Revo Pico--GREAT portable internet radio

[Mike Walker]

I picked up a Revo Pico last week when CCrane was blowing them out at 99.95. This is my second Reciva-based internet radio, the other one is a Revo Blik. Well the Pico is fantastic! So far it's completely glitch-free, works perfectly with my wifi network, and sounds great. The FM tuner is far better than expected as well...having no difficulty at all separating WFDD in Winston-Salem (NC) on 88.5 from WNCW in Spindale (NC) on 88.7 at my Wilkes County location (between the two, but closer to Winston-Salem). The sound is quite good in stereo through headphones, with no audible noise from my Bose on-ear 'phones, my V-Moda Bass Freq earbuds, Sennheiser CX300 earbuds, or Sennheiser HD-435 'phones. It's a winner! If you see one at a decent price, buy it!

 

[listener-in]

While I have no direct experience of this radio, I'm guessing there's a reason for C. Crane's blowout sale. I was in the market for an internet radio and checked the specs of several models, including the Revo Pico. I decided that while a portable WiFi would be great to have, I didn't want to deal with a battery life of only 4 hours per charge. At the time it turned out to be just as economical to buy a couple of C. Crane's model for different rooms. It's a great radio, very compact, and allows 99 presets. No FM, but then there are probably plenty of inexpensive portable FM radios with tuning as good as the Revo Pico.

 

[Mike Walker]

Listener-in, you would "assume" that there's a reason they were selling it at such a low price? You'd be right. It (horror) was introduced in 2007, and is an old model that's been discontinued. Ah ha! Replaced! Yep. By the Revo Pico IR, a nearly identical twin which costs THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS, but does, in fact, boast longer battery life. Reality check: how often do you listen for more than four straight hours to a radio on battery power? The longest I ever listen is about three hours, the length of the longest of my favorite radio programs (The Tech Guy, with Leo Laporte). But if, perhaps, you listen all day at work, then four hours probably won't do it. Unless, of course, your place of business has one of those new-fangled AC power outlets.

"There must be some reason".....yes...there's always "some reason". Every product eventually comes to the end of it's life cycle. That's a good thing for bargain hunters, because often it means big discounts before they restock the newer, only slightly revised new model at three times the price! Whatever, it's not like I'm trying to convince you to buy one. They sold out the first day of the sale, because it was, as I've indicated, a HELLUVA' buy!

And no, there aren't lots of inexpensive radios that can separate stations on 1st adjacent channels this well...which is precisely why I commented on this ability. Had there been "lots of radios" that could do this, I would hardly have bothered!

 

[listener-in]

Walker, for what it’s worth, I was trying to be helpful. Glad you are happy with your purchase, but to me, any radio that runs out its charge after four hours isn’t worth half what you paid. Just because you can’t imagine how others' needs may differ from yours is no reason for sarcasm.

The company obviously views battery life the same way I do, otherwise why would it come up with "a nearly identical twin [which] does, in fact, boast longer battery life"?

 

[Starbucks]

I picked up a Revo Pico last week when CCrane was blowing them out at 99.95. This is my second Reciva-based internet radio, the other one is a Revo Blik. Well the Pico is fantastic! So far it's completely glitch-free, works perfectly with my wifi network, and sounds great. The FM tuner is far better than expected as well...having no difficulty at all separating WFDD in Winston-Salem (NC) on 88.5 from WNCW in Spindale (NC) on 88.7 at my Wilkes County location (between the two, but closer to Winston-Salem). The sound is quite good in stereo through headphones, with no audible noise from my Bose on-ear 'phones, my V-Moda Bass Freq earbuds, Sennheiser CX300 earbuds, or Sennheiser HD-435 'phones. It's a winner! If you see one at a decent price, buy it!

I went to read the reviews on this unit on Amazon. It got an overall rating of (1-5) 3. Some as nice as yours, and some ripping this receiver to shreds. I've been researching myself for the best wi-fi unit, and let me ask you these questions....does it have external speaker or headphone jack, can you tune in to Real Player and Live 365 stations. And have access to Sirius/XM if I wanted? Or is it there any radio internet players you cannot receive. Does it have a clock interface with the name of the station or is it seperate?

