- Listen to over 16,000 internet radio stations including Pandora, iheartradio, NPR on-demand, BBC, ESPN, Live 365, Sirius
- Includes a full range rear ported 4" speaker for great highs, midrange, and bass to listen to your favorite Pandora, Live365, SIRIUS, AM/FM
- Large 4-line display with 30 backlight micro settings. Set your radio to automatically dim when turned off in the night time and stay bright during day time listening.
- Includes 5 alarms to buzz or play your favorite radio station. Each alarm settable for one time, a day of the week, weekends, weekdays, or 7 day alarm
- Even plays your music files from your PC or MAC
Product Features |
Product Specifications
Brand NameGrace Digital Audio
Color NameBlack
Product Details
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Product Description
The Grace Digital Innovator III (GDI-IR2500) Wi-Fi radio is the newest in the line of Grace's tabletop radios. The Innovator III is a combination Internet radio and audio media streaming device that brings all the audio content of the Internet and Pandora within listening distance, wherever you are. With it users can listen to 16,000+ radio stations from NPR, FOX news, CNN, BBC, CBS to KROQ, over 35,000 podcast, 20,000+ On-Demand subscription streams or your personal Pandora radio stations. Additional features include a stereo headset jack for personal listening enjoyment, the ability to stream files from local computer networks, compatibility with the free Grace remote control App for iPhone/iTouch, and 5 separate alarms with sleep mode and a high contrast 4 line adjustable backlight display.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
291 of 308 people found the following review helpful
By Bob
I have owned the Grace GDI-IR2500 now for a couple of months, and I will try to be as brief as I can with my thoughts and comments.
Build quality: Fair - not terrible, but not great. The black vinyl or plastic wrap used over the wood housing is attractive but not assembled very well, with very noticable imperfections/large wrinkles on both the top front right corner and the top back right corner. The controls are of comperable quality to those of a $10 clock radio, and will probably start wearing out after a couple of years of heavy use. The 4-line LCD display is relatively easy to read.
Setup: If you have ever setup any other wireless devices such as a laptop, smartphone or other wi-fi enabled device, it is not much different and pretty straight forward. The only area that can be somewhat cumbersome is the same issue I have in other areas of operation: the poorly functioning and designed remote control. The remote basically offers up and down keys for entering a security key, scrolling through each number and letter of the alphabet, locating the character you need, then selecting, then scrolling... you get the picture. A remote offering a numeric/ABC type of entry would be preferred, and for $130 to $150, should be included.
Station selection: Good - but not nearly as good as some of the applications offered on iPhone, Android, and Blackberry smartphones such as WunderRadio and RadioTime. Searching for stations is also poorly thoughtout. Other than Clear Channel Communication's "iHeartRadio" offering, you can't even search stations by state, let alone city - and searching by call letters is again an entry where you have to scroll through every letter of the alphabet and enter each character, which is a pain.
Connectivity: No complaints, it starts up relatively quick once you have your wireless settings configured. Regarding connecting to a station url, it depends on the stream format... most .AAC streams begin playing quickly, .mp3 streams fairly quick, .WMA streams a few seconds longer, but none are frustratingly slow. It also played all streams consistantly for hours at a time without interruption.
Sound quality: Fair at best. I guess for $150 I expected this radio to sound at least as good as some of the $50 Sony or Panasonic tabletop radios from the past. There is no reason it couldn't on most mid-to-higher kbps streams - but Grace chose to cut costs on one of the most important aspects of any radio - the speaker - and the speaker quality is about on par with that of a $20 GE table radio. That would be OK if the radio cost $50, but for what these relatively cheap to build radios cost the consumer, I expect the materials and components used to be of higher quality.
Remote Control: Poor quality, poor layout, and many times you have to hit keys two or three times to get a response. I thought the included battery might have been old, but the Duracell replacement battery I bought did not improve the remote's performance.
The bottom line: If you want an internet radio that somewhat gives you the look and feel of your old tabletop radio, and you use the presets a good part of the time, it's an OK radio. I don't hate it, and have actually had some fun with it, but in reality it is worth about $79 tops. I would however look at the Logitech Squeezebox before this or any other internet radio. I played with one at Best Buy a couple weeks back and the build and sound quality is light-years better, and it also offers an optional battery pack.
