When I'm fixing things in my studio or cleaning house, I prefer listening to radio broadcasts instead of podcasts or auto-generated playlists. As a fan of commercial-free independent radio, I appreciate charismatic announcers who introduce me to new music and raise my awareness of local happenings. I can stream my favorite radio stations on my phone, but I hate when notifications interrupt the stream. Streaming on smart speakers isn't convenient when I'm moving between rooms, unless I want the playback to be live on every speaker in the studio. Back when Android, Windows, and flip/candy bar phones had a headphone output, I could tune into live radio with wired earbuds functioning as the antenna for the built-in FM receiver. Today, I own several Bluetooth audio transmitters, so I can listen to various sources on my wireless earbuds, but that's still too much effort just to listen to the radio. When I considered buying a radio-equipped boombox, I happened upon the Avantree Soundbyte T portable FM radio with Bluetooth <avantree.com>. Sized like a burrito, this $50 battery-powered radio is easy to take with me, and its dual 1-inch tweeters in front and single 2-inch oval woofer in back are perfect for listening to news and other voice-centric broadcasts. For music, I've paired the Soundbyte to a couple pairs of earbuds and a Bluetooth speaker. Transmission range is far enough that I can leave the unit in one room and walk many rooms away, without my earbuds or Bluetooth speaker dropping the connection. There are buttons on top for tuning, storing/recalling stations, choosing EQ presets, and setting an auto-off timer. A simple knob on the side of the unit turns the unit on and adjusts the volume. The tuned frequency is displayed on a backlit LCD panel alongside various status indicators. Below the panel are additional buttons for Bluetooth pairing, playback from an SD card, and access to settings. Recharging is via USB Type-C, and thankfully, the battery is a standard 18650 lithium cell behind a slide-out door. Listening to live radio on earbuds or Bluetooth speakers couldn't be easier. The one downside is that my two sets of Sony earbuds will only pair one ear to the Soundbyte – either left or right, but not both. Meanwhile, I have no issues with several different models of Google, Bose, and Apple earbuds. ••• On the subject of Bluetooth – I've been using Logitech MX Anywhere wireless mice [Tape Op #87] for over a dozen years. I supplemented my first-generation ones with MX Anywhere 2S mice <logitech.com>. I haven't tried the newer 3S model as my older mice are still going strong. Their Teflon feet have remained intact all these years, unlike the feet of other mice I've owned. The feet do have scratches on them, especially the ones on my travel mouse, which I use on all sorts of surfaces. In my office and at my studio, I had aluminum mousepads with a micro-sand-blasted surface that offered the perfect amount of glide vs. friction. Unfortunately, that surface was slowly eroding the feet of my mice – not enough to affect the feet themselves, but enough that a patch of Teflon residue would form on the mousepads, which was detrimental to the feel of the mouse. Tired of scrubbing the aluminum mousepads clean, I swapped them out for $17 tempered satin glass mousepads from Artistem, a brand that exists only on Amazon and shouldn't be confused with Artisan, a respected name in $45 to $55 glass mousepads. I love the feel of my mice on the Artistems, and I've experienced zero residue buildup. Since they're tempered glass, I ran one of them through a dishwasher cycle before hitting it several times with a rubber mallet to test durability, and it survived just fine.
-AH