Classical Music Mayhem!!

I've just bought one of these and it's a neat piece of kit.It does what it says on the tin.With this you can now listen to classical radio stations from around the world many of which are in high quality sound i.e 128kbs or above.Check it out.

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/speak ... cl=roeu,en

Looks a neat little gadget Jessop. What's the sound quality like? And how many classical stations have you picked up!?

Sound quality is not an issue as many stations now stream 128kbs which i consider more than adequate when connected to half-decent hi-fi and speakers.Some go up to 256kbs!

The amount of stations you can get is mindboggling to be honest.Let's talk classical radio as thats our common interest.
To give you an idea whats on offer i picked classical stations at random and took note of what they were playing at that time.
I've seen people here complain of the lack of serious classical stations within their reach and have only a diet of Classic FM and BBC Radio 3 etc.For those people the Squeezebox would transform their listening world dramatically.

The first random station was WCPE from Wake Forest ,North Carolina USA.
On tuning in they were playing Sinfonia in F by WF Bach.
That was followed by The Holberg Suite Op.40 by Grieg.

I then tuned into WWFM from Trenton,New Jersey USA.
They were playing a Piano Quintet in F sharp minor by Amy Beach.

Next up was 1.FM-Otto's Barroque Music from San Francisco, USA.
They were playing the French Suite No.6 in E by JS Bach.

Next up was ABC Classic FM from Austrailia.
They were playing Apothesis of Lully by Couperin.

Next was Radio IO Classical from Tampa,Florida USA.
Taras Bulba by Leos Janacek.

WQXR from New York, USA.
1st Beethoven's Symphony No.7
2nd Barber's Excursions
3rd D.Scarlatti's Concerto Grosso No.5 in D

All Classical WGBH from Boston, USA.
An interview with violist Hellen Callus.She spoke about the composer Rebecca Clark and played one of her pieces for viola called Morpheus.

3MBS Radio from Melbourne,Austrailia.
Mendelssohn's Piano Trio No.1 in D Minor

Radio Classique from Paris, France
Barber's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra

Classical Favourites-Origin unknown
1st J.M. Sperger's Symphony ih F major
2nd Byrd's Lustorum Animae

WFMT from Chicago, USA
1st Alto Rhapsody by Brahms
2nd Symphony No. 98 in Bb by J.Haydn
3rd String Concerto in D by Stravinsky

Those were the stations i sampled but the following is a list of only some of the classical radio stations you can listen to.There are many many more!

Radio Swiss Classic-Berne
Radio 4-Netherlands
France Musique-Paris
NRK Klassisk-Norway
Classic Fm-Belgium
DRP2-Denmark
NDR Kultur-Germany
Bayern 4 Klassic-Germany
Radio E Classical-Taiwan
Sveriges Radio P2-Stockholm
Bartok Radio-Hungary
DR Allegro-Denmark
VRT Radio Klara-Belgium
Kol Ha Musica-Jerusalem
MDR Figaro-Germany
Baroque-Ottowa,Ontario.
Avro Klassiek Baroque-Ntherlands
Venice Classic Radio-Italy

Like i said, the list above is but a sample of what's on offer.The USA alone must have a few hundred classical radio stations.
The jump from one or two channnel land into this world is almost too much to take in.

The Squeezebox can also stream all your Pc music to anywhere in your home.
On top of all this, every radio genre you could imagine is accesible from around the globe.
Every musical genre is out there.I found a dedicated SKA channel,a NEWGRASS channel (modern version of Bluegrass) ,several Christmas channels (Yes you heard right.They only play christmas music 365 days of the year.Why i dont know and wonder what kind of people listen to chritmas music in July.)
There are radio channels for the various decades from the forties to the nineties.

Believe me, the day you first plug this little baby in you won't be able to pull yourself away from it so pick an early part of the day to start listening or you could be up all night through to dawn like i was.
Highly recommended.

Well if you don't work for Logitech they should send you a cheque anyway! Thanks for the breakdown of what stations you can receive. It sounds a really great gadget though not quite a pocket radio at £239 Euros. I notice a userguide pdf on the weblink you provided that should answer any technical queries.

