This is a digital radio with a difference – rather than picking up Dab
broadcasts over the airwaves, it streams radio over the internet.
That means you need a broadband connection to use it – it can connect through
a standard network cable or wirelessly. Setting up the
GX-01
was a piece of cake – just turn it on, and if it's plugged into the network it
connects automatically. We used the wireless capability, and it was surprisingly
painless. Pressing 'Scan' picked up a list of networks, and we were then able to
enter the key for ours.
That's slightly tricky because you have to use the dial on the front to
select a letter, then press Select. We instinctively pressed the dial in to
select a character, but this turned out to be the power switch, and we had to
start again. Once we were used to that it was fine. The supplied remote control
can also be used for this bit.
Once connected, it updated its list of stations and was able to connect
fairly quickly to most of them.
Because almost all internet stations are private concerns, some won't be
online when you try but we achieved a good success rate. Quality of broadcast,
of course, depends on the station, but there's a good mix of music and talk
stations out there. As for the UK, you can listen to BBC stations using the
GX-01.
Sound quality is impressive when listening to internet radio but the device
can also play files stored on a USB memory key (there's a socket at the front)
and here it fell down a bit, sounding quite muffled and without much bass.
Despite that, as a radio player the GX-01 works well. At £120, though, it might
be more suited to hard-core radio-heads.
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