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Emprex Wireless Internet Radio Receiver review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £64
inc VAT

Emprex’s Wireless Internet Radio Receiver may have looks that only a mother could love, but it’s the cheapest internet radio and network audio receiver we’ve seen. Unfortunately, it’s let down by poorly designed hardware and an annoying interface.

The receiver can connect to Ethernet and wireless networks. Entering a WiFi security password is tedious, as you have to use the remote’s up and down keys to select the characters. When using the remote, you’ll have to stand fairly close to the small 3in screen to read the menus. The screen is set at an angle, which makes it hard to read unless you’re standing over it, and text looks blurry when you scroll through menus.

The low-resolution screen and the remote’s stiff buttons make browsing the vast selection of internet radio stations a chore. Annoyingly, the menu command for saving a station as a favourite didn’t always work. You can search for stations by genre and location but not by keyword. More irritatingly, the receiver simply refused to play some stations.

A potentially useful feature is the ability to record internet radio programs as MP3 files to a USB storage device. Although you can set the receiver to record for a certain duration, you have to start it manually as there’s no timer or programme guide. Again, it refused to record some stations.

The receiver can play music streamed across a network from a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) media server, such as a NAS or a PC running Windows Media Player 11. It also plays music directly from a flash drive or other USB storage device. Frustratingly, it sometimes stopped responding to our commands and we had to restart it. You can’t listen to one track while browsing for another, which can make listening to music a rather stop-start experience.

The built-in stereo speakers are reasonably loud but sound muddy and distort at the loudest volume setting. Thankfully, you can connect a better set using the 3.5mm headphone socket. The built-in speakers may not impress audiophiles, but the receiver can be used as an alarm clock, for which most people have lower expectations. You can be woken by a simple chime, a ringtone-style melody or an internet radio station. This also proved unreliable, as the receiver sometimes used the chime or melody noises instead of the selected station.

Emprex’s Wireless Internet Radio Receiver is deeply flawed. Some of its faults could be fixed with a firmware upgrade, but until then we can’t even consider recommending it. Philips’ Streamium NP1100 is much better, and even at £65 more is still a far superior buy.

Basic Specifications

Rating *
Media Streamer type streaming audio receiver

Audio Compatibility

Audio MP3 playback Yes
Audio WMA playback Yes
Audio WMA-DRM playback Yes
Audio AAC playback No
Audio Protected AAC playback No
Audio OGG playback No
Audio WAV playback No
Audio Audible playback No
Other audio formats none
Internet radio stream compatib MP3, WMA

Video Compatibility

Video MPEG-1 playback No
Video MPEG-2 playback No
Video MPEG-2 VOB playback No
Video MPEG-4 AVI playback No
Video MPEG-4 MP4 playback No
Video MPEG-4 DivX/XviD support No
Video H.264 support No
Video MPEG-4 MP3 audio support No
Video MPEG-4 AAC audio support No
Video WMV playback No
Video WMV-HD support No
Other video formats none
Internet video stream compatib none

Image Compatibility

Image BMP support No
Image JPEG support No
Image TIFF support No

Network Interfaces

Wired network ports 1x 10/100
Wireless networking support Yes
128-bit WEP Yes
256-bit WEP Yes
WPA Yes
WPA2 Yes

AV Interfaces

Minijack line outputs 0
Minijack headphone outputs 1
Stereo phono outputs 0
Coaxial S/PDIF outputs 0
Optical S/PDIF outputs 0
Total SCART sockets 0
HDMI outputs 0
Component outputs 0
S-video output 0
Composite outputs 0
Other connectors USB

Physical

Size 58x168x154mm
Antennas 1
Internal/external antennas external
Upgradeable antenna No
Power consumption standby 4W
Power consumption on 5W

Server Compatibility

Software included none
UPnP Yes
iTunes No
SlimServer No
SMB No

Buying Information

Price £64
Warranty one year RTB
Supplier http://www.cclonline.com
Details www.emprex.com

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