 

[Mike Walker]

Let me try to answer all your questions, Starbucks. Last first...there's no clock interface, but yes it does display the name of stations. It does not, however, read song title-artist meta data as so some other internet radios.

There's no access to XM-Sirius that I'm aware of...not a big problem for me with SIXTEEN THOUSAND other stations. I may be wrong about that, as WinAmp carries the Sirius/XM music channels, so you may be able to figure out the streaming URLs from that. This radio also does not receive Pandora, as do some of the other Reciva-based radios...which is the only real downer for me. I love Pandora! There's a really tweaky, techy way to get Pandora, but it involves using another computer to receive Pandora, and re-encode it on-the-fly using Windows Media Encoder. I've done it, and it works, but then I"m weird, and it's a lot of trouble. If you want to try, there's a post on my blog done in '07. Look for the "Pandora on a Pocket PC" post. This applies to any audio you can hear on your pc, not just Pandora. http://hearitseeit.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2007-10-20T03:13:00-07:00&max-results=7

As for Live 365 stations, if you can get the URL of their stream, it can sure play it. The bigger Live 365 stations are already in the Reciva database. There are lots of programs out there for determining streaming URLs, even pulling them from flash-based players. I use the "URL-Finder" feature from the "Replay AV" program from Applian. Let it run, tune in the stream you want to find the URL for in your browser, then copy that URL, and past it into the "My Streams" section of the Reciva website. Next time you turn on your radio, BOOM, there is your Live 365 (or other) station.

Yes, it does receive stations using Real Audio, as well as Windows Media (wma), AAC+, AIFF, and MP3...just about everything. There probably are some tiny stream types out there that Reciva-based players can't play, but not many. If you're unable, for instance, to determine the URL of a flash-based station, then that would qualify. I haven't had this problem, however.
If what you're interested in is a nationally syndicated show on, say, NPR (I love Wait Wait Don't Tell me, A Prarie Home Companion, and others), there's always another station out there carrying the show. Even my little syndicated oldies show (Saving the 70s) is available on 26 affiliates, as well as directly from my website http://www.savingthe70s.com

You can always get the latest of my shows on your Reciva Based radio by putting this URL into your "My Streams" page http://www.theproductionroom.net/latestshow.ram

And yes, there's a headphone jack. Other players, like my Reciva Blik, have both a headphone AND line output (RCA Jacks). The Pico has just the headphone jack, which functions fine as a line out. It's a good thing the (tabletop) Blik has RCA outputs, as the frequency response from the headphone jack is, frankly, awful. I use an external headphone amp with that radio.

Anyone looking for a standalone internet radio to be as simple to operate as a garden-variety AM/FM unit will be disappointed. Frankly, it's a little "tweaky", but still much more convenient than listening on your PC, especially with a portable like the Pico.

 

[Starbucks]

So you can set up the Reciva with this unit. how about Squeeze box or is that a Logictech thing. So far how has the quality when you hook it to computer sound speakers or good digital?
Explain this line...i don't know if your down grading the unit, or your making a positive comment. (Anyone looking for a standalone internet radio to be as simple to operate as a garden-variety AM/FM unit will be disappointed. Frankly, it's a little "tweaky", but still much more convenient than listening on your PC, especially with a portable like the Pico.)

