Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Listen to the world without a subscription fee!, March 24, 2009
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
This little internet radio device is jumping-up-and-down cool! Five minutes after opening the box I was listening to a newscast from France (in French, course) then jazz from Australia, rock from Iceland and later opera and classical music from Italy. How cool is that?
The device doesn't have any speakers of it's own, but comes with and RCA jack that you connect to your receiver, TV, boom box or even a little clock radio. There's an adapter included with a smaller plug for the later. There's a little LCD screen that you operate with a small remote control that's also included. The first thing I did after I connected it to my receiver was to turn it on and go through the menu and set the date and time and hook up to my home WiFi network. It came with a manual which is very well written and understandable, but I didn't even need it. When I clicked on "Network" the name of my WiFi network popped up, I selected it in the menu, entered the password, and it connected in about 15 seconds and it was ready to go. It was super easy. And since it uses Wi-Fi to connect, you don't need a computer. This goes directly to your receiver.
The IRA is classy looking, even though it's made of plastic. I posted some photos of it. I set mine of top of the Blu-ray player in my stereo cabinet. The display screen is easy to read and the menus easy to navigate. You can search by country, genre of music, stations, or new or popular stations. There is an automatic software update feature through the Wi-Fi network or you can check yourself to see if there are any updates available. It also has volume control on the remote.
The sound is crystal clear and since I connected it to our home theater system, I could hear the bass booming out through the subwoofer and music through all the speakers. I also tried it with the adapter, plugged into a little clock radio and that worked fine too. Connected to the receiver the stations I've listened to so far were CD quality. I could imagine this at a Caribbean themed party, playing reggae music directly from that part of the world, or a romantic French dinner with music from France. No matter what your taste in music, there is something here for everyone. And if you're learning a foreign language, what better way than to listen to a newscast from that country?
I love this thing! It's a great addition to our home entertainment system.
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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Like the functions but a couple of issues. , March 24, 2009
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I setup the unit and connected it to my stereo. Now it was time to connect it to my wireless network. Wait, the remote doesn't seem to be working. Wonder if its DOA or battery not connected. Fast forward several minutes later and I notice that something seems backwards on the remote. With the remote in my hand I press the menu buttons to try and navigate the menu system but no response. Then I realize that the buttons seem backwards as the infrared window is pointing back to me when I have the remote correctly in my hand. Now I'm wondering if the top of the remote was installed backwards. I take a gamble and start pealing back the top of the remote (basically a sticky top with metal connectors that connect to the board to engage the buttons.) Thats when I realize that yes, the top of the remote was put on backwards and once I pealed it off and turned it around and got it to stick back on correctly the remote now works. Just a quality control issue at the factory so hopefully not something many will see but the Myine company should make note in case its happening to others.
Once I got the remote working all was well, i could navigate the unit and set it up on my wireless network. It found the different radio stations and it played over my stereo. Easy to setup if you are familiar with your typical wireless network setup. One thing I think they should change is that when you want to manually enter in IP address information etc you have to hit the button on the remote once for each ip number you want to move up or down. When you are in the 192.168 range this can get old. They need to change it so when you hold down the up or down button on the remote it scrolls through the numbers rather than having to hit it each time you want to move up and down.
One other item of note that I haven't figured out yet. I have a number of wireless and wired devices on my home network. I notice that once I turn on the Myine radio I see activity on all my wired adaptors, as if the Myine is broadcasting something across all IP's on the network. I thought it might be my router so I hooked up another router and still see activity on other network adaptors when I turn the Myine on. Will have to do some research to see what its broadcasting and why. No reason for it to broadcast something out to all devices as it just pulls a stream from the internet to the device.
For these reasons I can only give it a 3. Granted its a first version and it can be updated via the internet so maybe the vendor will resolve some of these issues. As for the device itself, it does what its intended for and it allows me to cancel my XM Radio that I had at home as this device offers the same quality and variety in music in my mind.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good but a few issues - TechTalk Product Review, September 18, 2009
The press release from Myine Electronics states "Myine's Ira Wireless Internet Radio is designed to harness the universe of radio broadcasts available on the Internet and to allow user enjoyment anywhere a wireless internet connection, a speaker system and power sources are available." And that pretty well sums it up - and it does a great job at it too!
The general point of the unit is to not only give you access to the world of internet streaming radio and podcasts, but to do it easily, quickly, and without having to know a whole lot about what's going on with your network or connections. "There is a lack of good products available for people who are not tech savvy or just busy," said Jake Sigal, Principal and Founder of Myine Electronics. "Ira doesn't have any unnecessary bells and whistles, and sets up automatically right out of the box without a computer. We believe that with potentially confusing electronics, less is more."
When you first break the Ira out of the box, you'll see that it comes with the unit itself, a power cable, and a remote. It relies on WiFi being available to access the internet, and this is the first caution I would give potential buyers - make sure you have WiFi in your home, and that it is strong in the area you intend to put the Ira. The Ira seems very sensitive to interference and distance, so don't expect it to work as consistently and quickly as your laptop card does.
After plugging it in to the power and a set of speakers or a receiver, the next thing you'll need to do is configure it to access that WiFi broadcast. Although the Ira is geared towards `low-tech' users, it will definitely take some knowledge of networking and network configuration (plus a fair amount of patience) if you have any security enabled. Although it picks up the SSID if you are broadcasting that, and will tell you what type of security or encryption protocol, you'll need to be able to enter the passcode. If this is a WEP secure connection, this means you'll need to use the arrows on the remote and a pseudo keyboard on the screen to plunk out the 16 digits/characters/symbols - and unfortunately the Ira will not save incorrect configurations meaning you'll have to do it all again if you get one of the numbers wrong! It saves it if you get it right, so this may not be a big deal, particularly once you're past it.
Once you've got it all set up, you really start seeing the value and power of this unit. Users can filter by location or genre, and there are literally thousands of stations available. There are you're your typical shoutcast internet only stations, but also streaming live stations from around the globe. You've also got access to podcasts (including yours truly) and audio presentations, though you may find some of the more obscure ones missing. Myine selects the podcasts and stations that it will display through some mechanism that wasn't revealed to me. They did add podcasts that I requested (e.g., TechTalk on WRLR) without any questions or hesitation however, so I don't see this as a big hit.
If you're familiar at all with listening to radio or streaming audio on your laptop or desktop, you'll "get" this product immediately. What's really neat about it for me is how portable it is - I can listen to tunes up in my bedroom, then take the little unit downstairs to our porch outside, plug it into some speakers there and keep listening - without having to drag my laptop with it's rather junky soundcard all over the place! It's even small enough to throw in a jacket pocket and take to someone else's house to show off.
One area for future development and a feature that I really missed on the Ira is the lack of song information. Most stations broadcast the track and artist info with the song, but oddly the Ira unit does not display it. You can get a lot of other streaming and audio info, just nothing about the current track playing. The Ira software does have the capability to get updated over the wifi connection you use, so I would expect to see this fixed in a later release.
Overall Rating - 3 out of 5 Chips. It's a fantastic little product and idea, with portability and ease-of-use in the forefront of internet connected audio players (plus the benefit of not paying for XM or other similar options!). The lack of song tagging and weak reception strength make it just a little tougher to use than it should be however, and drops it down a notch. The price point is a touch high but still definitely within reach at around $130.
For more great topics and reviews like this, check out the weekly TechTalk show on WRLR 98.3 FM in Chicago, or listen anytime via iTunes or at our website:
techtalk.wrlr.fm
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