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(More customer reviews)Before I begin, I must mention that the price point on this gadget is excellent. I was looking at a similar device that transmits audio from a PC to a remote stereo system but does not offer an integrated hardware/software remote solution and costs nearly twice as much.
Today I received my iRhythm tuner in the mail. I was at work so I didn't get to set it up right away, but I immediately popped the batteries in the remote and watched the remote's display light up blood red as it powered on. Way cool.
Upon getting home I was set to install this puppy. Honestly, I was somewhat pessimistic. Although I had read many good reviews about this device, along with a couple of users having trouble with it (however tech support on their newsgroup server seemed to fix their problems right away), I was afraid that this might not be the ideal solution I was hoping it to be.
I was wrong. Installing this device was a breeze. The first thing I did was install the base. Think of this as the base for a cordless phone, it connects to your computer which in turn connects to the internet and then broadcasts its music to your stereo in the other room. (it even uses the same 900mhz as most modern cordless phones). I didn't even have to install the iM radio software because I already had the latest software from online. It instantly recognized the device, no rebooting! The next thing I did was play with the remote, I was able to start and stop the iM radio app using the power button on my remote. Too cool! (The app did crash on me once, I simply pressed the power button on the radio, and the app restarted itself).
The next thing I did was connect the receiver to my stereo in the neighboring room. At first, there was a significant bit of distortion. I realized this was because the volume on my computer was too high. I simply adjusted the computer's volume using the volume controls on the remote and the distortion was gone.
I can't stress how clear the transmission is. The sound coming out of my stereo in my bedroom is identical to the sound coming out of my tethered speakers. There is the occassional static if you walk by the receiver, and when there are quiet moments in a song you can hear a little bit of background static, but nothing that you wouldn't expect from listening to FM radio. Infact, I would go out on a limb and suggest the quality is better than FM radio.
After I got everything hooked up, I laid back on my bed, iRhythm remote in hand and began scanning through the stations. As soon as I found a station I liked, I pressed the "Add to Z band" button, heard a distinct beep from the stereo, and the station was instantly added to my presets. There are 25 bands each with 30 possible stations, and the Z band which is where you put your presets, your MP3 playlists, or your custom streaming audio stations.
I heard a song I liked while I was playing with my new remote, I pressed the smiley button to vote for it and then pressed the info button to get more info. When I got back to my computer later on, the name of the artist was sitting in my in box. All "Best of the Planet(TM)" music at my fingertips and the computer, my keyboard, mouse and ethernet connection were out of the way. It was just me, my stereo and my iRhythm remote control.
I can't say anything bad about this device, the only thing that is annoying is that some of the streaming audio sites are a bit latent and take a while to buffer, even though I have a 3Mbps cable connection. The nice thing is, while you are waiting for it to buffer, iM radio plays a nice intro message, usually the name of the station, and some looping music to let you know that you are still connected. Besides, iM Radio can't control other people's bandwith issues, they are just a third party, organizing streaming content for me.
If you like the idea of being able to control your internet radio stations without being tied to your computer but do not want to deal with wireless audio, there is also the iRhythm K.O. (...) which acts as a stand alone remote. You can always download the software for free to check it out before you buy the hardware. The software interface is almost identical to the hardware interface and you will be all ready to go when you receive your hardware.
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Acer iRhythm 900MHz Wireless Remote Tuner
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