Tangent Quattro II desk top wifi radio

[Albert]

I decided that it was time to retire my Lowe HF-150 shortwave radio and replace it with an Internet radio. The potential of choosing from over 10,000 stations and many in better audio convinced me it was time. Plus I found a very good deal (66% off at Parts Connexion) on a Tangent Quattro II internet radio which further convinced me it was time.

The radio shipped and arrived quickly which was a bit of a surprise considering it is almost Christmas. Upon opening the box I found a very nice looking retro styled radio with a Walnut veneer over curved edges, very much like my 1950 Lowe radio's cabinet. The plastic tuning knob and buttons are kind of cheap, though. I wish they were metal like on my Lowe HF-150 but they are functional so far.

Connecting to my wifi internet network was easy once I remembered my password and the radio connected in about a minute. It is easy to browse through the stations by country or genre but I am not sure how to search for a particular station. I could probably do this with my pc on the Reciva website and place them in the My Stations folder. I haven't tried to stream music from my pc yet as I do not know how to set that up in Linux with the radio. I do stream music to my Bryston BDP-2 in the main system so I know it is possible. The FM tuner in the radio is only so so. The sound is a little muffled and the radio is not very sensitive. I have a Luxman T210L in the bedroom system which works much better so that is no problem.

The sound for streamed radio is very good for a table top radio. It has an upward firing 3" driver with a port on the back. It only goes down to 80 hz but voices are clear and what ever upper bass it has is surprisingly punchy. The highs are a little rolled off the top firing driver but not bad. Overall the sound is clear and a touch on the warm side, very listenable. It is going to be fun to browse through the stations at night.

 

[mep]

I hate to say it, but digital radio sucks no matter what you play it over. Digital satellite radio is the biggest suck of all because it is so compressed. The best of the worst sounding stations on Sirius is their classic jazz. It sucks the least, but it still pulls a vacuum.

 

[Albert]

Digital radio on my main system is not so hot but on a clock radio it is fine. Compared to the fidelity of shortwave radio stations, it is definitely an improvement.

 

[mep]

Digital radio on my main system is not so hot but on a clock radio it is fine. Compared to the fidelity of shortwave radio stations, it is definitely an improvement.

Yep, a deaf man would be glad to hear it.

 

[Albert]

Only a deaf man couldn't hear the difference.

 

[chops]

Did someone mention shortwave?!?!

Yeah, digital internet radio is the way to go, but there's a lot to be said about a good ole' shortwave radio and hearing live stations from around the world late at night with those weak radio signals bouncing around in the ionosphere. My father has a bunch of these still, all completely rebuilt and aligned by him. The ones in the pic below aren't his, just some random pic off the web.

 

[Albert]

Nice collection. It was fun to try to find stations on my Lowe HF-150 shortwave radio but lately I haven't been able to find much. I have a long wire antenna hung up in some pine trees alongside my house but I can't seem to pull in the stations like I used to. So I retired the sw radio and went digital. It isn't quite the same as hunting for stations but it is still fun to browse through the digital streams just the same. Here is my Lowe radio with the preselector and optional speaker. They sure don't build them like this anymore.

 

[chops]

Here's a glimpse of a few SW radios my father has out in his shop. All fully functional. This was when he was re-engineering a cheap tube amp that one of my brothers bought off of eBay.

 

[Albert]

Cool, it looks like he has quite the collection.