Digital Trends

Rolling a dial through a handful of FM stations seems like an ancient exercise, compared to the nearly limitless variety of free music available through Internet radio and other Internet music stops. Perhaps that’s why Internet radios have become an essential add-on for stereo buffs with even the most impressive CD collections. Nothing can quite match the variety.

Squeezebox and Sonos may the most common names to crop up on this streaming audio frontier, but Philips’ own low-flying Streamium line delivers many of the same features on a much lower price scale. While the top-of-the-line NP2900 acts a standalone box with built-in speakers, the cheaper NP2500 works in conjunction with an existing stereo, piping in music from a PC, Internet radio, and Rhapsody. Priced at $229, it’s significantly less expensive than competing systems from the big guys, but as we found out, Philips makes a number of serious sacrifices to get there, too.