Grace Link Internet Radio Tuner and Streaming Music Player with Chromecast Built-in: Stream Hi-Fi Music to Your Stereo System (no Built-in Speaker)

Logitech discontinued support for their venerable Smart Radio so was looking for a replacement. I purchased this Grace Link and I don’t regret it at all…So far has easily connected to all the streaming services I use…Pandora…Amazon Music etc. I don’t use Spotify or YouTube Music much because just too much advertising in the free versions. Configured a uPnP server on my NAS drive and the Grace Link found it without fanfare and now my 50 Gig of music is available. Awesome…and ridiculously easy.Out of the box I always enjoyed the sound of the Smart Radio…but the Grace Link is definitely better in every way. Balanced and smooth is how I would describe the sound. Yes – it’s compressed music… for the audiophile crazies (of which I am one) it’s not going to sound like vinyl…but the sound quality is truly awesome. I see no reason to buy an outboard DAC. No hiss (meaning very good signal to noise ratio). When you hit pause there is complete silence. Plenty of bottom end without sounding heavy…vocals are clean and crisp…sound stage is detailed and solid.A wide range of streaming codecs are supported as well as a similarly wide range of bit rates. The internal DAC is good enough you can hear the differences between bit rates…although it appears the digital output is at a fixed rate. I have not fully explored this as I don’t use an outboard DAC. I hooked up my digital audio analyzer to this output and all I saw was 44.1K at either 16, 20 or 24 bits resolution. Based on how well everything else on the box works I can’t believe this is how it functions so it’s probably something I have yet to configure.There is an EQ function built in that allows adjustment of the response if you need it. Using it has no effect on the noise floor or distortion…so it is a useful tool. In my case I added “ 1” to the 16KHz range.Not sure what App others are complaining about but the Grace Digital App I downloaded from the Play Store is great. Allows control of everything you can do directly from the front panel. Found the Grace Link box immediately and shows all of the song info. Very easy to browse the station database or your personal music library and find something to listen to. For most other functions you still need to see the screen on the front of the unit to see what your doing so anything other than listening to and controlling what your hearing you’ll likely not use the App. When connected to my uPnP server allows effortless browsing of my music library.The user interface and software work well. As a retired electronic Engineer from the broadcast television industry I can say the software appears stable and reasonably well thought out. I did not need the Users Guide to setup anything on the box…it was that easy to navigate through. I use a wired Ethernet connection but did test out the wi-fi functionality. It works as advertised. I just prefer a wired connection. Adjusting the radio configuration while listening does not interrupt music playback. Very nice. I’ve found a few glitches…if you pair a Bluetooth device to it (say a pair of earbuds) and then turn off this device before disconnecting it from the Grace Link you get stuck…have to power cycle the Grace Link to recover. That’s probably the worst thing I’ve found…Registering the radio with Grace Digital does open up some interesting features but you don’t need to do this to use the radio. From the online screen you can search for and add stations to your radio’s database. One glitch…the link in the User Guide doesn’t work as written…you get a Security Certificate Error. The fix is easy…just add /login to the end of the link. Then follow the process to create an account.An undocumented feature…if you type the IP address of the Grace Link into a web browser that is on the same network you get a nifty set of tabs that allow configuration and setup, as well as a Now Playing screen. Cool!! I’m going to use an old computer connected to my TV to show the Now Playing info…album artwork etc.There is a analog line input that it would appear you can use to stream onto your network using the Grace Link. Have not thought of a use for this yet…but you could use the Grace Link as a simple pre-amplifier if you only have one other analog source. The Grace Link has a smooth acting volume control and the previously mentioned EQ so it is possible. You would add a needless A/D cycle to this analog source but…why not??Gripes are minimal…the power wall wart has the brightest green LED I’ve ever seen. Absolutely blinding in a darkened room. Just put a piece of electrical tape over it. Fixed. The screen brightness configuration is needlessly complex…you can set the brightness levels for a dizzying array of options!! The old Smart Radio had this one…as the room darkened the display followed along. Still…setting this up is easy if not time consuming.I have not messed around with the built-in Chromecast functionality. I have no doubt it will work as described. I have no need to control the Grace Link from my Google devices or cast to it…although casting audio from a smart phone (as opposed to using Bluetooth) would be a better option as it frees up resources on the phone. I have a dedicated “home brew” Bluetooth RX that I use.I paid around $160 when I purchased my unit. A bit spendy…but not as audiophile products go and I would rate this as an audiophile grade device. Compared to some of the other units I’ve used over the years either professionally or at home the Grace Link is the hands down winner. Easy to use, can’t think of a single function I would add to it…exceptional sound quality…you will not go wrong purchasing this if your in the market for a streaming box. [...]