Customer Reviews

Livio Internet Radio Featuring Pandora (WiFi and Ethernet, Silver)

5 star:		(67)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

There are a lot of buzz about HD radio being the wave of the future. I tried an HD radio, and let me tell you, this internet radio has HD completely beat! I live in an area with poor reception for local stations, and I was tired of having to listen my favorite station through my laptop. Within minutes of taking the radio out of the box, I was connected to my favorite station but then I started exploring. I couldn't believe what I found! The radio connected to my Pandora account seamlessly. I've added stations to Pandora on my laptop and they appear on the radio within seconds! Controls on the radio link to Pandora for "thumbs up" or "down." Fantastic. But the really amazing thing is the intuitive interface that provides access to countless (there must be tens of thousands) of radio stations from around the globe! The interface is so intuitive that the stations can be selected either by region or by genre. All with no buffering! Incredible! For these features, I am deleriously happy with my purchase.

For all of its exceptional qualities, the sound quality is disappointing. With one speaker, the bass is truly lacking (and I don't like heavy bass). The sound doesn't seem "full." There are jacks in the back to connect stereo speakers but I'm not sure how that would work or whether I want to go through the effort. I bought this radio based on a review in the Boston Globe. They mentioned the Squeezebox Boom as having the highest quality sound. Of course, that radio was significantly more expensive and doesn't have Pandora controls. Neither radio has an iPod connection and they don't have back-up batteries. Neither has iTunes tagging (seriously?!).

All in all, I'm very happy. When they develop a radio with audiophile-quality sound, I'll be in line to buy one. Hopefully, wifi/internet radio will really take off. I'd love to have a receiver for my home stereo (since that sends sound throughout the house).

January 2010 edit: I keep this radio in my home office. I still love, love, love it. Recently, I bought a Squeezebox Radio for my bedroom. This edit is to compare the two. I love both of these radios, but for different reasons. The Livio has quality throughout. The two standout features are the controls and the link to Pandora. The radio is so easy to set up and use! The controls are clean and uncluttered. The Pandora Thumbs-Up/Thumbs-down is easier on the Livio than it is on the computer. I also love the interface to find stations by genre. It just works so intuitively for me. On the negative side, it does not have an alarm clock built in. Otherwise, I would have bought one for the bedroom as well.

Now, the Squeezebox Radio: Also easy to set-up. The interface is a bit more daunting than the Livio. More options = more controls to tweak. As other reviewers have mentioned, the presets disappeared the first time the alarm went off. After resetting it, things have been fine. The alarm clock works well. Although the specs don't mention a back-up, I have found that if the router is out of commission, the alarm will still go off, just to a tone from the radio, rather than from the internet radio station. Other people have mentioned that the clock gets too dim at night. Not for me! I am so grateful that my bedroom is now reasonably dark at night! My old clock lit up the joint to the point that I used to cover the clock. Now, it's just right. Plus, the brightness level can be manually adjusted. Funny, someone elses complaint is one of my favorite features. The interface and controls are also more baffling than the Livio. Still OK, I just prefer the very clean controls on the Livio.

As for the sound, this would be a matter of preference. The sound in the Livio is a bit flatter. It seems to be missing some mid-range and higher range. The Squeezebox sound is bright and bold but is lacking in the low range. All in all though, I really like the sound on the Squeezebox. Especially for a small radio. I hope that these comments are helpful to someone looking at these two radios.

if you can connect to the internet, you can use Pandora to create your very own "radio station" which will play the kinds of music you like, (you select it from a huge library of all recorded music, from the earliest days of radio until now). and if you can create a Pandora account, you can not only play your favorite music on your computer, but (and especially if you have a laptop with those tiny, little tinny speakers), you can improve on your computer speakers by buying and using an "internet radio" to listen to the music.

an "internet radio" uses your internet connection (it makes a wireless connection to your main computer or it makes a network connection -- via an ethernet cable connected to your main computer -- to SHARE your internet connection just as another computer might). then, as long as you remain connected to the internet, you can play music (as, for example, from Pandora) as long as you wish. you can use the single (but effective) speaker in the Livio Radio or you can connect the radio to your home music system via a stereo cable.

