Anyone switched to 100% radio over WIFI yet?

I think anyone who is streaming music in general has already dumped their tuner. Plus with streaming you can get radio stations from every corner of the globe if you wish.

Does it sound as good as say a vintage tuner ? No...but then what does, right ? You can always add a nice vintage tuner to any pre amp if you like for fairly cheap too.

I have a few receivers so I can listen to terrestrial radio also have a decent Cambridge tuner on one of my Integrateds, but prefer streaming over terrestrial, especially during the morning as the morning show yucksters won't shut up I want tunes in the morning not the morning crew laughing it up ( Bob and Tom) or your local yucksters.

I rarely listen to FM anymore clear channel has ruined any classic rock stations playing the same songs over and over with the 100 song setlist, you can only hear Freebird, or Peace Of Mind so many times right. I prefer streaming.

Interesting question, and timely post, for me as well.
I've been using a Squeezebox Touch for around a year and a half now. I like it a lot for access to streaming content. It works pretty well for my needs.

HOWEVERRRR...
I've found what Conradicles mentions above - the quality is lacking. I'm not even talking just a little. I've found streaming radio to be essentially lifeless in immediate A/B comparison. streaming radio is very clean and clear, no doubt, but for as much as I enjoy streaming, this is one place where I have to say I prefer the old analog-ey choice. FM Stereo of a nice, old timey program coming in over a nice tuner, to me, helps create the "atmosphere" I enjoy. to me it's a clear night and day difference, and again, I LIKE streaming services.

tonyb wrote: »

I think anyone who is streaming music in general has already dumped their tuner. Plus with streaming you can get radio stations from every corner of the globe if you wish.

Does it sound as good as say a vintage tuner ? No...but then what does, right ? You can always add a nice vintage tuner to any pre amp if you like for fairly cheap too.

this is essentially where I am with right now. it's worth it to me to keep the tuner for the two public radio stations I listen to for a few of their music programs. I stream everything else, and yes, agreed, I do enjoy the access that streaming radio offers to the stations I don't get locally, though I rarely use it in this manner

Lietuvis91 wrote: »

Well, I listen to the local music stations quite a bit, so I was looking for a way to have access to them and ran across this GraceDigital doohickey, which made me think of going all WIfi. Looking at it now I see it also has an FM antena connection, so i could still get FM stations through it too. For $150-$180 on Amazon, not bad. The cheapest option I have seen, thought not sure about sound quality.

that GraceDigital looks pretty neat. some stations offer HD streams and they may be better bitrates than the standard streams, and this may address your desire for HD radio access. you should be able to check ahead of time. the two local ones I listen to used to have HD variants for streaming, but have apparently dropped them. I didn't get a chance to see what sort of bitrates they were pushing. besides - they had different programming on them, so I rarely used them anyway.

gudnoyez wrote: »

I have a few receivers so I can listen to terrestrial radio also have a decent Cambridge tuner on one of my Integrateds, but prefer streaming over terrestrial, especially during the morning as the morning show yucksters won't shut up I want tunes in the morning not the morning crew laughing it up

I rarely listen to FM anymore clear channel has ruined any classic rock stations playing the same songs over and over with the 100 song setlist, you can only hear Freebird, or Peace Of Mind so many times right. I prefer streaming.

this is also probably mostly why I enjoy streaming as well, in general - convenience, choice, and variety. I've also noticed a bit of repetition on some of the 181.fm stations I stream. even to a degree on Pandora. seems like they have a limited selection. still hear enough variety to keep me satisfied, but I do notice a lot of it's the same if I'm listening for hours on end, like in background situations. I use the Spotify for most of the purposeful listening anyway.

maybe look into a used Squeezebox Touch. you can find them for between $250 - $300 in pretty nice shape. I think they'll do everything the Grace Digital Tuner does, except, uh, physically tune, but it will give you streaming internet radio and also access to more services than that GD seems to offer. just seems more versatile to me, for the money, and personally, I'd prefer a vintage tuner that I know to work well for any actual local radio use. you'd have to do some research to figure out how well the GD Tuner sounds and how it compares to a solid vintage tuner?

be interested to hear how this project develops and whether you find anything that can deliver the FM Stereo body through streaming.

