# Please send your radio station suggestions



## JennaAnderson (Dec 25, 2009)

I've been listening to the same radio station for over 20 years. I do flip around but end up back at Cities 97. Unfortunately they've begun repeating waaaaay too much. I'm sad to leave them, but I must before I go crazy. (If I hear REM's Night Swimming one more time I will barf.)

I'd like to buy a speaker set up or docking station for my iPhone/iTouch to use in my house. I'd use it to stream Sirius.

My question - has anyone bought one of these devices? Are you happy with it? Does anyone use the Sirius feed at home? (My husband has it in his car and we love it.)

Here are a couple of devices I'm looking at:

Klipsch iGroove for $149
http://www.amazon.com/Klipsch-iGroove-SXT-Speaker-System/dp/B002O3W3Y2/ref=dp_cp_ob_e_title_0

The Pure-Fi Express Plus speaker unit for $99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16855990013

Thoughts?


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## geko29 (Dec 23, 2008)

Or you could get a Squeezebox Radio or Boom, which doesn't require the iPhone to be present to play music. Thanks to the iPeng app, you can even use your iThing to control it remotely, whether you're home or not.

I have the Boom, and love the hell out of it. Fantastic sound quality, supports any manner of internet-based audio input you can possibly imagine--I use it primarily with Pandora, but Sirius works too. Plus I get the added benefit of being able to scare my wife by turning it on while she's at home and I'm in the car.


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## VictoriaP (Mar 1, 2009)

geko29 said:


> Or you could get a Squeezebox Radio or Boom, which doesn't require the iPhone to be present to play music. Thanks to the iPeng app, you can even use your iThing to control it remotely, whether you're home or not.
> 
> I have the Boom, and love the hell out of it. Fantastic sound quality, supports any manner of internet-based audio input you can possibly imagine--I use it primarily with Pandora, but Sirius works too. Plus I get the added benefit of being able to scare my wife by turning it on while she's at home and I'm in the car.


Bookmarked--hubby might be interested in something like this.

Right now, we tend to play our own music. What does get streamed sometimes is the audio from baseball games through the MLB At Bat app. We have two speaker docks, an Altec Lansing in the kitchen and a Vesta Ladybug in the bedroom. The Ladybug is pretty silly looking, but it's compact and portable, which means I can easily move it to the bathroom for my long sessions in the tub, or outside for barbecues on the deck. Unplugged, it runs on four AA batteries, so we keep a few sets of rechargeables on hand.

Our main setup in the living room currently is my MBP plugged into an amazing old set of Apple speakers. The're from the early '90's, complete with rainbow Apple logo, and the sound quality is superb. But cool as they are, that Boom from Squeezebox would render them unnecessary....


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## JennaAnderson (Dec 25, 2009)

I'll show the Boom to my husband. He likes logitec so that's a plus. 

It sounds a little technical but hubby is an IT guy so he can handle it. The question is - will I be able to handle it if he is out of the house and something glitchy happens.


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## JennaAnderson (Dec 25, 2009)

I should know by now that if I tell my husband I want to by an electronic gadget it will be ordered by him immediately! 

So... Logitech Boom has been ordered. Thank you so much for your suggestions. I'm really looking forward to using it.


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## geko29 (Dec 23, 2008)

Glad I could help, and hope you like it. The initial setup takes about 15 minutes, including setting up your account and "apps" (like Pandora and Sirius) on mysqueezebox.com, but you can actually do that part before it arrives. After that, there are fairly straightforward menus for manually selecting content (picking an internet radio station by genre or geographical location, for example), and favorites can be set to the 6 preset buttons, just like any other radio. Walk in the house, hit "1" and it turns on and tunes your favorite audio source.

The presets can be from different sources too. You can have 3 Sirius stations, 1 Pandora, 1 Last.fm and one traditional internet radio favorites mapped to the different buttons, for example. I think you can even assign a preset to an MP3 playlist on your PC using the free squeezeserver software, but I haven't actually tried that.

Also make sure you get the 



. It's $10, and is actually a better remote than the one Logitech sells separately for $200. Sign in one time with your mysqueezebox account, and it automatically sets itself up to control your device(s). Really makes everything easy.


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## JennaAnderson (Dec 25, 2009)

I am cutting and pasting this and emailing to my husband (who is at home but on his own computer)

I read over what iPeng does and you're right, that app will make things really fast and easy. 