in addition to Pandora (where you, in effect, create your own radio station -- but may, in the future, have to pay a nominal monthly fee for copyright purposes), there are thousands (yes, thousands) of FREE internet radio stations that you can use this radio to listen to (by connecting you to these stations from all over the world via the internet). the livio comes with a small remote control, an internal "program" for easily setting up the radio to connect to your Pandora account, another for connecting to "Reciva" and all those free internet radio stations, volume controls, mutes, etc.

the radio is well-built and, after a few weeks of using it, i have no complaints whatsoever. it's a delight. one of the best investments i've ever made. oh yes, it also has a headphone jack and when it's powered up but not connected to the internet, it displays the time. all in all, a very well-thought-out device. i listen to it for hours every day while i'm doing my work (and play) on the internet. there are other "internet radios" out there (some cheaper, some more expensive), but i have yet to find a better one.

The Livio radio is a gem. Easy to set up, with great customer service if you need assistance. I bought the radio specifically to use with Pandora, but you can listen to many other stations from around the world, and many genres. The sound is satisfying for me, and I have listened to a broad range of musical styles. The controls are simple and quite intuitive. I like the appearance of the radio very much, kind of modern retro, sleek and unobtrusive.

I love the Pandora concept, so much so that I've been a Pandora One subscriber for some time, more than willing to pay an annual fee to avoid commercials and a few limitations that come with the free version. So, I thought I'd love having Pandora in a box, wirelessly connected to the internet via WiFi, on a shelf in the living room. Unfortunately, I've never been so disappointed in a product as I am with the Livio Radio.

In short, my reasons are: 1) poor sound quality; 2) horribly-written instructions that are guaranteed to waste a lot of your time; 3) clumsy, obtuse interface and a non-intuitive menu system; 4) a remote control which works, at most, within a 9-foot range and which must be pointed directly at the receiver.

True confession, I am an audiophile. But that doesn't mean I expect audiophile quality from a small black box with a relatively small speaker. I have three Tivoli Audio Model Ones for which I paid $99 each and, except for volume limitations, I'm quite happy with. Since the Livio resembles the Model One, I wrongly assumed the audio quality would be similar. The Livio sounds like a cheap clock radio with a wet washcloth draped over the speaker, with dull, muted treble, flat, one-dimensional mid-range, and non-existent bass. Even my wife couldn't stand to listen to it, and she's not an audiophile by any stretch. Some of the problems with the instructions are listed below. Regarding the interface, if it were up to me, I'd refine the menu hierarchy, clarify the choices, indicate where the user should scroll down for further menu items, and find a better way to enter data. I found the remote too small and far too picky about where it's pointed. There is often enough hesitation between pushing the button and getting a response that I found myself pressing several times, sometimes taking me where I didn't intend to go. And the distance limitation is a deal-breaker for anyone who wants to use the radio across a normal-sized room.

If you do buy this thing, do so knowing that the instructions are full of misprints, typos, errors, and inconsistencies. Don't even take the "Super Quick Start" instruction sheet out of the box. Totally worthless and will not get you up and running with Pandora. As for the 22-page User Guide, I could enumerate its errors in a thousand words or so but I won't waste your time. Here are a few things to be aware of, though.
1) On page 2 you'll learn to begin the process of connecting to a wireless network (or a wired network, if you wish). You are instructed to use the remote and the "keyboard on Livio's display". Don't use the remote unless you like frustration, and don't expect the display to show you a qwerty keyboard. The "Menu/Volume" knob on the box itself is much easier and faster to use, although they don't tell you that until you get to page 11.
2) The display will say "Enter Network Key", which means to enter your WiFi password. The interface is clumsy (I'm being kind), but you'll eventually figure it out.
3) You'd think that's all you have to do - wrong. You bought this thing to listen to Pandora, right? Turn to page 8 for further confusion. What they are trying to tell you is to find the Registration Key under the Settings>Register menu (you have to scroll down to "Register", as it's not on the initial menu). Write it down, go to your computer, and access [...]. If you already have a Pandora account, enter the email address you use with Pandora, your password, the "Key" you just wrote down (called Registration ID here), and the rest of the info, including the Radio Serial Number. You did write that down...no? Go back to the radio, select "settings", then "version". The next screen will read <Service Pack> and a collection of numbers and letters will scroll underneath that. Ignore this nonsense and scroll down to the next item, <Serial Number>, and write down the number you see. Now, go back to your computer, enter the serial number and the rest should be self-explanatory. Be warned, however, that anywhere along the way, your Livio might say "error receiving key", or you might get stuck in the serial number area, unable to return to the menu (reboot by unplugging the radio).

