Why you need an
internet
radio
Web radios let you stream stations
from around the globe, as well as your
own music. Daniel Booth reveals the
best models and explains the smartest
ways to use them
62 8 – 21 June 2022 • Issue 633
Pure’s Elan Connect makes browsing easy, but
not if you’re searching for a specific stationB
ritish radio is nearly 100 years
old. At 6pm on 14 November,
1922, ‘Uncle’ Arthur Burrows –
Director of Programmes at the
newly formed BBC – read its first news
bulletin. In fact, he read it twice: once
quickly, then slowly, and asked listeners
which speed they preferred.
It’s hard to imagine what he would
have made of today’s internet radios,
which can play tens of thousands of
online stations from around the world, as
well as music saved on your devices. He
would have been dazzled by the choice
on offer, but then so are many of today’s
radio fans who have grown up with a
different kind of ‘wireless’ technology.
Here, we’ll reveal the best web radios to
buy, revealing which of the many extra
features are worth paying for.How to decide which radio
to buy
First though, you may be thinking: why
not just listen to online radio through
your PC, phone or tablet? After all, there
are plenty of apps and websites that give
you access to whatever you want. The two
main reasons to use an internet radio are
sound quality and features. A purpose-
built radio will always sound better than
a phone or laptop, and they can access
music-streaming services as well as any
music you have stored on other devices.
When shopping around, consider
where you’ll be placing the radio. If you
want to carry it around, buy one of thesmaller portable models, many of which
have handles. These typically run off
batteries, unlike the larger radios that
produce a warmer, more expansive sound,
and can fit into existing hi-fi setups.
Think also about ease of use. The
appeal of internet radio is browsing
hundreds of stations for something that
catches your ear. You’ll want a radio that
makes it as easy as using a browser on
your computer, so you’ll need to choose
between a touchscreen, buttons or
old-fashioned dial. And when you’ve
found stations you like, check how many
it lets you store as pre-set favourites.
Lastly, just as you need to check your
favourite TV-streaming services are
available on TV devices, you need to make
sure your preferred web radio works with
your music services of choice.Buy the best cheap radio
With money tight and getting tighter,
we’ll start with the cheapest radio that wefeel confident recommending – Pure’s
Elan Connect (£65 from Amazon http://www.
snipca.com/42083, pictured below left).
If you’re browsing stations then the dial
and screen make it as easy to use as
Pure’s more expensive models, and you
can pick three to access through the
pre-set buttons. Searching for a specific
station is harder though, because it
means entering each letter individually.
The biggest compromise Pure makes,
though, is with audio clarity, so don’t buy
this if you want crystal-clear sound.
We should also mention the Amazon
Echo Dot here, which is even cheaper at
£50 (www.snipca.com/42085). It’s not a
specialist web radio – there’s no screen
for easy browsing – but you can ask Alexa
to play any station in TuneIn’s massive
directory (over 100,000, though you
probably won’t need more than half a
dozen).Buy the best radio overall
We’ll leap straight from the best cheap
radio to the best overall, which is the
Roberts Stream 94i (pictured above
right). We gave it a five-star ‘Buy It!’
award in Issue 618 last November,
praising its superb sound quality. Our
sister magazine What Hi-Fi? agreed, even
if their description (“fizzing with clarity
and warmth”) makes it sound more like a
bottle of Champagne.
But it’s the abundance of ports that
justifies the £198 price tag (up from
£179 when we reviewed it – buy from