Thanks so much!! 

Jenna


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## bebobthefrog (Dec 18, 2008)

JennaAnderson,
How do you like it. I ordered the squeezebox last night and it will arrive on Tuesday.


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## JennaAnderson (Dec 25, 2009)

bebobthefrog said:


> JennaAnderson,
> How do you like it. I ordered the squeezebox last night and it will arrive on Tuesday.


It hasn't show up yet. I hope it will be here early next week so I can play with it.

I'm listening to Pandora on my laptop right now. The internal speakers are ok. The Boom will be much better.

Jenna


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## JennaAnderson (Dec 25, 2009)

OK - The Squeezebox Boom arrived today. It is a bit complicated with all the dialing, pressing, back, play,etc... My husband pulled up the squeezebox software on my laptop and within 20 minutes had found stations from across the world, apps, sound effects, etc... He was also able to patch into our household server and start playing things from his music library. Yes, he's a gadget guy and yes we actually have a server in our house. 

Anyway - I really like it. My only complaint is there are too many stations to pick from. I waste a lot of time zooming around listening to BBC station, New Zealand, etc. It's very cool. I can't wait to add a bunch to the preset buttons.

Thanks so much for the suggestion Geko!

Bebo - did yours show up? Do you like it?

Jenna


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## JennaAnderson (Dec 25, 2009)

Oh - I also plan to download audio book files to our home network and listen to them through the Boom.

Can't wait!

Jenna


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## bebobthefrog (Dec 18, 2008)

Jenna,
Yes I my squeezebox came on Wednesday. I like it and it did take a while to set up. It took me about half of an hour to get it working right. I like going to sleep with piano music and waking up with pop. I'm glad that you started this thread because I had not heard of it before. I have Sirius radio in my car and now I have it in my bedroom too.


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## JennaAnderson (Dec 25, 2009)

When my husband was playing with it he said, "You just have to do this, then that, this, and it will go to here, then turn it to this menu, blah, blah, blah...."  It's a fun gadget for people who like to play and putz. He's actually thinking of getting one for his office at work. 

I have have four of the preset buttons set up. One is a Detroit smooth jazz station and the other three are Pandora. I like everything including country, jazz, rock, alternative, latin, etc... so this radio is Perfect! Thank you again Geko! 

Did you have to pay an extra subscription fee for the Sirius to play in your house? My husband has it in his car and he thought we'd have to get the app add on for around $3 a month.  

Oh - also - do you know if you can have more than six presets? 

Jenna


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## geko29 (Dec 23, 2008)

Glad you're enjoying it Jenna. You do have to pay the extra $3, and I was assuming you already did, since you were intending to stream it via your iPhone/iPod Touch, which likewise requires the upgraded subscription. The "standard online" is PC-only and has a very limited channel selection.

I have XM and pay the $3 for the "premium online" tier to get the iPhone app. Unfortunately, the Squeezebox app is for Sirius subscribers only (us old-school XMers are second-class citizens) and my login doesn't work with it, so I haven't been able to try it out personally, I just knew it was available. At this point, nearly all my music listening is via Pandora, so I've probably used the XM Streaming for less than one hour total so far this year. Sounds like I should cancel it. 

The presets are limited to six, but I found this in the manual on page 14:



> TIP: Although there are six Preset buttons for quickly finding six of your favorite tracks, albums, or Internet radio stations, there is no limit to the number of favorites you can save. Assigning an item to one of the Preset buttons automatically adds it to your Favorites, as well. To add an item to your favorites without assigning it to a Preset button, click the wheel or press right on the remote, and then select Add to favorites.


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## bebobthefrog (Dec 18, 2008)

I got the 30 days free trial of Sirius. No, I think that you can only have 6 presets like geko mentions above. I'll decide at the end of the free trial if I want to keep and pay for Sirius or not. I wake up to morning mash up on hits channel 20 and they make me laugh so much.


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## JennaAnderson (Dec 25, 2009)

Ok - I think I have the favorites figured out. Now I am having trouble getting the radio to find my wireless. No worries - I'll figure it out. I actually think our wireless may be down. We'll see when I try to send this post. 

I agree about Sirius, Bebo. Not sure if it's worth it. There are so many other stations to pick from already. I originally thought my only option to get all these stations would be to subscribe to Sirius or another service and use my iPhone. 

