Terratec Noxon iRadio review

Our political masters are fond of citing 'choice' as the very acme of a caring society, so by this definition alone, they'd be fans of the iRadio.

Following on from Terratec's Mac mini-like, speakerless Noxon 2 audio player, and going head-to-head against the Acoustic Energy Wifi Internet Radio, this Internet radio comes configured with more than 10,000 radio stations streaming from all over the world.

It's a moderately simple device to configure. As soon as it's powered up, a wizard steps you through the process of setting it up as a network device. It supports up to three connection profiles, enabling you, for example, to use it over 802.11b/g wifi in your house, and over Ethernet when plugged into your Ethernet-over-power line connection in a shed at the bottom of the garden.

The only real stumbling block during setup is the remote control: if your wireless network is protected by an encryption key, you have to enter it using the remote - don't lose it if for no other reason than this - and it isn't easy to work out which letter is accessed from which key. The iRadio will then refresh its list of Internet radio stations, and you're ready to go. Stations are grouped by country as well as genre, and you can nominate stations as favourites and map five to the hardware buttons. Podcasts are also available.

As well as playing Internet radio - including BBC streams, thanks to a recent firmware update - you can stream music from computers on your network, too. It comes bundled with Elgato's EyeConnect utility to stream your music from your iTunes library. iTunes Store purchases are off limits, but it will play unprotected AACs.

Audio quality is genuinely impressive - a little lacking in presence, sure, but easily good enough for most radio listening. If you do need more oomph, there's a line-out port at the back to hook up the iRadio to a stereo system. Build quality is slightly more disappointing: it looks great in pictures, but the buttons are a bit 'clicky'.

Be aware that you may trigger additional ISP costs if you're on a broadband plan that imposes a bandwidth cap; based on listening to a 128Kbits/sec stream for three hours a day, you're sucking down 5GB of data every month.

Our big gripe is that, unlike the Acoustic Energy offering, there's no access to the BBC's Listen Again content, and as only a fraction of its shows are available as podcasts and there's no recording medium in the iRadio, you pretty much have to listen to shows as they're broadcast.

This aside, however, the Terratec Noxon iRadio is still a compelling device. The price tag is a little wince-inducing, but as a way of hearing what's happening all over the world, and easily getting tracks from your computer into, say, the kitchen or bedroom, it's fantastic.