If the old-time feel of a tabletop radio isn't important and you are wanting to just tune in stations from around the world and have decent sound quality, and if you own an iPhone, Blackberry or Android smartphone with 3G and/or a wi-fi connection, I recommend one of the many decent wireless bluetooth speaker systems (I own the Altec Lansing inMotion SoundBlade Bluetooth A2DP Speaker/Speakerphone, which I paid $50 for, or the Creative D100 Wireless Bluetooth Speaker, both of which sound much better than this Grace unit, and operate on either the supplied AC power adapter or batteries) and install some free to very cheap apps on your smartphone such as Pandora, Slacker, Sirius/XM, iHeartRadio, Yahoo Music, WunderRadio, and TuneIn (formerly RadioTime.) The beauty of smartphone apps is that you can also use them with many new car audio systems (wirelessly via bluetooth or wired via an auxiliary in jack), at the office, at the beach, and pretty much anywhere you have either 3G data or a wi-fi connection.
February 20, 2011 note: I find it interesting that in one day my post went from "27 of 29 people found the following review helpful" to "27 of 37 people found the following review helpful"... yes, in one day, and over 4 months after the review was posted. Seems as though some Grace employees or dealers might not have appreciated my honesty.
June 10, 2011 note: I have also owned a Logitech Squeezebox radio now for 6 months, and it is an outstanding radio, and a vast upgrade from the Grace radio. Build and sound quality are far superior, and the various interfaces available to control the unit, including the optional remote control, Android application, Squeezebox Server computer software, and mysqueezebox.com are all far superior to anything Grace offers. Also, while Grace touted that their radios supported iHeartRadio, this is no longer the case, with iHeartRadio confirming they will no longer be supporting Reciva, the radio station database used by Grace Radios.
Buy the Logitech Squeezebox radio.
Build quality: Fair - not terrible, but not great. The black vinyl or plastic wrap used over the wood housing is attractive but not assembled very well, with very noticable imperfections/large wrinkles on both the top front right corner and the top back right corner. The controls are of comperable quality to those of a $10 clock radio, and will probably start wearing out after a couple of years of heavy use. The 4-line LCD display is relatively easy to read.
Setup: If you have ever setup any other wireless devices such as a laptop, smartphone or other wi-fi enabled device, it is not much different and pretty straight forward. The only area that can be somewhat cumbersome is the same issue I have in other areas of operation: the poorly functioning and designed remote control. The remote basically offers up and down keys for entering a security key, scrolling through each number and letter of the alphabet, locating the character you need, then selecting, then scrolling... you get the picture. A remote offering a numeric/ABC type of entry would be preferred, and for $130 to $150, should be included.
Station selection: Good - but not nearly as good as some of the applications offered on iPhone, Android, and Blackberry smartphones such as WunderRadio and RadioTime. Searching for stations is also poorly thoughtout. Other than Clear Channel Communication's "iHeartRadio" offering, you can't even search stations by state, let alone city - and searching by call letters is again an entry where you have to scroll through every letter of the alphabet and enter each character, which is a pain.
Connectivity: No complaints, it starts up relatively quick once you have your wireless settings configured. Regarding connecting to a station url, it depends on the stream format... most .AAC streams begin playing quickly, .mp3 streams fairly quick, .WMA streams a few seconds longer, but none are frustratingly slow. It also played all streams consistantly for hours at a time without interruption.
Sound quality: Fair at best. I guess for $150 I expected this radio to sound at least as good as some of the $50 Sony or Panasonic tabletop radios from the past. There is no reason it couldn't on most mid-to-higher kbps streams - but Grace chose to cut costs on one of the most important aspects of any radio - the speaker - and the speaker quality is about on par with that of a $20 GE table radio. That would be OK if the radio cost $50, but for what these relatively cheap to build radios cost the consumer, I expect the materials and components used to be of higher quality.
Remote Control: Poor quality, poor layout, and many times you have to hit keys two or three times to get a response. I thought the included battery might have been old, but the Duracell replacement battery I bought did not improve the remote's performance.
The bottom line: If you want an internet radio that somewhat gives you the look and feel of your old tabletop radio, and you use the presets a good part of the time, it's an OK radio. I don't hate it, and have actually had some fun with it, but in reality it is worth about $79 tops. I would however look at the Logitech Squeezebox before this or any other internet radio. I played with one at Best Buy a couple weeks back and the build and sound quality is light-years better, and it also offers an optional battery pack.
