Okay so I received the Internet Radio finally, the Blizzard of 2016 slowed it's delivery down by 5 days.
What did I purchase? The Grace Digital model called the Encore (GDI-IRC7505) in the wood grain finish.
My review after having it only for 5 hours:
First my impressions of the device from a physical point of view. I purchased the wood grain finish which means everything is brown, the conttrols are dark brown, the front grill is a light tan. The product has a hefty weight to it, likely all speaker weight. I plan to open the case this weekend to check it out. There is a nice color screen which makes this very pleasing to the eye. There is a headphone jack on the front and a hole for the IR sensor, but the hole is just an open hole, no plastic cover. I'd like to have seen a red plastic piece filling in the hole and I may modify my unit just to make it look right. If I do modify it, I'll take a lot of photos and post them if desired. The bottom feet are two rails across the bottom of the case and appear to be plastic but look like wood, but they really are not visible so no problem. There is a nice and very real power switch on the rear of the cabinet, a great feature vice pulling the Wall-Wort cord out of the wall or the box. The Wall-Wort is fairly small so it won't consume much space. There are RCA audio jacks for both input and output as well as a USB connector but no Ethernet port, you must use a USB to Ethernet adapter (not provided) if you need to be hardwired and I didn't see a way to disable the WiFi signal, but then again I didn't hook up a USB to Ethernet adapter either.
Setup: When you first plug the box in it will boot up and you need to setup the wifi. I didn't use the included manual, it was pretty evident what needed to be done and how to scan for WiFi networks and enter the password. I did notice that the device didn't detect my 5GHz network AP, not a big deal for 99% of the world. Once the internet is accessible I was asked to perform a firmware update. I will admit that my Sophos firewall was blocking the update but I created a rule to allow the Internet Radio full access to the internet which solved the problem. Once that was all done there are other items to setup such as the clock, your location (used for local stations) and lastly was setting up an account on the Grace Digital website to configure the Pandora and it also offers generally an easier way to add stations from anywhere in the world.
Usage: Read the user manual and it will save you some time but I just fiddled with it and figured most of it out on my own. The knobs all had smooth operation, the buttons reminded me of old harsh clicking keys but they worked fine and I can't subtract for that alone. When tuning in a station, it takes a few seconds depending on the server before the music plays, but seriously, it was the server causing the delay as many stations popped up almost instantly. The big know does probably 90% of the controlling and both knows not only rotate but they are push buttons as well. The big color screen was fantastic and most of the stations also displayed the station graphic logo and the song information. The screen dims in brightness (user defined) when you have left the device alone. The included remote control is a nice size and has easy to use buttons however I didn't like that there were no left or right arrows, it's just up or down and it's just odd to control the screen that way. There is an alarm clock on this thing too but I didn't evaluate it yet.
Audio Quality: I'm an audiophile and I knew what I was getting into before I purchased this device because Internet Radio isn't high quality source material in the first place. There is an adjustment for both Treble and Bass however I'm hoping that a software update comes out to add a few more bands of adjustment, 5 bands would be nice. Hummm, I wonder if I could tweak the code, that is another topic. Anyway for my tastes I set the Bass and Treble setting a +12 (there are 14 steps in each direction -14 to +14) and that seemed to be okay for general music. This device plays a lot of file formats and I played a few FLAC files being streamed from Plex without issue but the audio was not up to my audiophile standards, but for what this device will be used for, it's fine. This is not just a speaker selection issue, I plugged in some good headphones and the audio amp is just crap. Even setting for a flat response curve was poor with the headphones. Stereo separation didn't really exist because the front speakers are too close together but it's in a single small cabinet so that it the price you pay for the small footprint. So if you are an audiophile and you are expecting something top notch, keep looking and let me know when you find it because I'd be interested myself.
What I didn't like:
1. Required to have an account at Grace Digital to configure Pandora or any other Radio Services. I don't trust that some businesses will be around for the long-haul in this digital age however Grace Digital has been around for a while.
2. The open hole over the IR receiver.
3. The remote control didn't have left/right arrow buttons.
What I liked:
1. Easy to use, can control everything from the controls on the box (don't need a smart phone to operate!).
2. Can tune in so many stations.
3. Good sound for what it is.
4. Very fair price providing it doesn't break in a year.
5. The Grace Digital web account was easy to establish and is very helpful in adding stations to your system.
6. My father moved in with me a few months ago from across the country and he can now listen to his radio stations. He now wants one of these for himself.
Summary:
For my 5 hours of review, if you are looking for a dedicated Internet Radio with reasonable sound quality, great ease of use, and for a fair price, this is the ticket. As of right now, I'm very please I purchased this device.
Sorry the review was quickly typed in, I got to run so if anyone has questions, I'm very willing to answer them.
