup on most items is easy for me.
But this was very easy to setup on my wireless even with WPA security.
The menus and steps from power up on are logical and intuitive (rare on these type of devices).
In less than 20min I had streaming radio from the pre-loaded presets and the unit found my music server in the house too!
The unit feels solid and sounds great for voice (talk radio and podcasts).
Not bad for music but the audio out jack is available and sounds good with headphones and really good on the stereo !
Customizing the access using the web site from Phoenix is good but could use a little more on line instruction for new users.

Great deal ! only drawback no remote !!! the only lacking feature.

I am going to buy more of these for other rooms.

I've had the Com One Phoenix for a few weeks and am very happy with it. It's a relatively new product and not without a few issues, but Com One appears to be regularly releasing firmware updates to address them (no work required from the user to load these updates - it happens automatically when you use the radio). I've emailed the company with a few questions and immediately received replies. My experience with the company's customer service has been excellent.

Setup was extremely simple, requiring about five minutes. I simply turned on the radio, let it find my wireless network, and then entered my security key. I was listening to music almost immediately.

The radio comes programmed with several hundred radio stations and internet streams, podcasts, and audio books. Com One has a nice website that makes adding stations simple. You can browse through a couple thousand stations/streams that are categorized by geography (continents > countries > cities) and Style/Genre (Rock, Country, Talk/Sports, etc.). It's very easy to browse the database of available stations and add them to your radio using this interface. As soon as you select a station on the website it is immediately downloaded to your radio and available for listening (and saved there until you choose to delete it). It's also relatively easy to add stations that aren't in the database, though it requires a bit more effort as you have to provide the station's URL, which can sometimes be tricky to find. Instructions for doing this are provided in the user manual and on the website. I've successfully loaded several stations on my own without difficulty.

Two features that I've found really cool are the ability to listen to my MP3 files on my PC (again, setup for this is very simple) and listening to Podcasts. I usually have to download podcasts to my MP3 player, but with the Phoenix I just access them like a radio station and I can listen whenever I like.

The radio itself is relatively small and well designed. It has 8 presets for remembering your favorite stations, and the 5 line display is crisp and bright. The radio starts up quickly, and stations load/play very quickly. The audio sounds fine considering the size of the speakers. One of the things that attracted me to the Phoenix is that it plays in stereo, which apparently is rare among the many Wifi radios I researched. It's not very loud, but definitely loud enough for a living room or bedroom. I've found that the limiting factor in sound quality is not the speakers, but the bitrate of the broadcasts. Stations that broadcast in 56 - 128 kbps sound great, at least as good as FM (often better), and even the lower bitrate broadcasts are very listenable.

Be forewarned that streaming audio via the Internet is not a perfected science. Stations sometimes `rebuffer' in the middle of songs which causes a pause, and sometimes stations are unavailable because the number of available connections has been reached. It's a small price to pay though, in exchange for the sheer number of available stations, streams, and podcasts.

There's a user-based discussion forum for the exchange of ideas, troubleshooting, etc. at [...]. Representatives from Com One monitor this forum and participate in the discussions.

Bad batch--both of the ones I received had bad charging systems. Call the manufacturer and that was the answer I got.

The Com One was linked up and downloading stations about 2 minutes after I slid it out of the box. If all digital gadgets were as easy, I'd own a cellphone.

I was hoping that internet radio would be more useful to me if it were more convenient and portable than my computer, and it definitely has turned out to be. Hooked up to a small speaker system it sounds very good. Not all stations listed are working, but it is actually very easy to change your listings using the Com-one wifi-biz website. Not immediately obvious how it's done, but very easy once you know the way.

August 20, 2008: The damn thing just died! I can't find my receipt so I assume I am SOL, assuming I get an answer to my e-mail to Baracoda. Stay tuned!!!!

November ---- OK, so now I can definitively say that Baracoda Customer Service is a total disaster and I would NEVER but another of their products. You may change this to ZERO stars. New York Tech - you should be ashamed of yourself.

