Buy From:

With thanks to Karen Flynn at KL Associates for supplying the review unit.

Intro

The latest player from Terratec is the Noxon2 radio for iPod. This builds on the standard Noxon2, adding a built-in (but removable) speaker and an iPod dock on the top of the unit.

Having previously owned an original Noxon, I knew roughly what to expect from this player, the original was a solid streamer, easy to setup, easy to use and very reliable. The only downsides of the original were the lack of controls, lack of outputs and no lossless support.

Terratec seem to have taken this on-board, sadly still missing any lossless support (except WAV) though for the audiophiles amongst us.

On top of the standard streaming features (playback from PC, internet radio, Web Interface), this new Noxon has a number of extra features not found on many of the other players:

• Integrated iPod Dock
• USB Port
• FM Radio
• Alarm Function
• Podcasts
• vTuner service

Setup

Before covering the features in more detail, it is probably wise to cover setting the player up. No point reading about what it can do if you can’t get it working!

Luckily, this player was extremely easy to get up and running, probably the easiest I have used to date, you will, however, need the remote for WEP keys etc.

From turning on, you have initial access to FM radio, USB access and iPod dock. Therefore, out of the box, you have some level of functionality should you want to quickly start listening to music before sorting the networking out.

For the purposes of this review, we will work on using a wireless network. Although it has a wired network port, most will use wireless, especially in a kitchen or bedroom.

Using the menu system, it is simply a matter of searching for the network, entering the WEP key (if you have one) and letting it connect. Should you use a proxy server, it will also let you enter details at this stage which is a definite plus point and something many players seem to miss out on.

In terms of the speaker, that is plug-and-go, just place the Noxon unit on top of the small connector and it will sort itself out.

Features

Now we are up and running, we can look at the features on this player.

Starting at the top and the main use for this streamer, audio playback from the PC.

Bundled with the hardware is a full copy of Twonkyvision Media Server, an excellent program and one I have been using for a number of years due to its simplicity, it streams files and nothing else, just sits quietly in the system tray doing what it is supposed to.

The previous Noxon was supplied without software, but due to Twonkyvision moving to paid software, it has now been included. It will also run from any other uPnP software such as Windows Media Connect, but Twonkyvision should be more than adequate for most users.

Once the software is installed and pointing at the music directory, the Noxon will automatically pick it up, at which stage you can scroll through by artist, album etc.
The only drawback I found at this stage was a lack of page-up and page-down buttons so scrolling through a large collection can be laborious.

There is a search function included which works well, but is a little slow and if you have a relatively small collection, it is probably quicker to scroll through manually. I also found the lettering on the remote a bit confusing as the letters corresponding to the buttons are written underneath rather than above the digits and I often ended up pressing the wrong button.

Internet radio was always one of the key features of the original Noxon as it was one of the first players to allow it without needing a computer. Terratec have kept this very similar in the Noxon2 which is certainly no bad thing.

In terms of the stations available, this has been improved upon by using the vTuner Service. A premium subscription is included with the device which allows you to login to the website using the MAC address on the bottom of the player.

Once logged in, you can browse stations, add favourites and more. This certainly makes things easier than with other players where you have to browse through hundreds of obscure stations to find the one you are looking for.

Should a station or podcast not be listed, you can also add it for use on your Noxon, even when the computer is turned off. This is an excellent feature which a large number of its competitors are missing.

Another similar new feature is the podcasts menu. With the popularity of podcasts growing, this was a sensible decision by Terratec. It lists all of the popular podcasts, sorted by genre and as with internet radio, you just click it to play. Should your favourite show not be listed, again, you just add it on using vTuner.

The sound quality will be covered in greater depth later, but I will briefly cover the basic features of the speaker here. It is a heavy unit, much heavier than it looks, with a fairly large bass speaker on the bottom and a tweeter behind the cover on the front.

On the back are your standard volume, bass and treble dials, all nicely weighted.

Unfortunately there is no on/off button for the speaker individually, so if you are using the outputs on the back of the Noxon, you will need to turn the volume right down. It is a shame that this hasn’t been included, we can hope it will be added in the future.

The web interface is fairly basic, showing player status, adding favourites and a function for firmware updates.
Considering Twonkyvision comes with a more advanced interface, however, it is more than adequate.

The Twonky web interface has also been worked on considerably since the earlier versions and now includes new features and is much easier to use.

I have a confession to make at this stage...I don’t own an iPod, I’m afraid I opted for a Sony player (a non SonicStage one I might add). Therefore, we will have to gloss over the dock for now.

Moving quickly onto the USB port. This works with standard FAT32 formatted USB sticks, it won’t work with anything encrypted, however.

Tested with a freebie USB stick, it worked extremely well, was just a matter of plugging it in and scrolling through the files on there, selecting the MP3 and pressing Play.

This is one feature I do feel is missing from the Squeezebox, Roku etc. As it would be an excellent way for a friend to bring over a couple of tracks to listen to, simply put them on a USB stick and away you go, especially with the dropping prices and increasing capacity of these.

