Roberts Wi-Fi Internet Radio with Music Player –

STREAM 105

There is nothing more relaxing, more entertaining, than listening to some  great music on the radio. With the likes of John Peel and a whole host of iconic DJs long gone who played the kind of music I love and Bob Harris on at an ungodly time of the night on Radio 2 FM  and add insult to injury it isn’t easy to get a good clean reception the best alternative is DAB Radio …. WRONG. Living in a part of Kent or to be more precise in an area that offers variable reception -  good downstairs but nothing upstairs, frustration is never far away. The digital revolution may be with us soon but there is still huge pocket, with a dense population that cannot get a constant digital signal  stream but that is another subject for another day. Which brings it all down to digital radio………with internet radio offering the best option for connoisseurs  of world radio.

Roberts over the last few years has appeared to be at the forefront of radio always presenting a new option to explore especially if you are a DAB fan and their latest offering Wifi Internet Radio with Music Player Stream 105 will certainly interest many. Relatively small and compact, offering mains and battery 6xLR14 (C size), 1.6 Watt output, 77mm loudspeaker, it fits  the  needs of the average radio listener who want a little bit more than what is offered from a standard or DAB radio.

Setting the radio up could not be easier for within 2 minutes I was exploring the world of radio – literally! Simply turn it on and it will find what connectivity you have instantly and just place in your home hub code and you are away, yes it was that easy and unlike many other similar radios each time you turn it on it goes through your settings at speed and no time is wasted retuning or having to input code, as this has been a problem I have experienced with others.

The real fascination with internet radio is you are soon immersed into the extensive breakdown of countries and fantastic music genre lists and more time is spent tinkering, sampling, listening to tiny snippets of  new stations from Australia or Canada than actually tuning to one station, saving it as a preset and listening. That however is the fun of World Radio, so many stations to check out, over  5000, prob more.

The radio’s control panel/the central interface – consists of 4 press buttons – on/off – mode – menu/back and preset, together with the central tuning wheel  where most of the functions will be executed. A large brightly lit LED gives the date and time and all the information you need as you delve through the various settings.

The simple process – switch on and the internet radio option  will appear along with a list denoting  locations, press the wheel down and a long list of countries will appear and you can select any, next on the list would be genre which ranges from ambient to blue grass to business news  to folk to rock, RnB, talk radio,  with over 40 to choose from. Selecting ALL in some circumstances will give a longer list and in some instances you could end up with over 200 stations in one genre – i.e. 200 plus worldwide classic rock stations to traverse. One button you will constantly be pressing is the menu/back as this will move you back through all your last moves so once you have found a favourite and added to the pre-set, you can retrace the sequence. If you are unsure that you wish to save a station to one of the pre-sets you can decide at a later date and add the station as a  favourite which  are unlimited, but of course the more you save you will find your list soon grows in the directory but I found saving podcasts to favourites a great alternative as they tend to be periodical.

Once a station has been found, its description will be displayed – genre, show, country and reliability. The all important kbps, codec and sampling rate will give the full rundown, all retrieved by  pushing down the main wheel once you are on the station of your choice. A playback buffer line is also displayed and the longer the line the more reliable the signal. Scrolling down the long list of selected stations,  pushing down the wheel when you wish to listen to another could not be more intuitive or  quick.

So far,so good, right? For the real technophiles this may lack a little bit of sophistication in the packaging front for its single speaker and plastic casing is functional, even cheap, but the sound quality is remarkably solid and Stream 105 packs a lot of punch on full blast which many will not dare to use for annoyance of their neighbours!

Roberts Stream 105 offers  many extensive features that will delight those that want a little bit more than a mere radio as the clock has with 2 multi-function alarms and you can stream your music collection from your PC, which is easy to do and well explained in the concise manual that accompanies it. The 10 station presets will also be enough to please most. In addition, an aux-in port allows you to listen from your MP3 player or through headphones.

The functionality of the radio from music player, to alarm, to creating your own playlists, to setting and using the presets offered are all a radio /music lover would wish for. Some of the technical features, be it  understanding the network profile or controlling playback are simplified by the intuitive manner of both the manual and the radio’s interface. The acid test must always be in the time it would take the average user to be up and running using most of the functions instantly and to my delight Roberts Steam 105 passed all tests with flying colours. The most gratifying feature was that at no point was there any drop out of any station; which although has more to do with internet connection and signal can always happen outside of these boundaries. Roberts Stream 105 does exactly what it offers World Internet Radio without fuss!

All positives, so what of the negatives? If you like your sound ‘bassy’ or prefer sharp treble to get a nice crisp sound then there are no options to change the default set-up. The 105 version does not offer FM or DAB but there are models from Roberts that do although more expensive.

Although listed at a RRP of around £100, with the current sales and looking around the internet I spotted the average of £86 which would make this REAL value.

Available from www.robertsradio.co.uk 01709 571 722