A couple of other things. Don't follow the diagram on page 14 if you want to connect your Livio to your stereo system. The RCA adapter should be plugged into "Stereo Line Out", not "Aux In". Sometimes the thing will tell you "No Stations Found", even though you're connected to Pandora and listening to one of your stations. Try not to get irritated when confronted with terms like Inter-net, micro-waves, sup-ported, manufacture's (for manufacturer's), or when they advise you to turn the volume knob to the left for lower volume, right for increased volume (who knew?).

This thing isn't worth $49, much less $149. I urge you to wait for an improved model or an all-new one from another manufacturer. And pray that Tim Westergren (founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Pandora) learns from this mistake and ensures that, in the future, the quality of any product with the Pandora name on it equals the quality of his brainchild.

I have been using a Livio Radio in a fairly large kitchen for a few months. I like the fact that it can fill a room with sound and reminds me of my old wave radio that can do the same thing. The user interface is pretty simple use to find radio stations. Everyone in the family has found a few stations they like that can be re-tuned to easily from the favorites list. The audio quality is clear and crisp with a decent bass but not over powering which is just fine for what I wanted the radio to do (fill a room with sound). I did find the multiple default LCD brightness settings to bright and had to dim them down (off, on, and sleep). The simple large font clock when the radio is "off" is a nice touch. Overall the unit is solid and the case looks to be made out of pressed wood or MDF which I guess is why it has pretty good sound for a mono speaker (there are stereo jacks in the back if you don't care for mono). If you turn the volume up on the radio it doesn't vibrate or shake indicating to me the radio was designed right. The remote control has a lot of functionality on it but all I really use that for is turning the volume up or down. Out of all the stand alone WiFi internet radios out there, this one seems to be the right mix of quality vs. price.

For longer than I care to remember, I enjoyed listening to world radio and have spent a moderate fortune on short wave radios. I've been interested in and investigating internet radio for a couple of years and I've been a now and then user of Pandora; so when Amazon featured a special for Livio Internet Radio with Pandora, I read some reviews and placed an order.

Dofuss that I am, I took the radio out of the box and was disappointed that it had a "blue" face rather than the neutral one featured on the box - that aside, I read the moderately illuminating booklet, plugged the thing in and it pretty well set it self up and after my adding the serial number to my Pandora account (viacomputer) I was listening to Pandora. The internet radio station guide took some experimenting and the remote seemed to be lazy in communicating with the radio; yet within ten minutes I had a range of stations loaded.

Back to the "dofuss"...it was after listening for a few hours that I realized that the blue face I complained about (to myself) when I opened the box was really the protective seal! So I removed it and not only was the neutral face there but the remote was no longer sluggish!

I am incredibly pleased with this purchase - I am wallowing in the world's sounds and know that Pandora is there for personal support.

If you're tired of over the air radio's limited playlists, lack of variety, endless commercials, and spotty reception. If you don't want to pay a monthly subscription for satellite radio or if you want to tune in the world without the drawbacks to shortwave then you need Internet radio. With thousands of choices you will find the content that fits your needs. While you can listen on your computer a better choice is WIFI radio. I chose the Livio Radio with Pandora.

First, why 4 stars and not 5? Because initial set up is poorly documented and confusing. However their customer service was helpful and once initial set up was completed I've had no problems.

