AR ARIR200 Tabletop Wi-Fi Internet Radio with Alarm (Black)

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Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 9.2 x 6 inches ; 3.9 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B001PPVXPK
• Item model number: ARIR200
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #27,603 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 1, 2009

Product Description

Product Description

Acoustic Research introduces the next generation of audio entertainment with the ARIR200 Wi-Fi internet and AM/FM radio. The ARIR200 gives you access to thousands of global music and talk stations with its built-in Wi-Fi and Ethernet connectivity. It features a clock radio with alarm functions that allow you to wake to your favorite music or radio stations. Activate your free account with Slacker Personal Radio to access millions of tracks, hundreds of genre stations and over 10,000 artist stations. Slacker displays the next upcoming artist and provides the ability to pause or skip at any time. Other free accounts include Personal Portal and WeatherBug to receive local weather forecasts and emergency alerts. Preset six of your favorite stations per source into the radio so that you can save and retrieve your favorite stations with the push of a button. You can connect your mp3 player or flash drive into the USB connection to listen to your personal music files or save up to 10-hours of music onto the 512MB internal memory.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It has potential, March 14, 2009

By	D. Fisher (Southeast U.S.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This radio is the same as the RCA Infinite Radio RIR200 which Amazon stopped carrying in favor of this Acoustic Research ARIR200, so I encourage anyone who is thinking about buying this products to ALSO read the reviews at the following link:

RCA Infinite Radio RIR200 Internet Radio with Wifi Connectivity and Slacker Personal Radio

In case the link does not work, put this number (a product number) into the search box: B0016OK5O0 (cut and paste because those are both O's and zeros). You can also look at the reviews for the RIR205 which is the same unit but it also includes a basic router for those who want a simple way to hook up their unit to the internet. Search for B0016OI1BY to get info on the RIR205

Some of the issues brought up in those reviews are still valid (e.g. the odd ergonomics of the controls, too bright illumination, etc.) and some issues have been fixed by firmware updates. Unfortunately, sometimes when they fix one issue in the firmware they seem to also "break" another.

I give AR/RCA credit that they are at least supporting the product with firmware updates (as of 3/2009 they have released a version during 12/2008 and 3/2009). Right now, in my experience the product is a bit buggy with the current version of the firmware and I have been experiencing some random crashes where it either locks up or reboots itself. This is a real pain because it loses the security key for the WiFi when this happens and thus it has to be reentered. There is also a base level of white noise through the speakers, even after turning the radio off, that I find annoying (hint: after going standby, turn the volume dial all the way down and it will disappear with a pffft - then spin the volume back up to the normal position so that you have volume the next time you turn the radio portion on). This unit is better than the iLuv unit I reviewed elsewhere and could be quite good if they ever get a good version of the firmware going.

One of the best resources for information on these radios is the message archives at the following group at Google groups: Acoustic Research ARIRC200 Internet Radio . Just do a search at Google Groups and you should find the group (I don't think Amazon will let me include the link, but here goes: http://groups.google.com/group/acoustic-research-arirc200-internet-radio?hl=en )

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Love it even though it's not perfect, April 2, 2009

By	D. Hentze (United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

My wife bought me this for my birthday. She probably wishes she didn't. I keep her up at night as I go through all the internet stations each evening. I guess you could say this is the "world's worst alarm clock". I lose at least an hour's sleep each night, playing with the RIR200. It may soon replace my XM radio as my favorite radio. Seriously, the RIR200 is just awesome. Setup is fairly simple. You setup an account online (free), which takes about 5 minutes. You can customize some favorite options if you like. You use your Slacker password if you have one, and the radio will automatically log into Slacker. A free 4 year subscription to WeatherBug is included for instant weather and alerts. After you setup online, you turn on the RIR200 and follow the quick setup guide. Connecting to my WEP wireless network was no problem, and I had the radio up and running in a few minutes. All in all, I just love the RIR200. It performs well. The sound is very good, but by no means Hi-fidelity. If I had to say a negative thing about it, the AM and FM performance is nothing special. No big deal because I'll probably never ever listen to them on this radio anyway. Also, I wish the lowest volume setting wasn't as loud as it is. It's a little loud when trying to fall asleep. The radio isn't perfect , and does have its bugs. None of which I consider major. I haven't had any major issues. The firmware is updated in occasion. The most recent update added access to MP3Tunes, and fixed many of the previous bugs. It also introduced a few more, but they're working on fixing them too. If they get all the bugs out, I'd easily give it 5 stars.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Works as advertised, and great price, April 12, 2009

By	Al I. (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

I bought this as a second internet radio, mostly because it is pretty inexpensive compared to other radios. (My other is a Squeezebox Boom, which cost ~ $250.) At $90-$100, the AR Infinite Radio is a steal. It's kind of small, and has smallish speakers. There's no remote, either. But, the device works as advertised, and it's hard to remember why other companies charge twice as much for an internet radio device. It was very easy to get it on my WPK2-protected wifi network, search for my favorite stations, and away we go. This radio is great for my office.