If the old-time feel of a tabletop radio isn't important and you are wanting to just tune in stations from around the world and have decent sound quality, and if you own an iPhone, Blackberry or Android smartphone with 3G and/or a wi-fi connection, I recommend one of the many decent wireless bluetooth speaker systems (I own the Altec Lansing inMotion SoundBlade Bluetooth A2DP Speaker/Speakerphone, which I paid $50 for, or the Creative D100 Wireless Bluetooth Speaker, both of which sound much better than this Grace unit, and operate on either the supplied AC power adapter or batteries) and install some free to very cheap apps on your smartphone such as Pandora, Slacker, Sirius/XM, iHeartRadio, Yahoo Music, WunderRadio, and TuneIn (formerly RadioTime.) The beauty of smartphone apps is that you can also use them with many new car audio systems (wirelessly via bluetooth or wired via an auxiliary in jack), at the office, at the beach, and pretty much anywhere you have either 3G data or a wi-fi connection.
February 20, 2011 note: I find it interesting that in one day my post went from "27 of 29 people found the following review helpful" to "27 of 37 people found the following review helpful"... yes, in one day, and over 4 months after the review was posted. Seems as though some Grace employees or dealers might not have appreciated my honesty.
June 10, 2011 note: I have also owned a Logitech Squeezebox radio now for 6 months, and it is an outstanding radio, and a vast upgrade from the Grace radio. Build and sound quality are far superior, and the various interfaces available to control the unit, including the optional remote control, Android application, Squeezebox Server computer software, and mysqueezebox.com are all far superior to anything Grace offers. Also, while Grace touted that their radios supported iHeartRadio, this is no longer the case, with iHeartRadio confirming they will no longer be supporting Reciva, the radio station database used by Grace Radios.
Buy the Logitech Squeezebox radio.
88 of 95 people found the following review helpful
By Ed
Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
This is my first experience with an Internet radio, so I cannot compare it to anything else except regular radio and the Sirius radio that is in my car. I was around before TV, the technology today never ceases to amaze me. I just remember when I was a kid listening to Superman on a small radio by my bed---that was a good as radio was.
I had very little problem setting this with my wireless router, I have a secure network and it took me several attempts to get the WEP key entered correctly as I was using the entire key-phrase on my Actiontec PK5000. I since changed it to something more simple on the ISP website---instead of 25 characters I now have 8. That was the only hiccup!
The radio scanned for available Internet connections and found several then found and recognized mine. I am now getting radio! I was overwhelmed by the number of stations available. You can select the genre; sports, talk radio, news, music type etc. and then check out the stations that are available in that category (more than I would want to count). After you find a station that you like you can enter it into memory, so that you can instantly go to that station, there are ten presets available. It will display the song title and performer or artist. The display is easy to read, the brightness is adjustable and it displays the time when the unit is off. This will also function as an alarm clock. The remote control is rather small and very easy to use, very helpful if you listen to the radio while in bed.
I am still exploring stations to find the ones that I like the most, just too many to chose from. I will not be using Sirius as I get that on Directv, but it is available. Pandora and Live 365 are also available, I have not been there yet as I have spent most of my time exploring stations that are already available. I live in the Phoenix area and I find the local radio stations on the dial too. I'm having a lot of fun with this radio checking out all that is available----do I have too much time on my hands? I am retired and am finding this a great source of entertainment.
I would like to mention the sound. The speaker is adequate, certainly a lot better than what I listened to when I was a kid. It is ported through the back with the 5" speaker facing the front. I hooked up a pair of my wife's ear-buds---now I get the full stereo and a much richer and full sound. I intend to next attach it to our home sound system---I am just thinking that will be some kick-butt audio.
I would recommend this unit to anyone who really is into a music library and wants unlimited choices in radio and does not want to be concerned about reception problems.
Hope this will be some help to those who hesitate getting more involved in the Internet related field. It was really easy to set up and is providing much enjoyment--I have very limited computer/Internet experience compared to my grand-kids.