Nope!! 

I will definitely check out that morning show. Sounds like fun. 

Jenna


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## JennaAnderson (Dec 25, 2009)

This thread started out with me asking about Sirius radio - in home docking stations and the like.

Geko and Bebo suggested the Squeezebox Boom. I bought one and LOVE IT!!! 

*** So I'm looking for some radio stations. Do you have any suggestions? These have to be actual stations and not Sirius stations.

I live in MN but have a Detroit Smooth Jazz station as one of my favorites. I think all I need is the call numbers and letters - maybe city - in order to look it up.

I like - smooth jazz, mellow R&B
Artists like Paolo Nutini, Amos Lee, Matt Nathenson, James Morrison, Ingrid Michaelson (sorry, can't spell)
I also like - Seether, Evanescence, (wow, really can't spell) Breaking Benjamin, Stone Sour, Paramore, Lacuna Coil (ok, I'll stop now)
oh and - anything similar to the last three Santana albums would be great. 

If you have any stations in your area that fall into these types of music please send me the details. I can search for stations all over the world. 

Thanks!!


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## VictoriaP (Mar 1, 2009)

Locally, we do Jack-FM--KJAQ Seattle, 96.5. We know the guy who runs the local one, and the mix of music is usually pretty interesting. No DJs.

However, since discovering TuneIn Radio on the iPhone, we've been playing Clare-FM from Ennis, County Clare, Ireland a lot. That's the station we primarily listened to on our trip last year. They've got a webpage, I'll see if I can find it. Edit: http://www.clare.fm/

They've got a pretty eclectic mix depending on what hour of the day you're listening. Sometimes you'd swear it's just another station in the US, and others there's no mistaking that this station's "not in Kansas, Dorothy"! I've used Soundhound from the iPad to ID a couple of UK artists from that station that I'd never heard here, so it's worth sampling if you're feeling adventurous.


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## JennaAnderson (Dec 25, 2009)

Thanks Victoria - I will definitely look both those stations up.

In case anyone is curious this is the radio I bought:

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Squeezebox-Network-Player-Internet/dp/B001DJ64D4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1284179882&sr=8-2 I can also queue up mp3s from my personal folders, play Pandora, etc

OOPS - I guess my first post was about the iGroove and that is why it fell in the Apple products area.

Jenna


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## JennaAnderson (Dec 25, 2009)

Victoria - I found both of them and am currently listening to Clare. Love the accents. "President O-bam-a"

Anyone else have radio station suggestions? Scroll down a few posts to see what I'm talking about and looking for.

Thank you so much.


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## JennaAnderson (Dec 25, 2009)

This thread could probably be moved to the Not Quite Kindle area - 

This thread started out with me asking about the iGroove docking station. I ended up buying a Squeezebox Boom and LOVE IT!!! 

*** So I'm looking for some radio stations. Do you have any suggestions? These have to be actual stations and not Sirius stations.

I live in MN but have a Detroit Smooth Jazz station as one of my favorites. I think all I need is the call numbers and letters - maybe city - in order to look it up.

I like a little bit of everything
Smooth jazz, mellow R&B
Artists like Paolo Nutini, Amos Lee, Matt Nathenson, James Morrison, Ingrid Michaelson (sorry, can't spell)
I also like - Seether, Evanescence, (wow, really can't spell) Breaking Benjamin, Stone Sour, Paramore, Lacuna Coil (ok, I'll stop now)
oh and - anything similar to the last three Santana albums would be great. 

If you have any stations in your area that fall into these types of music please send me the details. I can search for stations all over the world. 

Thanks!!


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## geko29 (Dec 23, 2008)

Unless you actually need talk between the songs, your best bet is usually to build Pandora stations to your exact tastes.  You can either create one station that includes a rather eclectic mix, or separate ones by your own definition of genre or mood.  Pandora allows you to have up to 100 stations at a time.  I can even email you my "Breaking Benjamin Radio" station as a starting point for the third group you listed if you'd like.


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## JennaAnderson (Dec 25, 2009)

Hi Geko - I do have Pandora stations and mixes already set up. Yes, I love the BB option. I wonder if I'm patched into your station already.  

At times I do like to hear some of local banter or news. Not sure why. I find it funny. 

Jenna


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