Ask Anything: What is a Wi-Fi radio? Video

Ask Anything: What is a Wi-Fi radio? Video Transcript

[ Music ] ^M00:00:06 [ Background Music ]

>> I'm Randall Bennett for Ask Anything and this time we're joined by Matthew Moskovciak, associate editor for CNET.com. We're asking the question, what's a WiFi radio?

>> Okay, a WiFi radio, unlike your AM or FM radio, it gets its signals from a WiFi access point. So, you have your home router. What you do is you can tune in to stations all over the world that have internet radio stations.

>> Got it. So you could have, you know, any of your favorite internet-only radio stations on your tabletop.

>> Right. And a lot of AM-FM stations also simulcast over the internet.

>> Awesome.

>> So, say you have a station that you really like, but it doesn't really come in well at your home, well if that's simulcast, now you can pull out that out-of-area station and you can even get station from other countries. It's you know--

>> Oh, wow!

>> You can really get a lot of eclectic things.

>> All versatility. So, what's the real draw? Is the sound quality better? I mean, is it just to get a better signal, or is it kind of a lot of different factors?

>> Well, sound quality varies a lot with internet radio. There'll be sound streams that are only about 32 kilobits and it goes all the way up to about--you know, I've seen 128--

>> Oh, wow.

>> Which sounds like a pretty good MP3 file, and I think it often sounds better than FM radio.

>> Really?

>> But, I think the real draw is the fact that you can listen to, you know, so many different radio stations. I like to say, you know, AM-FM doesn't have that much great stuff and you have to pay for satellite radio, and WiFi radio is a great in between where you don't have to pay monthly fee or anything--

>> Yeah, they're always great stations--

>> And you get a lot of great music.

>> Definitely. So, what kind of WiFi radios are out there. Is there a varied selection or is it kind of still kind of a new market?

>> It's still a new market in the United States. They're much more popular over in Europe where we're starting to see some affordable models that only cost about 200 dollars now which is really great because, you know, a couple of years ago they cost, you know, 300 or 400 dollars which is really, you know, too much for a product like that.

>> I think they're similar to a clock radio, right? Like you say if you wanna wake up to a station from you know, Moscow, you can set it up, right?

>> Yeah, there's clock radios now and you can set it to, you know, internet radio and it can also pull music off your PC, so--

>> Definitely. That's really cool.

>> definitely an interesting product category to look for going forward.

>> Awesome. So WiFi radios, you can check now. Of course, we have other reviews at cnet.com. You heard a bunch of them yourselves. [Background music].

>> Yeah.

>> So, hang over there if you have any other questions. I'm Randall Bennett. See you later. ^M00:02:08 [ Music ]