 

[Mike Walker]

Starbucks by that line I simply mean that when you buy an AM/FM radio, you simply take it home and turn it on. NO internet radio, including the Squeezebox or Logitech unit, is that simple. If it's Reciva-based, you must register it at the Website (no big deal, just follow the instructions). And you must set the radio up to work with your network, entering any password used for WEP or WPA encryption. Again, no big deal...but "tweaky" for a non-technical person. And after that, NO internet radio is "instant-on" like an AM/FM radio. When you turn it on, it must first find your network, then log onto it, finally it must find the stream you were last listening to, and buffer it. THEN it starts playing...perhaps 30 seconds later. Remember, an internet radio IS A COMPUTER, running (in the case of the Revo units) an ARM CPU, designed for cell phones and pdas. Still, it IS easlier, and more hassle-free than listening to internet radio on your PC, because Reciva aggregates all the content in one place. You can also program in any streams that aren't in Reciva's database...such as this one http://www.theproductionroom.net/latestshow.ram which, if programmed into your "My Streams" section on Reciva, will allow you to hear my show, "Saving the 70s" whenever you like.

 

[Starbucks]

One more question..I'm almost sold on this if I can still find it new at the 99.00 price. How is the sound, bass response , and if you hook it up to external speakers.? it's not tinny, or can it drive a decent pair of good bookshelf digital speakers?

 

[Mike Walker]

The first thing I did when I got mine running was plug in my Bose on-ear headphones, and stream a favorite song from my library. At first I thought it was bass-shy, but that's just because it's something I (too) was afraid of. When I compared the same song playing through my headphones, plugged straight into my sound card, the tonal balance was the same. I even created a series of test tones on a file, with tones at 10hz intervals from 100hz to 20hz. Every single tone was clearly audible, including the brain-rattling ones below 40hz! It's all there, Starbucks!

CCrane is sold out of this radio. Good luck finding one!

 

[Starbucks]

Thanks for the info....If I get a chance to find one at that price, I will pick one up. Listened to your show...good production, If my internet was 70's ....I place it on and give it shot. BUT let me give you a tip, which happens to be my major pet peeve....Please NO Re-Recordings. That Leif Garrett was a re-recording. Your better off playing a Live version because usually, the remake never sounds as good as the original. Many of them are awful, you don't know how they recorded it so good the first time.
Remember this....."If it's not the Original...You don't Have It". It will be a famous saying one day that came from me , Just like "A Penny Saved is A Penny Earned". Remember that.

 

[Mike Walker]

Starbucks, I've tried like crazy to have no re-recordings. It's one of my "pet peeves" as well (and they make lovely pets!) That is probably the first "re-recording" ever on Savin gthe 70s, and it's there simply because I didn't remember what the original sounded like. I thought it WAS the original. I carry around in my head the sound of the vast majority of 70s hits, but I'll be damned if I have any recollection of this one. Thanks for pointing that out. I'll try (hard!) to NEVER let it happen again. That show hasn't aired on any stations yet. I'll try to replace the song before it does.

 

[gunterm]

I always like any radio using the Receiva chipset for a number of reasons:

1. Windows media and mp3 support (aac+ I've not checked)
2. Cheap chipset licensing which makes the devices cheap ($99 is a great price)

I haven't seen any radio new for that price so far except for one the Reciva ones in europe (Recieva is based in the UK) so that's a great find!.

 

[phil]

After reading this thread, I decided I wanted one. I had just checked CCrane this morning and didn't see this one, so decided to Google "Revo Pico cheap." Amazon came up first ($274.95), then Techmall (Out of Stock). About 5th was CCrane. So I clicked the link and it went to their web site and showed "in Stock." So I clicked on "put in cart" and proceeded to checkout, expecting somewhere along the line to have it rejected. It went all the way through without a hitch. Still not sure, I just checked my account with CCrane, and it shows shipped by "UPS" this afternoon. So it looks like I got one for $99.95 plus shipping. I won't know for sure until it gets here. Maybe they had one returned and I was lucky. It will be interesting to see if it has been opened and resealed. (I had just ordered a Soundbridge tuner this morning).

 

[alg2468]

I just purchased the RCA Infinite Radio model RIR205 and it has an alarm clock, AM/FM Radio, Slacker Radio, MP3 player, Weatherbug, and best of all streaming Internet Radio. I bought the radio from J&R on the internet and am very pleased with it. It was a bargain at only $86 including shipping. It is also sold under the Acoustic Research and Audiovox names. Find out more information at www.rcainfiniteradio.com.