Product Reviews

Radio stations have been broadcasting on the Internet for almost as long as the web has existed, but until recently, even with the ability to listen using iTunes, Internet radio been largely ignored. Now, though, a range of dedicated Internet radios from a number of manufacturers make it almost as easy to tune into KCRW in Santa Monica as Radio 1 on FM or DAB.

The Noxon 2 Audio is one such device. As well as enabling you to tune in and listen to 2,500 Internet radio stations around the world, it connects to your Mac over a wired or wireless network so you can stream your MP3 collection to an amplifier or hi-fi system anywhere in the house.

The unit itself looks like a Mac mini with a large LCD bolted onto the front and an antenna sticking up from its rear. It connects to your network by means of a built-in 802.11g interface, which supports WEP and WPA encryption, or Ethernet. It also has a USB port so you can plug in a storage device and play music directly from it, too.

The Noxon 2 Audio is Universal Plug 'n' Play compatible and ships with Elgato's EyeConnect software for Mac. It can play Internet radio in MP3 or MMS format, MP3 audio files at up to 320Kbits/sec, WMA9 unprotected at up to 320Kbits/sec and Windows Media DRM10 protected files. It doesn't, however, support AAC files - protected or unprotected - although

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Terratec tells us it's working on a software upgrade to enable unprotected AAC files to be played. It doesn't play RealPlayer files, either. This won't be any hardship most of the time, but it does mean it can't connect to the BBC's Listen Again service at the moment. However, the BBC has said that it's moving away from RealPlayer and will use Windows Media in the future.

In addition to its network and USB ports, the Noxon 2 Audio has RCA audio and an optical digital audio output on its back, and a 3.5mm headphone jack on its side. Along the top are pleasingly large buttons for power, play/pause, step forward, step backward, stop and a menu navigation control. The LCD is bright and large enough to be seen from across the room when used with the supplied infrared remote control.

Setting up the Noxon 2 Audio is straightforward, which is just as well, as the manual, comprehensive though it is, isn't particularly helpful. Once powered up and connected to your network (either wired or wireless), the in-built configuration wizard steps you through the process of connecting to your Lan and the outside world. For home use, it should be a quick and easy process, as your router will assign it an IP address via DHCP. You then have the option of whether to employ encryption or not. To stream music from your Mac, you need to install EyeConnect, which will immediately allow you to share MP3 files from your iTunes library.

When you first listen to Internet Radio on the Noxon, it downloads and stores a list of stations, and catalogues them by geographical location and genre. Once you've found a station you like, you can save it as a preset.

In our tests, the Terratec Noxon 2 Audio worked very well. The inability to play AAC files is a serious limitation for using with iTunes, but this should be fixed very soon. As a way of listening to Internet radio through your preferred audio system, however, it's excellent.