The Livio radio is well made. It looks like a quality table radio and has a heavy solid feel. The black case is made of wood with a matte finish to minimize fingerprints and smudges. The face is white with a heavy clear plastic bezel overlaying the graphics. I find the overall effect attractive.

The left side of the face is dominated by the speaker which is protected by a metal mesh grill. It looks to be a 3 1/2 inch cone. More about sound quality later. The blue to purple display is in the top right corner. The brightness is adjustable separately in each of its different modes, active, inactive and standby. When the radio is off it displays the time with large easily read numbers in either 12 or 24 hour format. It receives its time from the internet and looks to me to be as accurate as my radio controlled "atomic" clock. It has an alarm function but oddly enough does not have a sleep or timer off mode. When the radio is on the display shows the station playing, song or program if supplied by station, time and signal strength. I find it hard to read all this when very far from the radio. Below the display are six small buttons. Three of which are designed with Pandora in mind, thumbs up, down, and skip. The other three are power, fav and back. The back and fav buttons are used in conjunction with the large knob which shares the front. This large knob is a a combination device used for volume, tuning, and navigating the menus. The last item on the front is a headphone jack.

The back of the radio has inputs for the power supply, stereo out, aux in, and ethernet. There is no battery option so this can not be classified a portable. The stereo out is a mini plug jack but they thoughtfully provide a mini plug to RCA connector adapter which makes hooking this up to you stereo a snap. The stereo out volume is not controlled by the volume knob on the front. Also you can still listen through the built in speaker if you have your radio hooked up to a stereo. I've not used the ethernet as my wireless works quite well. They do supply an ethernet cable if you want or need to go that route. With the aux in you can listen to your MP3 player, Cd's or other devices through the Livio.

The Livio comes with a small remote from which you can access all of the functions of the radio with the addition of 5 presets. I must say that it doesn't seem to be very strong in that you need to be pretty much in front of the radio and not too far away for the remote to work.

I find the sound quality acceptable given the limitations of a small speaker. It does seem to be tuned more for the spoken word rather then music. It reminds me of the sound one would get from a small table radio which is what it is. As I use this primarily for listening to music I connected a set of inexpensive Creative Inspire T3100 speakers. These are computer speakers with a small sub woofer. This dramatically improved the sound. I've hooked up a different WIFI radio to the same speakers without as good of a result. That unit had an underlying hum that made listening tiresome. I hear none of that from the Livio. In all for about $200 (radio and speakers) I have a compact sound system that sounds good and can tune in the world.

This is my second WiFi or internet radio. My first is the Phoenix Com One that I purchased several years ago from CompUSA when they went out of business. Why did I buy a second radio when the first is working well? Two reasons, first I wanted to be able to listen to Pandora. Secondly the portal from which I receive stations for the Phoenix is proprietary to that company. Since I bought that radio it seems that they have abandoned the product. While they are keeping the portal up I'm worried that eventually my radio will be orphaned and I'll be left with a funny looking brick. The Livio's portal is Reciva. As several manufacturers use this portal I feel more secure that I'll have content for years to come. The last I heard Reciva has around 16,000 stations registered. Fortunately they are separated by genre, country of origin, etc. They can also be searched for by keyword. All this can be done on the Livio without the need of a computer Navigating the menus and searching for stations is pretty intuitive using the main knob and the other three buttons but I find it easier to do so from Reciva's web site. Once you have found stations that you like you can make them a favorite and quickly recall them using the fav button. From the Reciva site you can even organize them into folders. As mentioned before you can assign five presets on the remote. These presets can be either radio stations or your Pandora stations. Favorites can not be Pandora stations. That's ok though as Pandora has its own dedicated menu.

I gave the Livio radio 4 stars. It could have been 5 except for the initial set up. As I've said I own a different brand and I read a lot of reviews and specs for several others. The Livio was my choice for a replacement. Not the cheapest but a good value. As these devices are almost impossible to find in a brick and mortar store and harder yet to compare side by side I hope this review is helpful.

I've had this radio a couple of months now. Livio just pushed through a firmware update and one of the changes was the addition of a sleep timer. Just thought you should know.

