Very happy with this purchase. Works even better than I expected.
Connecting it to my wireless network was a breeze. Well, using a single knob to enter my very long network key into the radio was maybe not quite a breeze, but you only do it once. Other than that it was a breeze.
The radio came with a bunch of chinese radio stations set. That was amusing for about 30 seconds. Cleaning them out and setting up something more to my tastes went quickly. There are way more choices out there than most people will have the time to explore. Fortunately it's easy to quickly find something that you'll like. And with access to Pandora (which requires extra steps (including setting up a free account with Grace Reciva (see below))) you can create stations that are tailored to your tastes.
Creating my free account on Grace Reciva to enable "premium" features was a challenge. The website didn't seem to be working too well when I first tried. Lots of "Oops, something seems to have gone wrong and we are working on it" type of messages. I tried later and it went a lot smoother. Linking my Pandora account to the radio was easy (once Reciva started working). Took less than an hour to get everything set up, with most of that time being waiting for Reciva to get their act together.
The sound of the radio is what you would expect from a radio. It won't thump your chest and shake your house. However if you want that sort of performance you can hook it up to your stereo system or a set of powered speakers with volume limited only by the power of what you hooked up. I hooked up a powered speaker system with a subwoofer that I had laying around from a past computer system. Works great.
Radio has pretty good range, but performance will depend on the quality of your wireless router.
I would recommend this unit to friends and family.
Grace Digital GDI-IR2550P Pandora Wi-Fi Internet RadioThis is the first internet radio I have bought so I have nothing to compare this too but its a solid little radio. It was a little bit of a hassle setting it up, namely with syncing it up to my SIRIUS account but I got it working eventually. The sound quality is average which is fine for me considering I use it for SIRIUS talk mainly. The controls and menu are good. It only took a few minutes to figure everything out. I only had a few problems, one being the weight of the radio. It seems to be a little to light. You push the big knob in to select and when I push it in I have to hold the radio with my other hand to keep it from sliding (Small complaint, not a huge deal). Also the remote that comes with it is kind of trash. It seems to work really when every it wants, I am not sure if its just mine of what but it got annoying fast. Luckily when you create a Pandora playlist or select a station from SIRIUS or any other internet radio station it automatically saves. So the next time you turn it on it loads right up. My last complaint is with the Grace Digital customer service. When having problems with SIRIUS they had no real answers. In fact I called a SIRIUS rep and a lady helped me get it working and she has no affiliation or experience with Grace Digital. All in all its a solid radio with an easy to navigate menu, that puts out adequate sound. If your in the market for an internet radio this could be a nice choice.
This radio is not ready for prime time. I bought this with the purpose of replacing a clock radio on my nightstand. This radio is not suitable for that because the time of day display is too small, and the color and brightness of the display screen (even when adjusted) create a lack of contrast with the screen font numbers, making it pretty much unreadable. Also, the sleep timer setting is buried about three levels deep in the menu - there should be a button to push to activate this function to be set.
Grace should be embarrassed about the lame remote control included with this radio. Even when carefully used and aimed, it fails to function predictably. In fact, when using the remote to teach a learning remote the IR commands, under controlled conditions, about 1/3 of the buttons had to tried and retried to be learned - this, under controlled conditions, about 2 inches apart.
Worst of all for me, the radio failed to connect to and play a specific internet radio stream that I wanted. I had been checking the Grace web site and the Reciva site for several weeks before purchase, and the few days after my radio arrived, and the stream was noted as `passed the daily test'. Apparently, the "test" doesn't test real life Grace radios to see if they connect. Tech support had no rational explanation for this anomaly. (The station stream works perfectly in WinAmp, iTunes and on the SoundBridge Radio, however).
This could be a decent radio for some situations, but for none of mine. It's attractive (though so light in weight that you have to use two hands to use any buttons) and sounds ok for a one speaker radio. The Reciva web site is somewhat clunky and generates numerous security pop up boxes to dismiss because of careless programming. Using the web site/menu features, you can set up your radio menu to id a lot of radio stations that you can easily switch to - if they actually work, of course. Pandora is a great music service.
I am usually more careful in my research and shopping.
UPDATE at bottom....
I had reservations about ordering this radio... I am a huge Pandora fan. If you want a desktop solution for training Pandora, this Radio is the best available option on the market at this time. (3/4/11) As others have pointed out, the quality of the radio is mediocre at best....that is not what you are paying for. The radio is really akin to a mini internet wifi radio capture device, vs. a high quality sounding radio.
