Home > Consumer Reviews > Monitor Audio AirStream 10. DAB, FM, Internet and Network Radio.

Decided to go for one of these after having 3.... yes 3 pure evoke flow radios die on me. Maybe I was just unlucky but I won't be buying pure again. I like quality kit and this radio does what it says on the tin, seamless streaming of internet radio, you can add as many favourites as you like on the Frontier Silicon website, streams your playlist from your computer, good DAB, I don't use that though as you can get everything through the web and you won't have to use the arial. FM if you want. Build quality is tremendous and overall a cracking radio, only small niggle for me is it has to be plugged into the mains, the pure evoke took a rechargeable battery, but what good was that when it didn't work !!!!

All the comments about build and sound quality for a devise so beautifully crafted is spot on.

The only let down is the primitive (think DOS commands in first generation IBM-PC)user interface. Sure, you can search for anything from anywhere when the devise is connected to the Internet or PC, but it takes ages and frustrating for someone growing up with iTouch-type gadgets. After an hour of playing with the knob, it really put your off exploring any further. Now it is sitting in a corner, playing one of only four pre-set stations for any one mode.

Another glaring omission: no USB port to accept the ubiquitous USB stick which is used to load music tracks so that the devise is portable outside of the Wifi zone. For convenience, I like to play music from my favorite tracks on my USB stick or my visiting friends' tracks on his USB stick.

S Lee

I bought the Monitor Air Stream having only viewed it online and read reviews. I absolutely love it. The 5 star rating is well earned. It's lovely looking in the flesh, exceptionally simple to set up (and really thorough clear instructions if your not especially tech savvy like me). The sound is crystal clear. The only couple of things that I would like to be better (and I'm nitpicking - I love it) are: there is no option to put a battery in so you have to be near a plug. The buttons are touch too sensitive so you can inadvertently switch off what your listening too by brushing past a button and the top of the radio shows finger prints very easily.

This is my fourth internet radio and without doubt the best. It replaces a Pure Evoke Flow which stopped working after 14 months - and this a radio that had already been replaced by Pure twice already. There's a lesson there. This radio exudes class. It is beautifully made and sounds terrific - even if it is mono. The one criticism is the dreadful instructions - or rather lack of them - in making the internet radio interface function successfully. It feels like they got so far in writing the handbook and then gave up because they couldn't be bothered. For example - just try and find Radio 7 or Radio 4 listen again shows. It took me two hours. Why after producing such a radio they ignore the explanation side defeats me. In short the handbook is not really written for the UK listener who wants to listen to UK listen again programmes - the only reason I buy internet radios. Monitor Audio web site is useless in terms of support information. However, having discovered by trial and error how to get what I want I give it 5 stars for sheer performance and beauty. If this is your first internet radio - set aside a whole day to get the hang of it. Pure may make less good radios but they are more focussed on UK usability,

Very impressed with the sound quality of the airstream 10. Very easy to set up and looks good. Very good internet and dab radio. However, the menu system is a bit dodgy when streaming music if you have a large music collection. It's quite hard to find the music you want as the search function is pretty ordinary - it returns too many results and will list all songs by a band without grouping them by album etc. (as my old soundbridge radio used to do). Also the screen is tiny. Finally, the dial for scrolling through the music is fidly as if you're looking for an album whose title begins with the letter "s", for example, you have to scroll all the way through your collection to get to it. It also seems to see a couple of copies of a lot of my music, this might be because I have them on my server in both FLAC and MP3 format - though I can't see a way of stopping this from happening. All in all a decent bit of kit but the software doesn't really cut it. Perhaps I'm missing something?