internet radio
Latest
Sirius planning "Internet Radio Plus" subsciption service
You can, of course, already get Internet radio from Sirius if you're a subscriber to its satellite service, but the company now looks to be opening it up to people who don't want to fork over the cash for a radio and full subscription -- and it's boosting the sound quality for good measure. According to Sirius Backstage, Sirius is gearing up to launch the standalone "Sirius Internet Radio Plus" service, which'll offer "CD-quality" music channels and "select talk channels" (including Howard) at 48kbps for $12.95 per month. If you're already a Sirius subscriber, you'll apparently be able to upgrade to the new and improved service for $2.99 a month, or get three additional subscriptions for $6.99 a month. And if you're content with your current 32kps streaming audio, you'll be able to continue listening to it gratis. A welcome addition, to be sure, but it seems Sirius could learn a bit from XM in one area: pricing (if these numbers turn out to be solid), given that you can currently get XM Radio Online running at a full 64kps for a mere $7.99 a month.[Via Orbitcast]
Scitec IR-001W RECIVA Internet Radio
Internet radio seems to be taking a foothold in Japan judging by the latest wares from Yamaha and Denon. Now England's RECIVA have stepped up to carve out some turf with the Scitec IT-001W which is almost certainly based on the same RECIVA reference design as that AE WiFi radio seen previously. However, the IT-001W brings the "g" in addition to that 802.11b WiFi, WEP 64/128 and WPA protection, and is capable of pumping out MP3/WMA/Real Audio/Ogg Vorbis/AAC/AU/AIF/WAV (PCM) audio formats streamed from any of the estimated 10,000 internet radio stations on the planet. Best of all, it's subscription free and RECIVA takes care of all the station updates daily so they show up on that 126 x 64 pixel display already sorted by country and genre. Oh, and did we mention it'll stream audio from your PC too? Well it does, presumably via UPnP but they don't specify. Expected in Japan July 12th for about ¥30,000 or $259.
Denon's D-F103 streaming Hi-Fi with 40GB disk
We know it's gotta hurt the likes of Denon to pump those compressed audio files out their quality wares. Still, it brings a tear of joy to the eye to see these pioneers of digital audio embrace convergence so thoroughly. Introducing the Denon D-F103 shelf-system with 40GB disk, CD, USB, and Ethernet jack. As you might have already surmised, you can plug-in and play music directly off your USB-equipped DAP, rip your CDs in PCM(WAV) or WMA files straight to disk, and even stream MP3/WAV/WMA audio from any DLNA or Windows Media Connect server on your home network. She'll also play vTuner Internet Radio and backup your PC music over USB to boot. And don't worry about ripping to untitled tracks when disconnected; that disk comes pre-installed with about 350,000 Gracenote CDDB titles. Expected to drop in Japan in late August for ¥161,700 or $1,389 in that cool, cool green. Come 'ere Denon, it's noogie time.[Via Impress]
