Grace Digital Wireless Internet Radio Adapter Featuring Pandora and SIRIUS (GDI-IRA500)

This radio is great! It's by no means perfect, but for the right situation I don't think there's anything better for the price. We use ours to play music over a PA system in a shop, so we had some specific needs and this radio fits perfectly.Here's a few specifics that might be of use to someone:* When it's turned on, the radio automatically starts playing the last played radio station.It may seem obvious, but it was a concern and wouldn't have worked for our situation had that not been the case. When we get to the shop in the morning, we turn the radio on and it automatically starts streaming the last station we were playing--even Pandora radio. The radio takes less than 10 seconds to connect to the streaming station, buffer, and begin playing, but this time may vary depending on network conditions.* It remembers things when it's unplugged.There is a very handy History list in the My Stuff menu. We live and die by this list because we haven't bothered to go to the website to add stations to our favorites-- it remembers at least the last 10 stations. Only downside is it doesn't specify if the station is an internet radio station or an app station (like Pandora), and sometimes the names kind of blur together when you listen to the same kind of music across different stations. If the radio loses power, it doesn't lose this list or the last played station, or the WIFI settings, or the clock. It remembers all of it.* If it loses power while playing, it will not resume playing when power is restored.This is actually great for us, but I could see it varying person to person. When power is restored, it "boots up" and connects to wifi, but then stays in the `off' state until it's turned on. When turned on, it will automatically play the last played station. Again, for us this was great, but I could see it being a negative or others. From an unpowered state, the radio takes 35 - 45 seconds to fully boot and be ready to turn on (this includes connecting to wifi, so this time may vary depending on networking conditions).* The cord on the AC/DC adapter is about 6ft long.We were worried that the cord would be too short to mount the radio in our equipment room the way we needed to--but for us 6ft was enough. The adapter also has a green LED light on the base to show when the adapter has power. It's bright but not oppressively so.* The radio doesn't easily mount to the wall.This is a strange bulletpoint I'm sure, but for us it was an unfortunate blemish on an otherwise very capable product. Due to the way the cables plug into the back of the radio, it can't lay flat on its back on a wall. We built a small shelf and then ziptied the radio to the shelf from the black bar that goes across the back of the radio at the bottom. Not a perfect solution, but it works.* The iOS remote control app is great, but not perfect.I can't speak to the quality of the android app, but the iOS app works reasonably well. In fact, the app has all the features you could possibly want. It has a mirror copy of the menu from the radio, so anything you can do from the radio you can do from the app. It has a Now playing section that gives you access to volume controls, and it even has a mute button (the radio itself doesn't have one). If you are playing Pandora radio, it will display Album Covers. However, the app is quite buggy. It crashes very often for me, especially if you are switching tabs a lot at the bottom of the app. But if used primarily as a remote to change stations, it works well. The crashes VERY occasionally crash the whole radio, forcing it to reboot, but I can count these occurrences on one hand. The app can also control multiple radios, although I've never used this feature personally.* The app is free and has no login.Another feature that is good or bad depending on your situation--the app is free to download. Once installed, all it needs is for the smart phone to be on the same wifi network as the radio and the app will automatically find the radio and allow you to control it. There is no way (that I know of) to keep someone from controlling the radio if they can get on your wifi. This hasn't been a problem for us so far, but we worry about the day that another employee realizes how easy it is to do.

I chose this model internet radio receiver because it has standard RCA output jacks that simplify connecting it to an external system; it does not have an internal amplifier nor speakers - so it cannot stand alone. The unit is nicely compact, has simple and intuitive controls, and the set-up took only a few minutes. Once registered, a web interface can be used to add features and configure the system, which is easier than trying to use built in controls. Connected to my whole-house audio system, the sound quality is fine. I'm disappointed, however, that several of the internet stations I like do not seem to be available in the "Reciva" data base. This was somewhat of a surprise because my other internet radio (from a different manufacturer) had no such limitations. It is possible to e-mail a request that stations be added to the database, but it isn't at all clear that they necessarily would be added and Grace does not appear to provide a direct response to the requests - they say that "You can check back on our web site periodically to see if the station has been added." It remains to be seen how well that works.

Update #2 - (October 3, 2013)After almost 3 years of service the device has been operating very well. I've boosted my wifi signal so that the unit does not have to be rebooted as noted in Update #1. I've also mastered the remote so I can operate by feel in the dark. So the review has been upgraded from 2 stars back up to 4 stars. It would get a 5 star rating if the time display was bigger (full screen).Update #1 (April 24, 2011) - My initial review, written about 4 months ago (see below), was pretty good. However, for the past few week I've been having WiFi connection issues. Initially I would have to remove power and reboot every few days. The problem got progressively worse - now I have to remove power and reboot just about every time the unit is turned ON . . . then it works fine - until the next time. I performed a firmware update, but it didn't help. Other than the connection issue I like the unit . . . but I have to downgrade the review from 4 stars to 2 stars.The Grace GDI-IRA500 was purchased to replace an existing bedside clock-radio. Although the radio was in perfect condition and easy to use the reception in my area is very poor and the classical stations were being sold and moved.The unit was delivered in a timely manner and upon unpacking was surprised to see how small and light it was compared to the old radio - a plus. I setup the device following the enclosed manual while seated at the computer - everything was straight forward and worked as advertised. It quickly acquired the WiFi signal and after entering my security code it connected to the internet. On-line I registered the unit, created a "Reciva" account, and then loaded a number of streaming music and FM stations as "My Stations". Everything went as advertised.I then disconnected the device and reconnected it on the night table (looks much better than the old radio) 30+ feet away and a couple of walls from the WiFi transmitter. It picked up the signal and automatically downloaded the on-line stations previously setup. A couple of old (but good quality) computer speakers were attached to the headset output - a station was selected, and after a couple of seconds of buffering the speakers came to life . . . no noise . . . just music!I've had the Grace for a couple of weeks now -The unit comes with a protective transparent plastic overlay that covers the display area and top of the shiny plastic case - don't throw it away. The white text on blue/grey background display is very bright even at its lowest setting, which I found disturbing at night. The old radio had black text on an orange background, which is a much better user interface. To mitigate the problem I covered the display area with orange cellophane (needed 2 layers) and used the plastic overlay to keep it from moving - this really helped.The old radio had discrete buttons with tactile markers so one could control the unit (turn it on, select a preset station, etc.) in the dark. The Grace unit has flat membrane style buttons which makes them practically useless for night time operation. One has to memorize and use the remote, which has raised buttons - not too difficult. Another downside is that, except for the presets, most of the other controls are menu driven. To activate the "Sleep" mode requires scrolling to the "Alarm" menu then to the "Sleep Timer" - I got used to it.The bottom line is that the Grace does the job - the sound is great (not HiFi) with a multitude of selections.Grace Digital GDI-IRA500 Wireless Internet Radio Adapter Featuring Pandora, NPR and SIRIUS