Sound quality is good but missing alarm function, (What's this?) Sound quality is better then I expected and it is solidly constructed. However, alarm function is not available, a major diviation from the owner's manual. I hope it will be added thru a future firmware upgrade. Adding my own favorite stations was a breeze via the embeded server(read owner's manual p25). For $100 I think it is quite a good buy.
poor customer service, (What's this?) It worked for a couple of months before it just stopped booting up. Hearing back from the company took forever. I contacted them well within the warranty, but by the time I heard back from them, 1 year had elapsed. They tried selling me a used unit for $50 + $10 shipping and handling. No thanks. Way more trouble than it's worth. I have no faith that a different unit won't have problems, and even less faith that this company will provide a satisfactory customer service response. Lesson learned.
Upgrade Firmware Immediately, (What's this?) I selected this internet radio for only one reason: the product is not tied to any commercial portal such as reciva or vtuner. If those portals should go out of business, this radio would work just fine. The device has a built-in web interface so you can cut-paste up to 255 URL links to radio stations of your choice and no any third party inserts itself between you and the broadcaster. The web interface look rather dull, however (ugly fonts, no any bitmaps). URL-s can be assigned to several predefined groups such us: "my favorite", news, music, info, sports, finance. It would be nice to change the names and the number of those groups too. Another missing feature is a backup option for all URL links.
The radio has good audio quality. This is not a surprise because the company manufactures traditional transistor radios too. Before this radio, I bought VTech IS9181 with much more modern feel and a really nice color screen but I had to return it because IS9181 did not play any low (20 kbps) and high (128 kbps) bitrate Windows Media Audio 9 (WMA9) streams that I tried. Moreover, bass on IS9181 was too overwhelming for talk shows and thin California walls. KAIR168 can tune to those stations but it has tons of other annoyances. Similarly to VTech IS9181, KAITO KAIR168 cannot play WMA10 Pro streams. I am a bit fuzzy on streaming protocols but for me MMS and HTTP (e.g. with OGG) worked fine while RTSP did not (KAITO claims that the RTSP protocol should work as well).
substandard stationlist, We bought this radio in Sept 09 and were quite satified. Unfortunately, since May 2010 it can no longer receive several BBC stations as the links have changed. The given worldwide station-links which you can choose from is managed by [...] which is run out of China. Unfortunately they do not react to any faxes or requests to renew the appropriate links and still list the non-functioning stations on their website. Therefore we can no longer recommend this radio. You had better check the stations you want in the shop before buying this radio. Our other radios which use other providers still work on same stations without fail.
Richard_A, (What's this?) Excellent product; has very good sound.
Kaito IR-168 Great Product, (What's this?) I'm pleased with this product. One of the most important features for me is the ability to do configuration with the embedded web server. With simple URL copy/paste I've added my own favorite radio stations. There is a master database website at [...
Ok Radio, But might not be right for you., (What's this?) I purchased the Kaito KAIR 168 on Amazon. I really have no fault with the way the radio works, but I will make some points some of which were already made by others:
1. Make sure you download the latest firmware. Although my radio is brand new, the firmware was out of date.
2. If you are using this radio to listen to music you might be diappointed because the interanl speaker plays only one channel, not a combonation of both, so you WILL need a second speaker or it will be annyoing to listen to music. If your primary reason is to use the radio for talk rather than music, this won't be an issue.
3. It is kind of nice to use the embedded server to access the radio, and you can progam it whatever station you want and you don't need to rely on a "Third party" to provide this function.
4. I have no connectivity issues with this radio; it boots up fine and connects quite well.
5. Do your homework; evidenlty while this radio will play thousands of stations unfornunately for me not the ones I wanted. I wanted to listen to a couple of stations from CBS radio, and while I have what I believe to be the correct URL the radio will not play these stations. I am not a computer guy but the staions use "radio.com" & it simply won't allow me to listen.
6. I have to say that this radio was packed so poorly I could not believe it. It was thrown into the shipping box upside down, with no where near the correct amount of packing material. Based upon my Amazon experiences to date that seems to be normal.
'Tis indeed a nice radio, but..., I've had this radio for a year now, and I still love it, I still use it every day, but now in December 2011 I'm changing my star rating from 4 to 2 because now I don't feel that it's recommendable to most people. The manufacturer has abandoned it, so the firmware and list of radio stations are no longer updated. If you're computer literate and a tinkerer, it's still a great radio, but it is definitely in the tinkerer category now and no longer an internet appliance (i.e., an appliance is something you just expect to be able to use without thinking about how it works).
Two other points I want to add to my old review: This radio will play FLAC files (I don't see that mentioned in the specs) via your home network. However, it doesn't play the last couple of seconds of MP3 and FLAC files--not pleasant unless you've created your files with about 5 seconds of added silence at the end.
Good but could be better, (What's this?) KAITO HAS BASICALLY ABANDONED ITS USER FORUM WHICH IS WHERE YOU WOULD GO FOR IMMEDIATE SUPPORT FOR THE RADIO USAGE. listed MODERATORS DO NOT APPEAR TO BE PRESENT. KAITO HAS NOT DELIVERED PROMISED SOFTWARE UPDATES. ALTHOUGH I CONTINUE TO USE THE RADIO I PURCHASED PREVIOUSLY, I WOULD THINK LONG AND HARD BEFORE PURCHASING THIS RADIO NOW WITH THE CURRENT STATUS QUO OF KAITO NON SUPPORT.
Solid wood cabinet provides rich and clear sound.Before you can use your Internet radio.Wirelessly stream over 10,000 radio stations from the world using your home WiFi network.Has 255 memories.SD/MMC card slot available + earphone jack + RJ45 ethernet jack. The Kaito IR-168 internet radio allows you easy access to more than 11,000 radio stations around the world with no subscription fees, just turn on the unit and it will automatically connect to a wireless network giving you a whole new world of entertainment. You also can connect it to a local network with an ethernet cable using the RJ45 jack if you prefer. Search for radio programs geographically by continent/country/state or by more than 30 different available categories including news, sports, music weather or even traffic information throughout the world. Once you find a favorite station simply add it to your favorite stations for easy access in the future, storing up to 255 favorite stations. The radio is housed in a solid wood cabinet casing that provides clear and rich sound. The unit comes with a SD/MMC memory card slot for playing your favorite MP3 music, and supports multiple languages including English, Chinese, French, Spanish and German.
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