I have too by way of my Sonos. Getting radio stations from around the globe is pretty cool.

The reason why your streaming sounds like garbage is because your streaming MP3 and you need a dac in the mix, a decent dac, not to mention better cables. That is, if you want your streaming to sound as good as a decent cdp.

Lietuvis91 wrote: »

Thought, with the Chromecast HDMI dongle, I would have thought there wouldn't be much loss of sound quality from the original streaming source, since it's plugged into the pre directly and digitally (via HDMI).

There isn't much loss of sound quality using the chromecast, it's just your starting with garbage and that's what gets transferred. The dac in a receiver will be better to some degree, but a separate dac is a must when streaming to get optimal sound quality. You can find PS Audio digital link 3's all day for 3-400 bones and that's my idea of a decent dac. Even a Cambridge dacmagic....or an Emotiva is cheaper yet but the PS Audio to my ears anyway sounds better.

Lietuvis91 wrote: »

tonyb wrote: »

Lietuvis91 wrote: »

Thought, with the Chromecast HDMI dongle, I would have thought there wouldn't be much loss of sound quality from the original streaming source, since it's plugged into the pre directly and digitally (via HDMI).

There isn't much loss of sound quality using the chromecast, it's just your starting with garbage and that's what gets transferred. The dac in a receiver will be better to some degree, but a separate dac is a must when streaming to get optimal sound quality. You can find PS Audio digital link 3's all day for 3-400 bones and that's my idea of a decent dac. Even a Cambridge dacmagic....or an Emotiva is cheaper yet but the PS Audio to my ears anyway sounds better.

That makes sense, thanks Tony. I'm ready for a quality dac in some form or fashion, I was just hoping there would be some all-in-one gadget that had a good DAC and could stream online radio and play FLAC from my network hard drive. Seems like quality units that incorporate all those functions come at pretty high premiums though, which may mean i simply get a dac as you suggest and stream from my laptop. Might be the simplest and most cost effective option for now.

There are pal, look at the Sony units which are getting some good reviews, Mantis and PFB both are using one and enjoy them both for function and sound quality. Cambridge units too offer a lot for not that much scratch.

If your music files are only 16/44 lossless, a Sonos may be up your alley. If you want higher rez file capabilities, Bluesound may be your ticket.

Lietuvis91 wrote: »

tonyb wrote: »

There are pal, look at the Sony units which are getting some good reviews, Mantis and PFB both are using one and enjoy them both for function and sound quality. Cambridge units too offer a lot for not that much scratch.

If your music files are only 16/44 lossless, a Sonos may be up your alley. If you want higher rez file capabilities, Bluesound may be your ticket.

Good deal. I didn't realize sony started to innovate again. That's good to hear.

I honestly have been playing around more with cables than anything else since I started this thread. I can't believe how different each cable sounds. And in reference to streaming: the better the cable, the bigger the difference in quality between my internet radio streaming and FM. FM sounds far better than online radio. The worse the cable, the less difference there seems to be between the two. But the devil may still be in the details. Right now the signal gets to my pre from my laptop through HDMI, which sounds marginally better than going through rca from my phone. Have not had much testing time with sources of various quality on this setup yet, cuz I keep changing the cables, lol!.

I wonder if you're talking about this little guy or something else from Sony?:

SONY Bluetooth® Music Receiver BM10

Nope.....this.

http://www.whathifi.com/sony/hap-z1es/review

You can use outside sources, just has to be hardwired with the USB connection. You can find these much cheaper btw than retail.

^^ If considering Amazon.. then choose the "Fire TV box" and not the "Fire TV Stick." It is more money but is way nicer in its connectivity and build quality. It has an optical out as well as the HDMI, is more responsive, and the remote is of much higher quality. Functionally they do the same thing, however.