How anyone who made the decision to purchase a WiFi Radio can give the Acoustic Energy anything less than a five star review is beyond me. I own THREE WiFi Radios, two Acoustic Energy and one Revo Pico. As an aside, a friend owns the Tangent Quattro and an Acoustic Energy. Between us we've decided that the Acoustic Energy blows away both the Pico and the Quattro in it's ability to find and hold your router's signal so when I tell you the Acoustic Energy is a terrific radio, I DO NOT mean that ALL WiFi Radios are great. Of these three, just THIS one is great.

View WiFi Radios as being audio browsers that look and work like regular radios but which can pick up any streaming radio station in the world and broadcast it with perfect clarity. Yes, like any browser this means it does not begin to play the second you hit the "On" button. It takes 30 seconds or less to connect. Big Deal! Once connected, you've got whatever radio station you want to listen to either using the ten presets or by searching for a station you don't listen to often.

This unit took me ten minutes to set up and that time included setting my first few preset buttons and I went through college at a time when there was no such thing as a hand held calculator. If you grew up in the time of computers, this thing is nothing to set up.

When the time comes that entire neighborhoods are WiFi enabled (and this is coming) WiFi radio is going to kill XM, Sirius and AM/FM radio because even cars will have access to a signal but for now, consider this to be a home use, desk top radio. If there are shortcomings I guess they would be...

It could have included a remote control unit.

It could have looked more like a radio.

It MIGHT have included a battery so that it could be carried outdoors for awhile.

Other than that, if you enjoy listening to radio, buy a WiFi Radio and if you are going to buy a WiFi Radio, BUY THIS ONE. The others will frustrate you with their poor ability to catch and hold a signal. Heck, I have a a Bose Radio with remote too and I never use it anymore thanks to my Acoustic Energy WiFi radios.

I purchased my AE radio from C. Crane a year ago and have been extremely pleased with the unit, which has been in use several hours almost every day. I use an FM broadcaster to send signal to several radios around the house.
As I type, I'm on the coast of Oregon listening to a New Zealander broadcasting American Appalachian BlueGrass out of Australia over a station in Washington, DC!! WiFi radio is truly international; with the mere flick of the dial I can go from listening to news from Singapore to Celtic music from Scotland.

Lasted 1.5 years, but now won't connect, and WON'T TURN OFF! It really isn't worth the $299 I paid for it. I need to find a replacement that will last, because my wife really appreciates hearing the music from abroad.

I am tempted to give this radio five stars, although a couple of months ago I would have given it zero stars if I could have. So, in retrospect it gets four stars. Let me first say I am NOT very computer literate. Programming isn't my thing. I just want to take something out of the box, plug it in, turn it on, and listen, changing stations occasionally. I'm stuck in the superhetrodyne radios of the '30's and '40's. It either plays or it doesn't when powered up. Mine didn't ---- at first.

I bought mine from C. Crane in So. California. They have a great warranty and the best support I could ask for. I took the unit out of the box, glanced at the instruction book for at least seven seconds, hooked the radio up, turned it on, and got absolutely nothing but a pretty blue digital readout and two blinding blue LED's. After reading the detailed manual and quick-start booklet I again tried to get the thing to work. No luck. I realized I was in over my head and carefully packed everything back the way it had been. I called the Crane Corp and the lady cheerfully gave me an authorization no. for a return. Shortly afterward a very courteous Crane tech rep (Isiah) called me up and asked if I would be willing to give it one more try with his help, to which I agreed.

I unpacked everything, hooked it up, and this angel of mercy led me through the entire process in no time. It worked perfectly and I felt like I had completed an engineering course. I'm right-brained analog, and left-brain digital stuff is a black art to me. The glorious classical and folk music originating from hundreds of stations all over the world made it all worthwhile. Two weeks later disaster struck. Nothing worked anymore. A call to Isiah at C. Crane cleared up the mystery. Seems that the factory in the U.K. decided to "improve" everything by installing new firmware (see, I know a new term) via the net, and didn't bother to tell their customers. Isiah again led me through the new firmware program update process. It was tedious but this time it went faster because I was beginning to get the hang of it.

Two weeks ago three twisters were on the ground locally at the same time and we lost power for several hours. Again I was faced with reprogramming everything. This time I decided to try it without help and got it done OK.

So here's the final summary. It probably WON'T work right out of the box as claimed, unless you don't count programming, which is simple enough after you learn how to do it. Buy from an authorized re-seller who is helpful and can can serve as a buffer between you and any crude factory techs who might be lacking in social graces.

When set up correctly the radio is astounding for offering world choices from 6,000 stations. The single little dinkey speaker sucks, no other way to put it. But my hearing is shot anyway from firing too many guns without ear protection, so it evens out for me. You might want to plug a high quality speaker system into the earphone jack. I am told the jack puts out in sterio.

Now that I know how to work the thing I wouldn't take for it, and will likely buy a second one. Don't expect Klippsch-horn or Bose sound, but this is one helluva little radio for its size and the stations it gives you access to. For that it deserves five stars.

Worked right out of the box. The sound could be better but otherwise I am very satisfied.