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74 of 78 persons found the following review helpful.
Beautiful sound…
By looking around
I did a lot of exploration before I got this unit. It came down amid the Philips Streamium and the Denon S32. I decisive to go with the S32 because of past experiences with Philips – they make awful products, but they have the nasty habit of canceling production AND pulling all support (Many years ago – 14 to be precise – I had a Philips Nino PDA, and all of a sudden: bye-bye! from the company!) Unlike other folks, I did read the description of this product, so I did not suppose a CD nor a DVD player (weird!)
The pros: Internet radio, capacity to invent favorites lists – so it adds a semblance of institution to the thousands of radio stations that you may end up with! News from around the World, in their firstborn languages. I speak various languages and this is a great way to keep the exercise up! Deep rich sound, not over bassy like other systems. I love the high contrast white led display – I may read it from almost any angle (while in bed – perfect!) and you may always dim it if you think is too bright. I likewise in truth like the sleep function, I like to read before going to sleep and this function serves as a reminder!
The cons: no Mac support! What up with this???!!! Even altho it says: “Plays audio stored on PC or Macintosh computers…” NOT true… I read the instructions, top to bottom and unless I missed something (or I was having too a great deal of drinks!) I did not find any mention whatsoever of Mac, anywhere, at all! – that’s the 1st star off. The 2nd star off comes because of poor WiFi reception. It comes with a bitty 3db antenna, come on, for the price, they could’ve thrown in at least a 7db antenna! I have a “Chumby” ([...]) which is also a WiFi radio player (of sorts) and this bitty thing has much better reception than the S32 unit; I solved the problem by getting an Airport Express and extending the coverage of my Airport Extreme… kind of disappointed regarding the reception issue (but solved by spending $100 extra!) Another fact, but I do not consider it a negative (more or less) is that I can not charge my iPhone on the S32 – kind of silly, when closely all iPod productions coming out these days CAN charge the iPhone – but then I be grateful for the peace and quiet of not having a phone in my room when I go to sleep!
Overall: Highly commend it!
45 of 48 persons found the following review helpful.
It has the features – it just does not deliver
By D. Pray
I am a tech guy and don’t mind if it is difficult to set up as long as it works as described. This things menu system is not easy to use.
The manual is not well written.
Seems like galore executives told galore laborers to add all these tech features to the radio but the laborers did not understand how the tech worked.
Maybe my expected values were too high, but then the price of this item would tend to make an individual have high expectations.
I didn’t even get to test the ipod which I have read on here with regards to a heap of big cons.
Here are mine…
Pros:
Looks good
Has lots of features
Compact
Comes with a remote
Internet radio works
2 Alarms
Got on the gold box deal
Cons:
Sound Quality not even close to my 10 year old altec lansing computer speakers
Display not good
Does not work with Macs unless you buy twonky
Denon’s web website states it works with iTunes, but it does not
PC Music through twonky works poorly and it unusable on a mac
Could not get wifi to work only ethernet
Jog wheel a pain to use to enter wifi password
Bass-XT – what bass? and no way to adjust
Spatial EQ – only automatic? no way to adjust.
Poor Interface and menu system
Internet radio does not show bit rate – you may listen that the bit rate is low but would be nice to see it so you may skip that station.
No time shown while playing music.
Some defects. I just expected better from Denon.
It is going back.
24 of 24 humans found the following review helpful.
Quality Internet / uPNP Radio with a heap of limitations
By JB
The Denon S-32 is a versatile unit that holds an AM-FM radio, iPod / iPhone dock, Internet streaming radio, uPNP streaming music from a local computer or storage device, and Rhapsody player. I have had prospect to check out most of the features except for Rhapsody, with a good deal of remarks below:
AM-FM requires use of included external antennas. FM reception is adequate, but not as good as other FM radios I own; I have not genuinely had much reason to test the AM section. The AM-FM section feels like an afterthought, but may come in handy on occasion.
iPod / iPhone Dock – iPod dock works great with my 6th Gen. Classic, and work but will not charge my iPhone 3G. The major functions I use most many times (artist / album / genre, shuffle, playlists) work seamlessly on the Denon.
Internet Streaming – the S-32 gets it is list of Internet station from the 3rd party vTuner service through the radiodenon web site. There are an approximated 7000 stations / podcats available, and the radiodenon internet site allows users to manually add stations missing from the current list or suggest additions to VTuner. I asked vTuner when it comes to the availability of a specific ESPN podcast that was missing, and received a response within a day that the podcast would be added to the list. I’m hoping I may figure out a way to add channels like Live365 / Slacker / Pandora that are available on the competing Logitech Squeezebox Boom Wi-Fi Internet Radio, but even without these I can not complain when it comes to the potpourri of channels available. (Note: the S-32 may presently listen to stations in MP3 and WMA format; Real streams like the BBC feeds are not available.)
uPNP Streaming – I was competent to connect the S-32 to my music library on a Synology Network Attached Storage (NAS) with uPNP server. Unfortunately, this feature does not help shuffle play and is slower / clunkier than using my iPod with the same music files. I also had assorted instances where the S-32 was unable to connect to the uPNP server or rebooted while attempting to do so.
*Edit – the Denon S-32 documentation does not note any compatibility with uPNP, but rather specifies a computer running XP and WMP 11. I’ll let others reviewers note how the Denon works with the commended music server setup.
Sound – ordinarily rather good giving careful consideration to the physical size of the unit, but on a good deal of music the sound may get a get “boomy.” This unit would gain mainly from a lot of sort of bass and treble adjustment.
Other – this unit is a beast, weighing in at over 13 pounds, and has no battery option; I will lug it out to my patio or garage on occasion, but this unit is best as a stationary tabletop radio. The remote is fine, and the backlit display is a nice feature.
Overall – I’m pleased with feature set of the S-32, though I’m hoping that future firmware updates will improve the performance of uPNP streaming. It surely helped that I was capable to take vantage of a outstanding Black Friday deal on the S-32, but even at regular price it is worth a look. Compare this radio to the Logitech Squeezebox productions and see what features of each appeal to you.
Edit – I’ve now had the chance to compare this to the Squeezebox Boom. The Denon may get louder before distorting, even though at moderate volume levels both sound pretty good. It likewise has an iPod dock the Squeezebox lacks. But the Squeezebox is more portable, has a better display, includes bass and treble adjustments, offers services like Live365 and the BBC that the Denon lacks, and IMHO has a much better user interface. The Squeezebox also does such a good occupation at streaming my music collection that an iPod doesn’t actually seem necessary anymore. The Denon is still a 4-star unit, but in comparison the Squeezebox Boom gets a solid 5 stars from me.
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