Roberts WM201

I have two WM201's which I have owned for nigh on two years. Both have been back to Roberts for repair. Both have severe intermittent problems.

I use them in France on a LAN running though the electrical mains. The technician at Roberts doesn't like this but it works for both my other two internet radios [Orange 'LiveRadio' and Scott RXi 400WL] both of which have worked flawlessly for eighteen months - both via WiFi and over the LAN!

Both my WM-201's periodically give up the ghost. They may or may not precede their silent sulk by the most awful buzzing, especially if something is drawing a lot of electrical power while the radio is playing - for example the kettle, washing machine or dishwasher, and sometimes even if it is not, (but is plugged in!)

On other occasions they pick up the signal but remain silent. I can plug in headphones though the 'Line out' socket - Not the Headphone socket , mark you and hear the broadcast but nothing comes through the speakers!

The most serious problem however is the fact that one of the two WM-201's will not allow a factory reset. This means that I cannot reset the presets I have entered nor upgrade the firmware not check on new stations nor upgrade existing channels. This is really, really bad.

The WM-201 uses a Reciva chip. This can be bad news. Look at

https://forum.reciva.com/read.php?3,63923,65689#msg-65689 for remarks.

All in all I cannot recommend the WM-201 at all. When it is working properly it sounds wonderful. It is easy to set up. It does look good. But hey - it's an expensive piece of kit and when it stops working for no reason at all then it just becomes junk. My Liveradio and Scott together cost less than the price of the first WM-201. I know for a fact that the Scott uses AWOX rather than Reciva and since the Liveradio offers only 5000 stations and I believe Reciva promotes a lot more (10,000?) I assume that it too doesn't use a Reciva chip.

Strictly speaking the problem is not Roberts - except in so far as they use a chip with known, albeit, intermittent problems. I have corresponded with Roberts and they do not acknowledge that there is a problem. They did however replace the first radio I returned even though they said they could find nothing wrong with it. That's entirely possible with an intermittent problem of course.

Roberts is not the only internet radio with problems. Check out the Reciva forum.

I own several Roberts radios already and love their design and sound quality, so when I saw the WM-201 provided internet radio AND allowed me to stream FLAC files from my PC, I had to get it.

Within minutes of unboxing it I had it talking to my wi-fi and playing internet radio.

I love the way you can select radio stations by country, so it's quite fun to have a bit of a "world tour".

Streaming music from the PC however was a bit trickier. To be fair to Roberts, the issue was Microsofts flakey Windows sharing but still, it was a bit of a pain to setup.

This highlighted how some of the menu navigation is a bit repetitive and not the nicest to use.

So far, it looks like everything's pretty good, HOWEVER.....

Despite all the literature stating this unit can play streamed FLAC files, it can't.

I contacted Roberts support who tried and found they were also were unable to stream FLAC to one of their units. They offered no solution.

So a great little unit if you want Internet radio or stream MP3s, but forget it if you want to use FLAC.

Very Glad I bought the Roberts WM201.

Easy to Setup.

Great forums on Recvia website if you get stuck or are not technically minded, but should have no issues once you have a good internet connection.

The Roberts WM201 has excellent build quality, great little remote control, superb sound and very easy to set up and use. As an experienced 'internet radio' user, AE, BT, Magicbox IMP, Blik, Pure, Logitech and Ministry of Sound etc, I can honestly say that the Roberts WM201 is the best I have used.That's not to say that it doesn't have it's problems but overall it is a superb way of listening to the world through the internet and streaming your own PC or MAC based music collection. Setup out of the box was easy on my WEP encrypted system and soon I was listening to a huge list of stations provided by the Reciva portal. The list is up-dated regularly but does contain lots of 'duplicate' stations and some that are simply no longer around. Overall though the list of available stations is pretty comprehensive and the Roberts does a great job of delivering the sound subject of course to the stream rate of the selected station. There has been a recent firmware update that you can 'choose' to download which improves the radio's operating system improving things like back light brightness, the number of alarm settings and improved search facility to find your favourite stations. The best way to operate your Roberts WM201 is with the handy sized remote control as this gives you much better 'button' control of the radio and is a lot easier than using the radio's single rotary control. Unlike some other remotes (such as the Blik) it is well laid out and works without having to 'jump' on the buttons. Using the Roberts to stream my music from my PC was also a pleasure and set up with my Windows Vista computer was really easy. The rear of the radio has a line in socket to connect your MP3 or iPod as well as a headphone jack for private listening. I've been using the Roberts as a bed side unit and after setting the display to its lowest brightness I used the new comprehensive array of alarms to wake me up to my favourite stations which it has done without fault. If the station isn't available the Roberts will sound the buzzer instead so no worries about getting up late for work. If you want a more fully featured radio equipped with FM and DAB I would recommend the Pure Evoke Flow, but if you want a great sounding 'internet' radio I would definately recommend the Roberts WM201.

I have used the Bush TR2015 internet radio for about 2 years. Internet radios are brilliant for accessing all of the BBC's listen again programmes (now called i Player) In fact we have 3 Bush TR2015 radios in the house.

When one of the Bush radios packed-up I took the opportunity to buy the Roberts WM201.

This radio is beautifully built and lovely to look at - everything enclosed in a piano-black (wooden ?) case. The display looks great - larger than I was used to on the Bush radio which means more information on the screen without having to wait for the information to scroll past. One drawback is that the display -even on the dimmest setting- is slightly too bright for comfort as a bedside radio.

I also liked the fact that the power lead did not have the horrible bulky transformer on the end which takes up so much space on the socket.

I was absolutely amazed by the sound quality - at top volume, there was no distortion and the sound was clean and crisp. This prompted me to connect the WM201 to stream music files from my computer. I am not a computer boffin and I managed to do this without even having to ask for help from my 17 year old son ! I did have to go into the microsoft media player and under the library tag, ensure that i had ticked the box allowing the files to be shared. I also had to get my firewall to accept the Roberts.

The sound from the Roberts is such a pleasure that it has now ruined the Bush radios for me - I shall certainly be buying a second to use in the drawing room. I had been considering an iPod docking station, but the Roberts does the job - So I can justify the cost of a second with the saving I'll make by not having to buy an iPod or docking station.

If you have never listened to internet Radio - make sure you do - the quality is as good (if not better than) Dab - It is the future of Radio !

The Roberts WM201 is very recommended! Best bit of kit i've bought in years! this thing out performs anything on the market. the sound quality from the 2x5w speakers (witch i was VERY concerned about) is amazing for any good sized room and sounds great with no distortion. it connects to the internet in minutes and picks up thousands of stations (unlike DAB) and your able to add your favourites direct to the radio. you've really got to see it to believe it. I am going to buy another one for the bedroom!

Completely pointless unless you want some radio stations that are un-available by terrestrial means.

Delighted with my Roberts WM201 purchase at £179.99 and free p&p. Solid quality build. Unbelievably good sound. Good support and so easy to get up and running.

The Roberts WM201 looks good, simple to set up, easy to use and excellent sound quality.

Roberts don't do 'cheap' - they do quality of design, finish and reliability. So the Roberts WM201 is good value. Plugged in the mains, ethernet cable to my modem, switched on and played. No problem. Listen to over 800 channels from UK alone (works via reciva.com).