Sadly I think Auralic and Naim are the only manufactures that I can think of that allow access to streamed radio stations. One problem is that some radio broadcasters like the BBC for example are blocking their stations being broadcast over internet via vtuner etc, especially if you live in the uk which is crazy! Who we pay a mandatory bbc licence to actually legally listen to them in the first place.
I do think PSA have missed a trick by not including online radio support though e.g. by allowing entry of a url of a radio station in the airlens for example
I use the AirLens with MConnect MControl and VTuner on a regular basis. I have no idea how many and what stations are available on this service but it is significant. I add my regular stations to the Favorites and it is relatively easy. I will say the MConnect app is “clunky”, but not having used anything else, other than JRiver/JRemote, I have no experience to put “clunky” in perspective. I will say I was very glad when Qobuz Connect became available! I have had some issues with JRiver so I haven’t used it much lately. If you have successfully used the Auralic hardware & software I would just stick with that, I would suspect the AirLens would not be an improvement from that perspective.
If you have an Android device, BubbleUPnP might work but it doesn’t sound user friendly for Internet radio streams, since you have to manually enter the URLs. There is another app called RadioUpnp. I can’t confirm which is best because they only exist for Android.
Still looking for a good iOS app. The vtuner service built into mconnect control might be good enough for background music. It’s a shame we can’t get high quality flac streams from Radio Paradise etc. Also not seeing the metadata seems like it could be a simple bug in the app.
Download the Radio Paradise app and you can get FLAC streams for all of their stations. If you wanted a streaming device with easy to use internet radio then like the Bridge II or any Conversdigital based streamer the Airlens is not it.
If you haven’t already found a solution, the Eversolo T8 might fill the bill for you and your wife. Its (current) price is <$1,400, it has a galvanically isolated I2S port, built-in access to several internet radio stations with the ability to add more, Qobuz and Qobuz Connect, and many audiophile checklist features. You can select radio stations and streaming services through icons on its customizable color touch screen or via its easy-to-use Apple or Android software, which cleverly duplicates the touch screen on your mobile device. It’s really quite a nice device, particularly for the price, and sounds very nearly as good as the built-in streamer from the PMG Signature 512 DAC, which is tough to beat without spending thousands more on a higher-end network transport. You do need an audiophile-grade I2S or HDMI cable, though, but that’s the case for any network transport you want to connect.
I agree with Chris, the T8 will give you what you are asking for in terms of functiionality and software for under your budget. Even if you do not have a good I2S cable there are many available that will still get you to your target price and if you are able to order from Amazon you have 30 days to try it out. While it doesn’t quite reach the level of my $6k+ Aires G2.2 it comes suprisingly close for the money.