Very poorly engineered, hardware and software wise. The speaker itself is actually not that bad and the wood case is solid. But, the following obvious mistakes killed the sound:

The seal between the seat and speaker mount is not firm.

The aluminum heat-sink reflects badly to the speaker.

The reflective tube is too close to the speaker, reflecting high instead of low frequency.

The back panel is thin metal, easy to vibrate and reflect too.

The front panel do not have good seal.

Knowing above, it is then easy to improve the sound with some simple diy. Basically, seal well the speaker mount and front panel with some sticky foam to prevent sound leakage, apply some fluffy patches to the metal surfaces to avoid unwanted vibration and reflection and, the most important, use a dish-wash foam to block the tube and cover the large plastic surface.

After I did the mods, I could not believe my ears, the difference is day and night. Before, it was a pain to listen, now it is very enjoyable, rich and lush.

The designer apparently does not know much about audio, why he did not ask an audio guy to take a look on his design to avoid those very basic flaws? Where is the CEO?

If you're interested in the mods and the new sound, you may search youtube for "modify livio internet radio for much better sound".

I purchased this radio, and returned it after it hung when the favorites list was full. Talking with a company representative, I then tried the NPR radio (same box and basic innards), with a promised (but so far unavailable) software upgrade to the full features of this radio. The NPR radio worked for a short while, and then frequently reaches a hung state requiring reset to the factory default software and starting over. Totally unsatisfactory -- and with a one-month warranty, no easy reprieve.

This is the second Internet Radio I bought (the first was a Grace IR200; I'll put the review up soon) and the second one I returned. Please Read on for why...

First, despite other reviews, I found this radio to be completely serviceable and easy to set up and use. There are YouTube videos showing how if you can't figure it out from the instruction manual (which is pretty poor). The people at Livio are great and were as helpful as they could be, except when it came for the reason for my return (below).

I like the look of the radio: it has a kind of 'retro' look that fits in almost anywhere. Set-up was a snap, but this could be because I had set a similar one up before. Menu navigation is a little tricky and not intuitive, but once you set it up who cares? You never have to deal with that again. Finding stations is easy, and the Pandora part of the radio is killer! Remote control (provided) works great but is small so keep an eye on it. If you simply want a simple radio to listen to Pandora mostly and some other stations for your desk THIS IS THE RADIO FOR YOU! The two physical complaints I had about it were these: the sound, just as people reported, is weak and tinny. I did not try to hook up external speakers (it comes with a Y-out splitter, unexpected and welcomed) so one might be able to overcome this. The second physical complaint was the readout: it seemed kind of "fuzzy" (not as crisp as I expected). Neither was a deal breaker. Good radio, does almost all I wanted...

EXCEPT (and this is not a Livio problem, rather a Reciva problem) it does NOT get all the stations it is supposed to. Let me explain: I live in a marginal AM radio area (kind of in a bowl surrounded by mountains) with an neighborhood association that does not allow external antennas. When I bought this it was for my wife, who has four AM stations she likes to listen to in the morning and sometimes at night, both of which are our poorest reception times. I researched this a lot and found that the Reciva powered radios did indeed get all the stations she wanted, PLUS Pandora, which was a bonus. Imagine my surprise when I found I could NOT get two of them, despite them being on the Reciva (Reciva.com) list. I changed routers, called companies, emailed Reciva (whom I never heard back from), and even the radio stations (waste of time) and got no help (did this over the course of two months!). Finally, I posted in one of the Reciva forums on the web and found my answer: the two stations that I could not get that I really wanted code their streams using an AAC+ codec, which Reciva powered radios CANNOT yet deal with (despite them being on their approved list). Sadly, I packed the radio up and sent it back.

IN SUMMARY: Good radio, does what it says; great for Pandora. If you want to listen to radio stations be sure they do not use AAC+ to code their streams because you will NOT be able to listen to them (and, BTW, just because you can listen to them on your computer does not mean they will work on your radio!). If this radio were less expensive I would have kept it for myself and used it in my office, but it was too much for me to settle.