What the maker puts in writing
- “Connect the Grace Link to your traditional stereo or receiver to stream music and more; Total control with the Grace smartphone app, infra-red remote control, or the front panel controls via the 2.8-inch color display (no built in speaker)”
- “Supports 100,000 Internet radio stations and 100 presets; Built-in apps: Spotify Connect, Pandora, Amazon Music HD, Prime, and Unlimited, iHeartRadio, Radio.com, BBC, NPR, Sleep Sounds, Calm Radio, Shoutcast, Live365, Podcast, SiriusXM (subscription sold separately by SiriusXM)”
- “With Chromecast built-in, you can stream your favorite music from your phone, tablet, or laptop right to your favorite speakers or stereo system”
- “Analog and pure digital outputs to connect to your favorite stereo or receiver; Analog inputs to stream your favorite CD or Turntable to any room of your home, to other Grace devices, or any brand Chromecast built-in speaker”
- “Supports Hi-Res files up to 24-bit/192kHz; Built in 5 band equalizer; Play audio from UPnP / DNLA media servers, Bluetooth 5.0 receiver to play from your phone or transmit to listen on headphones, RJ45 jack and built in dual band Wi-Fi; What’s in the box: Grace Link, manual, Infra-red remote control and batteries, 12V 1A power adapter”
Analog inputs to stream your favorite CD or Turntable to any room of your home, to other Grace devices, or any brand Chromecast built-in speaker.
Every other product on this shelf takes a network stream and produces analog sound at one point in the house.
This also takes an analog source and distributes it. A turntable in the living room plays in the kitchen, on a Chromecast speaker in the bedroom, or on another Grace unit.
And “any brand” is the part that matters — it is not locked to Grace hardware, so any Chromecast-enabled speaker is a destination.
The only other analog input here is the Ocean WR-860’s aux in at $149.99, and it does the ordinary thing: plays an external source through its own speakers. One is a local input; this is a network source.
For anybody with records and more than one room, nothing else on this shelf does it.
And the Bluetooth transmits, which nothing else here does
Bluetooth 5.0 receiver to play from your phone or transmit to listen on headphones.
Every other Bluetooth device on this shelf receives only — all six Ocean Digital radios and the Grace Alto: a phone sends to them.
Transmitting reverses it, so the tuner sends its own audio to wireless headphones.
The use is specific and common: internet radio or a podcast late at night through headphones, without waking a household and without powering up an amplifier. On a device with no speaker of its own, that is worth more than it first appears — otherwise listening at all means switching on the whole chain.
The wired alternative is a headphone jack, which the WR-336M at $89.99 and the WR-50 at $179.99 publish.
No speaker, stated twice
The title: “(no Built-in Speaker)”. Bullet 1: “(no built in speaker)”.
Which puts it with the WiiM Mini, the iEAST Olio, the Ocean WR-03M, the Ocean WR-50, the Logitech and the Audiolab — seven of twelve products here that need an amplifier or powered speakers.
The WR-03M at $99.99 goes furthest in saying so, three times, and calls itself “a pure tuner”.
Both kinds of casting, and the longest service list
Chromecast built-in means any Chromecast-enabled app on an Android phone, iPhone or laptop can send to it — and the bullet is right that you then “control your Grace Link with hundreds of apps you already know”.
Spotify Connect is in the app list as well, which covers the commonest case independently.
That matters because of the divide on this shelf: with Bluetooth the phone decodes and transmits, so it must stay in range and its battery drains. With Chromecast or Connect the device fetches the stream and the phone is only a remote. The six Ocean Digital radios have Bluetooth and UPnP only.
And the built-in app list is the longest here: Spotify Connect, Pandora, Amazon Music HD and Prime and Unlimited, iHeartRadio, Radio.com, BBC, NPR, Sleep Sounds, Calm Radio, Shoutcast, Live365, Podcast and SiriusXM — with the subscription caveat properly attached: “sold separately by SiriusXM”.
Dual band Wi-Fi and a wired jack
RJ45 jack and built in dual band Wi-Fi.
Both, which only this and the Ocean WR-50 manage. A wired connection removes congestion, distance and interference outright; dual band gives you 5 GHz when wired is impractical.
For comparison: the WR-393 is 2.4 GHz only, the Grace Alto offers Ethernet only as an “Optional USB to Ethernet dongle… sold separately”, and the Logitech Squeezebox at $397.34 is 802.11g — a 2003 standard on 2.4 GHz alone.
Hi-res, an equalizer, and the batteries in the box
24 bit / 192 kHz — matching the WiiM Mini and iEAST Olio on paper, and the only Grace or Ocean product here to publish a figure at all. What it does not add is the WiiM’s caveat about which services actually deliver it.
A five band equalizer, shared with the Grace Alto. The Ocean radios publish “EQ sound modes”, which are presets rather than adjustable bands.
And the box contents: “Grace Link, manual, Infra-red remote control and batteries, 12V 1A power adapter.” Naming the batteries is a small thing that saves an evening — and only two listings on this shelf publish contents at all.
Three ways to control it: the Grace app, the infrared remote, or the front panel via a 2.8-inch color display. A device with no speaker still needs to be operable without a phone.
What is not published
A hundred presets, where five Ocean Digital radios publish 150 — and where four of those offer web browser management to organize them, which Grace does not mention. The Grace app presumably serves that purpose.
No custom station URLs, which the WR-50 and WR-393 publish and which makes a directory count beside the point.
No optical output specified. “Analog and pure digital outputs” does not say whether the digital one is optical or coaxial — where the WR-03M publishes optical and the WR-50 publishes optical Toslink, coaxial S/PDIF and stereo RCA.
No weight, and at 191 × 133 × 89 mm this sits beside a hi-fi stack rather than in one. The WR-50 is 430 mm wide precisely to fit.
Prices quoted in this text were read on October 4, 2026. The live price is at the top of the page.