The next two features are what I would class as stand-out features when considering this as a bedroom player, the FM radio and Alarm functions.

As good as it is having access to thousands of different stations, we all have our favourite FM shows and why waste bandwidth listening to them over the internet when they are still being transmitted on the airwaves? This is where the FM tuner comes into play, should you want to listed to an old fashioned radio show.

Should you lose internet access or the wireless network, the FM radio and USB port will mean you aren’t totally without entertainment whilst you’re frantically trying to get everything back up and running!

The Alarm function builds on your classic clock-radio, bringing it into the 21st century. Whilst a standard buzzer or FM radio are still present (should you not trust your network), you can now choose to be woken either by a favourite internet radio station, or a selection of tracks selected the night before using the favourites button. This way you can choose whether to be woken by calming sounds, or if you’re a really heavy sleeper, by the heaviest metal you can find.

The design of this unit certainly wouldn’t look out of place in a living room, or a bedroom and placing the remote IR receiver in the “O” of Noxon is a nice touch!

Ok, features covered, now lets look at the sound quality.

Sound Quality

The quality of the player largely depends on what you are playing, a 320K MP3 as expected, sounds better than a 128K MP3, or a low bitrate internet radio station.

The speaker is better sounding than I had initially expected.
It certainly isn’t going to blow away a multi-thousand pound hi-fi, but for casual listening, is certainly up to the task.
It is loud enough to fill all but the largest of rooms, which considering it seems to be designed for bedrooms, makes sense.

The bass out of the speaker on the bottom is good and the vocals are clear without being too bright and tinny.

Should you want improved quality, you can either use the analogue outputs, or if you have a DAC, the digital output on the back (as expected, most outbound DACs will be an improvement).

At this point, the lack of lossless support becomes a little more obvious. Played through a hifi system, or active speakers, an MP3, even at a top bitrate will lose data and sound inferior to CD or a lossless file in FLAC, AIFF or WAV (see here for more information: link).

Considering the target market for this player, the lack of lossless is not totally unreasonable, but should Terratec look to enter the higher end market occupied by Slimdevices, Roku and Sonos, I think this should be fairly high up the list of things to consider.

For a bedroom or kitchen, however, the quality is more than adequate and certainly better than the cheap clock or portable radio usually found here.

Ease of Use

The menu systems are extremely easy to follow with a simple four-way pad both on the remote and on the unit for navigation.

The inclusion of basic controls on the box itself does make things easier should you want to quickly change tracks, pause music etc. without fishing around to see which part of the sofa the remote has fallen into.

This is something I’ve been looking for on a player for a while and certainly something I wish the Squeezebox and Roku would have.

The remote itself is identical to that used on the original Noxon, nicely laid out and easy to use. The sad and smiley faces are to add and remove items from the favourites list.

There are also useful buttons for Home, Internet Radio, Favourites and PC connection, so if you find yourself 4 levels deep in the menu structure, you can easily jump to a different section.

As mentioned earlier, there are two drawbacks I have found:

1. No page-up or page-down buttons for scrolling through large numbers of items
2. Placing the letters below the buttons for searching feels a little wrong and I found myself regularly pressing the wrong button, especially with a row of 3 buttons along the bottom without letters assigned to them.

The screen is very large and easy to read and the backlight is extremely bright. Chances are you won’t be able to read it from the other side of the room, but on some players, you can’t even read it when you are looking at it (Streamium SL50i, I’m looking at you!)

The clock screensaver is huge, certainly no missing that one. Fortunately the backlight can be turned down, on the default setting there is a possibility it could keep you awake at night.

Menu’s are fairly responsive with the odd delay when accessing from a USB stick, but certainly nothing terrible.

Random play is a little more tricky, you have to select all tracks and then use the Shuffle button (the S with lines on top and below). I would have preferred a random function in the menu, but this is better than nothing.

Overall

In conclusion, I found this to be an extremely capable little player with many extra functions which I wish were included in some of the more high-end players (USB port, controls on the unit, excellent internet radio support).

I feel Terratec are aiming to have this as a bedroom device and in this context, it certainly ticks all of the right boxes, speaker, FM radio, alarm etc.

Due to the lack of lossless support (FLAC or AIFF), it falls short on sound quality compared to the front-runners (Squeezebox, Roku, Transporter and Sonos).

I would have liked an on/off button on the speaker when using the outputs as even on low volume, there is still a small amount of sound leaking out of the speaker.

When writing this, the cheapest I could find the player was £200 with a RRP of £250. This is fairly expensive and does throw into the market with Squeezebox, but once a speaker is added, it does seem more reasonable.

Compared to a standard bedside radio, it does seem pricey, but once you have tried waking to your own choice of music, I think you’ll see it as a fine investment, there is nothing worse than being woken by a song you really can’t stand!

Taking into account the purpose, I’m giving this a firm 4.5/5, should Terratec add lossless support and sort the on/off button, I think it would be well worth the full 5 stars.

Your comments, reviews and ratings for this player are very welcome.