Let me say that first of all this sounds like a cool device but I would have to ask myself if the price was justifiable. Mainly because what I have for a personal setup is my PC hooked up to my stereo surround sound theater system. I use the digital optical output on the soundcard. Most if not all the stations the Squeezebox picks up are available online for free. Since I already have a PC that can do this, just with a little more effort, it seems like a more viable and practical solution. And one that I have used for quite a while. There are websites that list every known streaming radio station in the world. As far as classical music there are plenty of otions available through my PC. Just to use your list as an example:

WCPE

WWFM

ABC Classic FM from Austrailia

Radio IO Classical from Tampa

WQXR

WGBH

3MBS Radio from Melbourne,Austrailia

Radio Classique - Paris, France

WFMT

Radio Swiss Classic

I could not easily find 1.FM but with a little work I might be able to locate that one too. Anyway, you get my point. Creating a bookmark for classical radio stations is all one need do and they too can have access to more classical music choices than they could possibly enjoy or listen to!

Kevin

Ahh...I found the 1.FM Otto's Baroque station on RadioTime. Here is the link:

1.FM Otto's Baroque Musick

I might add that Radio Time lists over 500 classical stations to listen to online. Here is the link:

RadioTime Classical Listings

Interesting that the first one listed is WRR. The local station I listen to!

Kevin

Radio Time Classical Listings looks like an excellent link, thanks Kevin.

Thanks for the links Kevin, I think we have a net radio station topic in the links forum (we do have forums other than the General discussion room here! )

I know! I did post in the INTODUCTIONS forum!

Kevin

I take your point Kevin but it's an online streaming device so it goes without saying that these stations must be online otherwise the Squeezebox has no material to stream! The whole point of the Squeezebox is convenience and that is it's big selling point not to mention it''s a fraction of the size of a laptop never mind a desktop pc.It brings thousands of stations to one very convenient location and each station can be accessed at the touch of a button.By the way there is no need for your pc to be on to access the stations.The device gets the channels wirelessly through the router.Believe me, it beats the hell out of having to turn on my pc every time i want to hear the radio.On top of that i don't have to click the bookmark, load the website then start the buffering of the stream.All that for just one channel? Phew Try browsing hundreds of channels that way and you won't be long giving up and sticking to one or two channels at the most.I wonder how many people if given the option would buy a tv without a remote if it saved them fifty dollars?They know they can walk to the tv and change the channel without the need for a remote but how many would you think would take up the offer?I'm pretty certain only an extreme minority.It's all about time, convenience and practicality.The world is too fast and life too short.
As for the cost it's probably overpriced just like cds,dvds and most other products.Having said that i think the savings on electricity over time by not having to boot up your pc every time you need to hear the radio would make up for the extra cost, eventually.
If you are perfectly content with your setup then it makes no sense for you to pay for this gadget you feel you can do without.
I support your right to choose.Good for you.

Believe me i have no links whatsoever with Logitech but wouldn't say no to a cheque from them.
It's not a pocket radio price but to be fair it's a long way from being one too.
I 'm very impressed with it and just thought some of the members might like to know that a device of it's type is available and most importantly works effeciently.
You never know, some might be delighted they were told after checking it out?

It's not that I don't like or appreciate the technology behind the device Jessop. It's just that I believe that radio stations are like restaurants. It is a verifiable fact that most people only frequent from five to ten restaurants on a regular basis and I believe the same holds true for radio stations. Once you find the five to ten stations you really enjoy it's not likely you will browse around for others after the novelty wears off. So, for me bookmarking ten stations I love is probably sufficient to take care of my personal radio needs. Not to mention the $265 U.S. price is a huge deterrent when I already own a PC that will do the very same thing. As far as th energy savings the boot up is nothing for me because my PC is on 24/7. It actually considerably shortens the life of your motherboard by turning the PC on and off so mine is always on demand already. I also have FIOS (fiber optics) and the buffering time on any station is probably less than 7 seconds.

Kevin

Interesting discussion, but thinking about it I could create my ideal CM radio station simply by putting my digital audio player on shuffle! I suppose I could record a few of my own in-between-track commentaries that would then appear at random, stuff like 'this is great..' and 'you're going to like this one...' :D

What would you call it? 'Radio Rod'?

I bet you spent hours thinking of that one Mel? 'Rod' has his own 'Radio'.. er.. er.. er.. :idea: