Best buy DAB Digital Radio

kg1_2

Can anyone recommend a DAB digital radio for under £100?

I have been looking at the Panasonic rf-d1 and the Sharp FV-DB1E, Pure Elan and Sony XDRS1. All the reviews seem to conflict making me more confused!

Any thoughts?

Hanoijane

kg1 wrote:

Can anyone recommend a DAB digital radio for under £100?

I have been looking at the Panasonic rf-d1 and the Sharp FV-DB1E, Pure Elan and Sony XDRS1. All the reviews seem to conflict making me more confused!

Any thoughts?

I bought - I mean Santa brought this one for Christmas;
http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=3151&productId=126968&clickfrom=name
Intempo KTC-01 DAB/FM Radio. £79.99

I don't know how it compares to the ones you mentioned, but it has done well. It looks neat & quite stylish. The sound is full/rich. It has a built in wake up alarm too, which is useful. I love some of the DAB only channels. Some of the people who write the reviews are anally retentive about hi fi & must have the hearing of a bat to tell any difference. You can't beat listening yourself & argos will give you your money back if you don't like it & return it.

joshm_2

I was in Homebase earlier (grabbing myself a cheap Stanley toolbox on the recommendation of another post!) and I saw some two-speaker Alba units with blue LED and wood finish for about £50 (can't remember exactly, may have been £55).

Obviously not sure about quality since I don't own one, but chances are they're all much of a muchness (* prepares to get flamed by some hi-fi buff! *).

Josh

Nesima

Pure by a considerable margin, for sound and build quality. I have had a Pure Evoke 1 for 2 years and it is excellent, you can get them now for £80.
They do a newer model the Evoke 1 XT for about £90 (Argos).
Pure's electronics seem able to tune and hold the quality of the signal better.

raeble

Have a look in boots, they were selling the pink intempo radio that is mentioned above and only the pink one for £54.99. Obviously pink isn't popular, I picked one up for my Nana a couple of weeks back. She seems to be getting on alright with it. Reception is a bit dicey on one or two stations but she lives in a terrace surrounded by other terraces and the reception in that room for anything has always been bad. Can't use a mobile for instance. The other stations are crystal clear.

seth

Can't remember the make though.
Also remember you get radio on freeview, so you could get a FV box for less than a DAB Radio. Or use an old sky box (no card required), obviously you will need a TV or amp for this. No the same as DAB but just to let you know.

I almost bought a DAB for the kitchen, but got a cheap freeview box, the kids watch CBeebies. No ads and no payments for SKY

Richard sounds have freeview for <£30 and Argos have a cheap box too.

If you have an old TV with no remote most Freeview boxes have dual function remotes included.

loonygooner

Wife bought the Tempus 1 for Xmas, brilliant radio and has alarm settings plus lots of other helpful extras. I am very impressed and at about £99 it is well worth it.
Take a look....

kg1_2

Thanks for all the info. I have decided to order the Sharp FV-DB1E. Got it for £70.16 including delivery. (The prices of these radios vary widely so it's well worth shopping around). If this thread is still running I will let you know what I think of it. Cheers

kg1_2

I am very pleased with DAB radio, good quality sound with pleanty of features too. Sleep mode, and wake up buttons, I am able to pick up quite a few stations but not all. It depends on your postcode, easy to use too.

shrek101

I saw a good one about £60 in Asda York on Thursday if thats any good to you, might be worth checking it out if you have one close by. Made by Acoustic something or other cant remember the exact name

jaz_2

If you can find a Sony XDRS1 for less than £100 grab it! Cheapest I've seen was £122 at Allders in Leeds when I bought mine, it's now back up to £149.

I haven't heard the Panasonic or the Sharp, but the Sony is better IMO than any of the Pure range, the Intempo or either of the Acoustic Solutions models. Or the Goodmans, which sounded horrible to me.

> Also remember you get radio on freeview, so you could get a FV box for less
> than a DAB Radio. Or use an old sky box (no card required), obviously you
> will need a TV or amp for this. No the same as DAB but just to let you
> know.

Bear in mind though that you don't get the same selection of stations on Freeview as DAB, but there is the advantage that some of the stations broadcast at higher bitrates on Freeview, and as such are in better quality. And if you're planning to listen to digital radio on a freeview box, get one with a channel number display so you don't need a TV set in order to know which channel you're on! Old ITV/OnDigital boxes are great for this, even now I come across people who stuck them in the cupboard/cellar when ITV Digital went belly up and in this way you can often pick them up very cheaply, or (as I did) free! Both the Nokia and Philips models have LED channel indicators and make great digital radio receivers when hooked up to your hi-fi amp.

Happy listening!