Internet Radio


I'm looking to add internet radio accessibility to my listening room environment. Right now I use my iPad, taking the headphone out to a cable that is terminated with stereo RCAs on the other end. It mostly works.

But I'm thinking there should be better. I see the Grace digital tuner, about $165. Seems the knock is lousy user interface. Today I saw a Sonos Connect and bridge- would run about $400. Some complain the wifi connection isn't robust. I also see the Magnum Dynalab tuners, which is way more that I can justify right now.

If anyone has experience with this stuff I'd appreciate your insights. I would go with then Sonos is if it's a solid answer to my needs.
128x128zavato
Zavato, As you've found out, IPad has its limitations as a source, but one interesting trick is to buy the IPad Camera Connection Kit for $29. This gives you a USB connection, with some caveats. An undocumented feature is that this USB will bypass the earphone port and actually stream digital output at a resolution of up to 24/96. I think this goes through some of IPad's onboard Cirrus Logic circuitry.
Then you connect this to a DAC. The DAC must have its own power source, and I don't think asynchronous DAC's will work. I've successfully streamed Pandora Radio and several other radio apps, as well as high-res FLAC files from an IPad into a Bel Canto DAC 3.0. It actually sounds surprisingly good.

That said, most folks seem to use IPads in their system as wireless controllers of a PC or Mac as the source, via DLNA.

There are also a few good articles floating around regarding its use in digital audio.

Good luck!
I have used the Pure I-20 and it's a nice unit. The Dac works like a charm, way better than apple's analog dock.

Sound may be a bit colored.