Itech DAB Cube Clock Radio (merged)

quoia

bloodnok wrote:

It's £29.99 in our local Comet store.
Does anyone know if it has an earphone socket ?
Thanks

It does not have one ! Although I'm considering fitting one myself.

Also the volume cannot be turned off totally, and on some FM stations it can be quite loud at the quietest setting (presumably so that when in "alarm" RADIO mode it actually makes a noise when it goes off)

Additionally reception seems very poor - I have another DAB radio that I currently use in the bedroom and bought one of these to replace it (having the alarm function etc.) and free my existing DAB for use in the kitchen.
Sadly this Itech Cube isn't a patch on my old one. (Which also cost £29 over a year ago from Tradex)
Side by side the Cube seems to find more stations but a significant number produce an inadequate reception that makes finding them pointless. Those that I like to listen to most, Planet Rock and Radio5 Live, are very poor in comparison to my Tradex DAB. The "signal strength/quality" display setting shows only 1 or 2 bars, the minimum for acceptable/decent reception is 5 or 6, but my old DAB easily gets 7 to 9 most of the time.
Hardly a "burble" to be heard on the old one but the Cube sounds like everything is "underwater" for most of the time.

The reason earlier I said I was considering fitting my own headphone socket (if I think this unit is so crap) is that I tried the display model in Comet and was impressed with how good reception was inside a large building mostly made of metal and at ground level. I thought that upstairs at home it would out perform my existing DAB. Sadly I was wrong.
(and it is not my specific unit because I swapped it for another one and reception is identically bad)

However, depite the poor DAB reception, although FM seems absolutely brilliant, I actually like the unit itself, and I am going to attempt to fit not only a headphone socket but also an external aerial socket. This should resolve the very poor signal/quality level it seems to receive compared to my Tradex DAB.

I'd probably suggest that you give this Cube a miss, if you don't want to do the same aerial modification as myself, unless you live very close to the DAB transmitter for your locale and live on the top of a hill !!

FilthyLuka

I like to listen to MW - particularly BBC5 on 696&909 and talksport on 1053-1089 - is the sound 'crackle' free mattb? (or anyone else with DAB)

or is the DAB just for FM?

(edit - you read my mind quoia - not good for me from your review :-( )

quoia

mattb wrote:

The backlight for the clock doesn't stay on - not really any good for a bedside clock radio. Unless I can work out how to make it stay on I'll be taking it back to Comet.

That's exactly how it is supposed to work.
If the unit is in "stand-by mode" (ie. not being a radio) then the time is shown on the LCD.
Touching ANY button on the unit turns the backlight on for a few seconds so that you can read the time.
The auto dimming function is so that the "bright light" of the display doesn't disturb your sleep, and trust me, the LCD back light really does illuminate a large bedroom very well when your eyes have been closed for a while and you open them.
My Tradex DAB has a switch so that you can turn the back light on and off as you choose. Once my eyes have become accustomed to the dark I can easily read a book by the light generated by the LCD when it is turned on, and whilst it doesn't usually disturb me (I can sleep just about anywhere and anytime) my partner is often woken up by the light if I've forgotten to turn it off.

If you want to know the time (ask a policeman) just reach out and press any button. I can't think why you would want to lie there looking at a clock tick by.

mattb_3

Huh? All other bedside clock radios I've ever seen always have a permanently lit up clock! I consider this a serious design flaw.

<edit>
Combine this with the volume control problem and this really isn't a well thought out bedside clock radio...
</edit>

mattb_3

Don't you think?

bad-head-day

Buy the creative dab 500 from amazon for £39.99 instead. It's perfect for a bedside radio & more. I've had mine for a couple of days now & I'm really happy with it. Some features you might be interested in:

* it has an illuminated clock display when the radio is off, the display is negative lcd (the numbers are pale while the background is blue)

* alarm (radio/beep) and snooze

* sleep timer (great for using to nod off to the radio)

* built in aerial that you can unscrew leaving an f-type connector for an external (of the house) aerial if you prefer. I have great reception with the included aerial.

* the sound is superb. The radio is heavy for its size & has speaker ports on the rear. It has bass & treble dials and gives out a warm sound. Stereo sound too (compared with the cube).

* it has a headphone socket and also a line-in socket so you can connect an ipod etc. and the audio to audio lead is included in the box.

Chris123_2

mattb wrote:

Don't you think?

I agree. Almost bought one of these the other day but while playing I noticed that I couldn't read the clcok. I then thought how on earth would I know the time in the middle of the night without having to get out of bed and turn the light on first! (I don't have the clock next to my bed)

It's very useful for when you wake up in the night, glance over at the clcok and see how much more sleeping time you have!

Link to the Creative DAB 500 mentioned above.

mattb_3

Glad you agree. I thought I might have been going mad after what quoia said above about not wanting/needing to see the time in the dark.

In the end I went along to Comet and got a refund. They wouldn't refund the delivery charge but I couldn't be bothered to argue about that. I bought a cheap non-DAB clock radio instead (actually I decided I really just wanted an LED clock without the radio, but of course they don't sell just these and by this point I was fed up and just wanted to get on with it).

I think I grabbed this bargain too quickly this time and paid the price. There was hardly any information about this product on the internet (reviews etc). Next time I'll wait for others to leap in first!

*Cheyenne*

Talking of DAB cube clocks - my daughter bought me a Bush DAB cube/alarm radio 2 years ago when we lived in London. A few months ago, the clock up and died, totally. When contacting the manufacturer about it, they said that as it was out of guarantee there was nothing they could do (i.e. shirking their responsibilities). As it was a gift, my daughter did not retain a receipt and in any event, the store where it was purchased is in London and we now live 170 miles away so it's not really economical to spend bus/train fare to take it all the way down there and argue the toss. I won't be getting any more DAB radios in the near future (and certainly not ones made by Bush). It cost nigh on £90 - what a waste of money. It wasn't as if we could get very good reception on the few digital radio stations we could pick up.

davilown

well received mine this morning and thanks op very happy with it. Has picked up all the stations perfectly and the clock is just what i needed.

thanks again

:beer: monster