The beauty of the 2550 Grace WiFi radio is the on-board (radio and remote control) "thumbs up / thumbs down" training of Pandora. I am impressed with Pandoras ability to build you a custom radio station with your constant input. This radio simplifies and expedites the training process. At first I was running Pandora on my smart phone, but Android would get bogged down all the time. Not good... next I tried running Pandora on my PC, but again, it would bog down the pc a bit, and also interfere with other sounds that wanted to use the pc speakers... I finally bit the bullet and went with the 2550, and so far, it works... sure you gotta read the manual to set it up, you have to know a little bit about wifi, but there is Grace customer support, which did answer the phone promptly and helped me through one small issue.
Agreed with other posters, the remote is a bit lame, a tiny credit card type remote, with those clicky buttons..... close proximity and line of sight is important if you want success... if you respect that limitation, it seems to work fine. If you want good high quality sound, I would suggest a powered speaker set to go along with the 2550...if sound quality and volume is not very important, the sound of this radio may suffice as is, you can always upgrade the sound after you try it. Standard 3.5mm headset jack.
All products must be evaluated based on their performance vs. price. In that regard, the 2550 fits a small niche, those who want a primarily pandora based internet radio who desires the training tools close to them, i.e. to continually train your Pandora radio stations. If that is not the case, there is many Internet radios available with much higher quality, and of course higher prices.
For those who do not have great FM radio reception in your area, one of the nice features of internet radio is... you can output from the Pandora radio to an FM transmitter...I am using one on Amazon from Fail Safe Electronics, about $120. You broadcast the output of the 2550 into the transmitter, and transmit a user settable FM signal throughout your house, now all your radios in your entire house, backyard, garage, etc. will tune into the FM station you are transmitting on. This makes for a fabulous set-up to have great music wherever you are in the house, not just in the single location where the Pandora 2550 radio resides.
I would have preferred an LCD screen, vs. the scrolling digital screen. Not a deal breaker, but the digital screen with all the details and pictures in a large clear screen is much more desirable IMO. Of course it would probably add $50 to the price tag. I hope in the future Grace offers this... internet radio is still at its infancy, so lots of new products constantly emerging... So if its Pandora you are after, I would give this 5 stars, but as an internet radio, I gave it 4 stars.
UPDATE: I had to return this Grace radio... as others have pointed out, the radio is quirky, (IMO slightly defective) the remote is "hit or miss", IMO, its not ready for prime time... constantly fetching for data on a wide-open network. I confirmed later this was not a network problem. I ordered the Livio Pandora Radio, and it performed flawlessl. It is a much superior Pandora radio, here are the benefits after using them side by side...
1) Livio remote control although similar to Grace remote works excellent, fast reaction time...
2) Data fetching seems way faster, maybe more RAM, better buffering, not sure, but side by side the Livio never is choking like the Grace..
3) Livio has hardwire ethernet connection in the rear, I much prefer hardwire connection when possible, but WIFI is an option. There is two Livo models, only one has ethernet connection.
4) Livio gives you a slightly better display...and most importantly, the Livio display shows the "thumbs up" when a song comes on that you had previously awarded a thumbs up. Grace does not show this icon while song is playing, - a major shortcoming IMO, as you are often redundantly applying thumbs up to previously awarded songs - cause you aren't sure if you had previously awarded the song a thumbs up.... all other versions of Pandora have this, (PC, Smart Phone app, etc) Grace missed the boat on this one, a major oversight IMO, specially when using at work all day. Much less hassle knowing by a glance...
5) Livio has rear audio output, which does not kill the sound of the radio. On front is headphone jack which will kill radio sound. This is very useful as if you want to broadcast the audio via FM transmitter throughout the house, you do NOT need to buy another radio in the room the Livio is in. With the Grace, you have one headphone jack, it kills the sound of the radio, which was poor anyway...which brings me to final strong Livio point ...
6) Livio radio sound is much superior. Not even close, its a better radio... not the greatest in the world, but considering its price, its very good....good enough where the avg. person would accept it when used at relatively med. to low volume. This alone makes the unit very cost effective as you don't end up spending more money on speakers or 2nd higher quality sound output.
So when comparing the two, it seems Grace 2550 Pandora radio really missed a lot of very useful features which Livio includes. Thanks to Amazons liberal return policy, I now have a superior product.
Hope this review helps others wandering into internet dedicated radios, specifically Pandora radios.... overall, I am still very impressed with the entire concept, and now that the Livio has performed so well, glad I went through the hassle of getting all this right... there is nothing like a custom radio station that suits your tastes... - Tabletop Radio - Wireless Music - Pandora - Wifi Radio'
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Wifi Radio - wireless music, pandora
pandora Wifi Radio - wireless music, pandora
