We have found three Internet Radios worth considering so far. They all do essentially the same thing, but with varying facilities and ease-of-use. It's worth sorting out a couple of basic points first. To use these radios, you need ADSL/Broadband installed and you also need WiFi, although the Roberts & Tangent can also use a standard RJ45 wired network socket.

Essentially, what they do is communicate directly with a website which is linked to the chip-set used within the radio. So you don't need a computer switched on (or even installed), so long as your ADSL router has already been set up and is switched on. When you turn the radio on for the first time, it will need to be set up for your own router (network name, password, WEP key, etc), but you should only need to do this once.

Once your own local connection is sorted, the radio will then link to its chip's website and download the existing station lists. You also use the website to register the radio (using its serial number and other details) and to add your own 'Favourites' (including any stations or streams that you like but which aren't already listed). These will then show up on your radio the next time you switch it on at the mains. Clever, innit? The two 'receiver chip' systems used are Reciva Radio and Frontier Silicon. From our experience, the Reciva design is easier to use and is more logical, BUT the Frontier chip is much better for playing your networked audio files.



See what we thought of them here