Labs

Revo's Mondo Wi-Fi is a wireless internet radio and streaming media receiver. It can stream audio files from a UPnP streaming server, access your SMB network shares and connect to over 10,000 internet radio stations via the Reciva portal. The SMB compatibility is particularly useful, as you aren't restricted by the file formats supported by your UPnP server software. However, you can browse only one SMB share at a time, and must scan for files every time you change directory.

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Mondo is one of the smallest, least expensive audio receivers here. Although it has an alarm clock and sleep timer, it doesn't have an internal speaker, so it isn't too practical as a bedside clock radio. Its only ports are stereo phono sockets and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Volume adjustments only affect the headphone socket. Five buttons on top of the receiver are all you need to configure and use it, but the basic remote control has extra buttons to store presets, skip tracks and edit queues.

Strangely, the receiver couldn't connect to our wireless network until we enabled AES WPA encryption on our router as well as TKIP WPA encryption, and it lost its connection more frequently than most other receivers in the group.

This affordable receiver has support for a wide range of audio formats, including OGG, AAC and RealAudio. The Reciva internet radio service is great, and SMB support makes the Mondo Revo even more flexible. Sadly, due to its unreliable wireless networking and lack of an Ethernet port, we can't recommend it unless you're on a tight budget.