C. Crane CC WiFi 3 Internet Radio with Skytune, Bluetooth Receiver, Clock and Alarm with Remote Control, Access to Thousands of Radio Stations Worldwide

I love this radio! The set-up instructions are very easy to follow, and in no time at all I was able to listen to my favorite station, Folk Alley, without having to turn on my computer or use my cell phone. Although that was the only station I was interested in, this radio offers multitudes of stations from all over the world. My only quibble is that the maximum volume is not very loud, but I can live with that.

I've wanted to purchase an internet radio for quite some time. After doing a lot of research, I opted to buy this terrific radio. So far, it hasn't disappointed me. Although this was my first internet radio, setup was extremely easy, and I was up and running in minutes. Skytune has plenty of stations, and I had no problems going from station to station. The radio was very responsive, and the sound is the best I've heard from a radio this size with a single speaker, which is excellent. It really is a lot of fun playing with this radio just to hear what people in other countries are listening to! I also tried the Bluetooth feature with iHeartRadio, TuneIn Radio, and Radio Garden; it worked perfectly with TuneIn Radio and Radio Garden, but iHeartRadio inexplicably didn't stream over everything. Not really a big deal, and I suspect it had something to do with the iHeartRadio app not playing nice with the radio.Setting up Skytune presets in the radio is very easy, but I was more interested in setting up presets that were not dependent on having Skytune service. After all, it doesn’t hurt to be prepared should the service suddenly not be available! Well, that proved to be quite challenging, because the radio stream url information for most radio stations is very difficult, if not impossible, to find. Nevertheless, I kept at it, and eventually was able to successfully locate this information for many stations and add several preset stations. Patience and persistence are the keys, and you’ll be able to easily do the same thing with no difficulty for a lot of radio stations.Are there areas for improvement? In a word, yes. For example, the radio does not come with a built-in rechargeable battery, nor can you add batteries to the radio. Not a big deal, but if you want the radio to be a truly portable radio you’ll have to get a power bank. If you don’t have one already, a good one will set you back about $20.00. Additionally, having another aggregator service besides Skytune, and/or having iHeartRadio, Spotify, Pandora, etc., available in the radio itself, would also be nice. Don’t get me wrong, Skytune seems to provide an excellent service. But if Skytune shuts down, most of the functionality of the radio for the majority of users goes away, leaving you with a pretty black box. The remote control is functional, but the buttons feel a bit “mushy”, and overall is not up to the same build quality as the radio itself. Finally, it would be great if the radio incorporated an “old school” radio to listen to local AM and FM radio without the need for WiFi connectivity. Not only would this give users an additional option if Skytune was unavailable, but it would also be useful during emergencies when power was unavailable.So, even though I have a “wish list” of improvements for the radio, at the end of the day it is a great radio. It works flawlessly, my list of improvements are relatively minor, and I can get nearly all of my suggested improvements from other radios and equipment I’ve purchased over the years. Maybe the next generation of the radio (WiFi4?) will have some of these additions, but as it stands this is a great radio that’s easy to use and will put a smile on your face.

I just recently acquired a C CRANE "CCWiFi3" Internet radio, and here's my thoughts ----I bought it because C. Crane has an excellent reputation and so what could be wrong with this purchase? It turns out - "nothing wrong as desired!!"I have several Internet radios (maybe about 15), all are Grace Digital and Ocean Digital, and all are excellent!!!One in particular, an Ocean Digital Model WR-210N is of interest because it is a "spittin' image of this new C Crane CCWiFi33!! The enclosure, except for the front panel, is unquestionably cast from the same mold!!! Go Figure, Right? Could this mean that the Crane radio was made for them by Ocean Digital?More about this and the front panel, later as I continue my investigative task. James A. Clarke, Hilton, NY

Love the little radio!

Trying to replace my 2 Logitech Squeezebox internet radios, which no longer function after Logitech shut down the server providing access to the streaming radio channels on the Internet, proved to be quite a difficult task. The reviews for the C.Crane model looked promising, and the price is reasonable, so I bought one and have used it for 4 days now. So far I'm very impressed with how well thought out the radio is and how quickly it loads the various channels. I am particularly pleased that I can bypass the horrible Tunein Radio front-end that I was forced to use on my Ipad in order to listen to the free CNN and MSNBC audio feeds, important to me because I am a cord-cutter and no longer have access to either of these news channels on my TV. On Tunein using my Ipad, you are forced to listen to a minute-long commercial every time you called up either of these new channels, and the commercials that played during the regular network commercials were repeated and repeated, often stringing together the same commercial 2 or 3 times in a row just to work the listener's last nerve. The C.Crane uses the Skytune server, which I'd never heard of, but it works smoothly and, so far, no commercials when loading the channels.There are a few cons, but they are mostly minor. The screen font is too small for my aging eyes without straining, and the volume of some channels (including CNN and MSNBC) is too low. What I decided to do was to bypass the weak volume on the C.Crane by using the Line Out port on the C. Crane to output the audio to a AC powered speaker (most available powered speakers use batteries, which would require constantly recharging batteries, something I did not want to do). This required quite a lot of research, but I finally found the Creative Labs GigaWorks T40 Series II Speakers, which come as a pair and cost around $100. This obviously raises the price, but the audio is now almost as good as the Logitech Squeezebox, highly regarded for its built-in stereo speakers, not a small feat. Even better, the C.Crane has a Sleep feature which shuts down the radio after a selectable number of minutes so I can listen to the radio as I fall asleep in bed, and the Creative Labs speakers automatically shut down after 10 minutes of silence from the connected radio, so both shut down as I go to sleep, although it takes the speakers a little longer to get the message and shut down. Result: very happy customer.