This thing could be great but alas it totally useless, I can not get it to register with the sight, support is non existent, and I have heard that com 1 is basicaly out of business as far as this radio is concerned. Very few of the preprogrammed channels work, cant register, therfore cant find and load channels that work, (very few work that you do find) something about new laws ,radio music from U.S. radio stations might be streamed and heard out of radio franchise zones, or heaven forbid even in another country, Uhh' gasp,now we cant have that, good ol government bureacrats watching out for you, another great technology, industry, and innovation shut down by as they say on 95% of the stations that you can't get, on this radio thats preprogrammed into the radio," suits, suits , lots of suits, filled with lawyers, lawyers, lots and lots of lawyers". Thanks you *&#$Q#* morons! for waisting my time and money , worse yet all the employees at com 1 phoeinex radio that has lost there jobs because of the suits filled with lawyers, I doubt that this radio ever will be any good, if any form of it survives it will likely require a subscription (money) service. dont buy you will be greatly disappointed. ----------------- UPDATE! UPDATE! UPDATE!!! ----- Ok they actually did turn on, and register my radio to there website, where as I can now add stations ( those that still exist) and manipulate the buttons,favorites and radio stations that the radio will get, it took them 3 or 4 months though, I have lost track, Now in all fairness to com 1 this radio now serves the purpose for which I bought it, (barely) I can only find coast to coast on one station that works (klbj austin texas), Bonus!! I am able to get Alex Jones and program it to the radio, THE RADIO NOW SERVES THE PURPOSE for which I bought it for, At this point it works for me and I use it daily, I must say I am somewhat happy with the radio, I wanted to cut off my XM, decided though that I may need to keep the XM for a while, I will update again in future If anything changes, better or worse, research and be sure it will serve your purpose before you buy.
I have raised my rating of this radio because it serves the purpose for which I bought. mtnmaddman

I ordered the radio, nothing worked. I could only get a few sorry stations that I didn't like. Amazon sent me another. The new one was the same. No support, nothing.. I e-mailed Amazon with my problem and they didn't answer. now I am stuck with two junkie radios that are completely useless. I am going to try to resale them for 5 dollars each. Do not buy this radio for any price.

I am very experienced with networks, including wireless devices, and when I purchased a Phoenix Wifi Radio a few months ago, I had no problems getting it working and setting up my favorite stations and podcasts. It worked well in a rural river valley location where I have DSL but rather poor FM reception. Some negatives: Audio volume has limits and if you are a little hard of hearing you might find that you need to stay near the radio to hear things, even at maximum volume; the unit I have simply locks up occasionally and the only way to get it working again is to unplug the adapter and open the battery compartment (or do a mechanical reset); there is no limitation on the time of the alarm like most clock radios--usually one hour--and the com-one will run forever until you turn it off mechanically. I was willing to put up with this because the radio worked very well otherwise and was portable but then I ran into a problem in connecting to router at the rural location. I think this problem could be solved fairly quickly with the help of tech support person but my experience is that PHOENIX COM-ONE TECH SUPPORT IS NONEXISTENT. Do not buy this radio if you feel you might ever need help in setting it up or dealing with glitches and technical problems. I have received no response to messages left on their website and the tech support numbers in my manual has been disconnected. It is too late to send the radio back to Amazon but I think a label should be placed on each box that says: You are completely on your own. Enjoy! Phoenix Wifi Radio - White

i would mark this as a DO NOT BUY but its not bad out of the box. the main problem for me was that the omly way to change or add stations of the presets was to register on the website. that is fine but it appears the company has gone out of business and you can no longer get your device registered. so therefore you can not add any stations. this was a deal breaker for me.

but in the few days i did have it i explored what else it had to offer. the best feature is the amount of preset channels by region it had. you could select any US city and it would give you 5+ streams fromt that area. it also listed international stations and a hand full from each country. also had streams of audio books and ambient nature sounds and the like.

but besides the lack of website support the radio was not much of an alarm clock. some things like bog snooze button were missing and the display wasnt the clearest. also the batteries on mine died after a day and the wall plug didnt charge nor power the radio. i assume mine was just a rogue defect or maybe the chargeable batteries had gone because it worked with other batteries in it.

so i would not recommend buy this and especially not at this price. knowing what i do now after owning one for a few days, i would say this is worth closer to $20

i recommend this instead: Logitech Squeezebox Radio Music Player with Color Screen (Black)