I had very little problem setting this with my wireless router, I have a secure network and it took me several attempts to get the WEP key entered correctly as I was using the entire key-phrase on my Actiontec PK5000. I since changed it to something more simple on the ISP website---instead of 25 characters I now have 8. That was the only hiccup!
The radio scanned for available Internet connections and found several then found and recognized mine. I am now getting radio! I was overwhelmed by the number of stations available. You can select the genre; sports, talk radio, news, music type etc. and then check out the stations that are available in that category (more than I would want to count). After you find a station that you like you can enter it into memory, so that you can instantly go to that station, there are ten presets available. It will display the song title and performer or artist. The display is easy to read, the brightness is adjustable and it displays the time when the unit is off. This will also function as an alarm clock. The remote control is rather small and very easy to use, very helpful if you listen to the radio while in bed.
I am still exploring stations to find the ones that I like the most, just too many to chose from. I will not be using Sirius as I get that on Directv, but it is available. Pandora and Live 365 are also available, I have not been there yet as I have spent most of my time exploring stations that are already available. I live in the Phoenix area and I find the local radio stations on the dial too. I'm having a lot of fun with this radio checking out all that is available----do I have too much time on my hands? I am retired and am finding this a great source of entertainment.
I would like to mention the sound. The speaker is adequate, certainly a lot better than what I listened to when I was a kid. It is ported through the back with the 5" speaker facing the front. I hooked up a pair of my wife's ear-buds---now I get the full stereo and a much richer and full sound. I intend to next attach it to our home sound system---I am just thinking that will be some kick-butt audio.
I would recommend this unit to anyone who really is into a music library and wants unlimited choices in radio and does not want to be concerned about reception problems.
Hope this will be some help to those who hesitate getting more involved in the Internet related field. It was really easy to set up and is providing much enjoyment--I have very limited computer/Internet experience compared to my grand-kids.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
By Old Man
I have the IR2000 for about 18 mos. It is basically unusable now. Talked with customer support and they said to fill out their repair form. Ok--it says to include all of your credit card info, including security code and put in box with the unit(not doing that) and return it for repair $25.. Tried to call them to confirm this and got put in a loop of select sales or technical support. Select either one and it rings for awhile then brings you back to welcome. Cannot understand this, Grace was one of the best. I paid about $150 for this radio about 18 mos. ago and it worked good for awhile and now will not stay connected. I have two other internet radios and they work great. Sent another email about this, now waiting for a reply. Do not purchase a product without support.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Stopped working correctly very quickly
Stopped working correctly very quickly, now it is a nightmare to search for channels. Also weak signal and poor sound.
Published 16 days ago by Andrew
1.0 out of 5 stars
Works intermittently at best
I will not ever buy a GD product again. This unit is poorly designed and performs even worse. The controls are awkward, the stations it picks up random and when it does work it... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Matthew Fleck
1.0 out of 5 stars
After Squeezebox, this thing sucked...
Once you go Squeezebox you never go back... Bought this instead of a squeezebox in a bind, but ended up not gifting it and sent it back. Read more
Published 3 months ago by BrianR
5.0 out of 5 stars
great radio
i used to have sirus radio for the home but prices kept getting higher. with this radio you can listen to internet radio for free and if there are stations you wish to pay for you... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Randolph S. Zimmer
5.0 out of 5 stars
Internet Radio at it's best
Works great. Love the way you program it, and the reception is the best, bar none. WiFi receiving strength is exceptional. Where has this been all my life. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Warren K. Willard
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nice but has issues
I already own an older Grace WiFi and bought this recently as a second radio. My old one works far better. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Ne Guy
5.0 out of 5 stars
It has a few bugs, but we still love this radio alot
This radio is my favorite elctronic. It has brought music into the house. I never use to play music everyday, but now that it is sitting on the kitchen counter, it is so easy to... Read more
Published 5 months ago by L. Correia
4.0 out of 5 stars
This solved my reception problems with am/fm
works great, sounds good, perfect for someone who gets poor reception. I like the remote. The price was fair and the radio looks great.
Published 5 months ago by cathy balestrieri
1.0 out of 5 stars
I really hate this unit!
Customer Video Review
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Published 11 months ago by Mr Book
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nice product, didn't last
Volume control and other functions pooped out after 10 months. Fortunately the warranty extends one year. Bad news is I have to mess around sending it back to Grace, etc. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Neil Gibson
