The Cheapest DAB Radios

Capyboppy

colmil wrote: »

Re comments regarding Goodmans DAB radios, in my opinion, Goodmans products are cheap and very nasty!

Two years ago, I bought a Goodmans video recorder, I had all sorts of trouble with and, frankly, decided I couldn'nt be bothered to return it and gave it away.

Christmas 05, I was given a Goodmans DAB radio as a present, by September last year, it sounded like a cats whisker radio from the war, it simply could not hold on to a station.

I returned it under warranty to Argos, who told me that Goodmans 'do not have a repair facility' in other words they are so cheap to produce that they replace them instead!

My replacement is going exactly the same way as the other one, it will go in the bin very shortly.

This crowd should be called Badmans, instead!!

I agree. A few years ago I bought a Goodmans CD Clock Radio, which I looked after well, and it didn't really have much use, other than for waking up and going to sleep around 5 days out of 7. I bought this make as at the time it had a good name. But then it went wrong. It wouldn't recognise the majority of CD's I put in, so I couldn't wake up to a CD. Husband took it apart and found that the components were so basic, and hard to get into, it wasn't worth the hassle. Very disappointed that an old time good make seems to have gone so down hill. If it wasn't for the fact I have seen quite a lot of poor reviews of Goodman products, I would have put it down to me just having a "rogue" item. Sadly it doesn't seem to be the case

talkshop

If you are going to buy a DAB radio, only get one made by Pure.

Pure brand radios have a better receiver and will get more stations than most of the cheap trash brands that Dixons/Currys sell such as Matsui/Grundig/Hitachi. It can mean the difference between getting 6 radio staions or 18 if you are in a poor signal area.

I have DAB in my car and listen to Core, as they have very little chat from deejays, unlike those on Radio1 that talk a load of bull and never play any music.

Capyboppy

I agree. I have just bought my first DAB radio after about 5 weeks of trawling every review etc possible, and combining it with what I want. Originally I dismissed the Pure One as it looked cheap and plasticky, but after reading the reviews I changed my mind. In the one and a half days I have had it, (bought it yesterday) I have been over the moon with the sound quality and amount of stations. I have a small analogue radio in the bathroom and this morning I certainly noticed the difference from the DAB radio. I have toyed with the idea of the Bug Too, and I am hoping to purchase in the next month. It seems to have so many good functions on it, and at last I will be able to have a modern way of waking up to music since my Goodmans went dead. I can throroughly recommend Pure, and they give a good customer service too, without the heavy sales pressure if you need to know things beforehand.

suffolkb

If you have Sky then you get a lot of digital radio stations (0101 upwards), and it`s easy to play this through your stereo. Then buying a Sky gnome means you can listen to the station around the house, and in the garden. You can only listen to the station that Sky is on. If the kids put Power rangers on, that what you get as well.

veruccasalt

Another thing to think about when buying a DAB radio is whether you want to plug it in or use batteries. I bought a DAB radio/CD palyer a few years ago-its a Philips and truly fantastic. Sometimes when i used to switch it on, and the voice cam on I used to jump ot of my skin because I thought there was really someone in the kitchen with me!

Anyway, back to the point-I remember seeing that battery life was so many hours if used in FM frequency, but hugely less if used in DAB frequency. I concluded that DAB must eat up batteries like nobodies business, so opted for a set to plug in.

I guess this is still the case-any experience, anyone?

mark1024

I have a Pure Evoke 2XT which was a great buy, and I echo the previous remarks about Pure products. (I would have bought the smaller 1 XT model but only the 2 had an input for the ipod.)

The other week I finally splashed out for the pure battery pack. This automatically re-charges the batteries when plugged into the mains, and allows you to move the radio about untethered when needed. Despite being pretty expensive at around £30 it is high quality with a high output. Runs for many, many hours on DAB with the volume high. I would assume it runs even longer on FM, but if I only listened to Radio 4 I wouldn't have bought a DAB.
In my opinion, some things are worth the extra price.

Capyboppy

I wondered about purchasing the ChargePAK as advertised when I get the money. But with postage bringing it up to nearly 35 pounds it seems a lot of money. Does anyone know what the average life span of it is? By that I don't mean battery life before needing charging up again, but overall life before needing replacing?

defnas

I got a dab i tech cube in superdrug for £9.99 y/day a great unit especially for a kitchen.Its part of there latest up to 70% off sale :T

mark1024

Capyboppy wrote: »

Does anyone know what the average life span of it is?

I couldn't find any specific data, but a quick search on wikipedia suggests a lifespan of many years. 'Nickel Metal Hydride' batteries like these are pretty expensive, but still good value compared to other rechargables. DABs do use quite a lot of power. £29.99 free del from Amazon.

Prob off topic for a cheap dab radio thread..

Capyboppy

mark1024 wrote: »

I couldn't find any specific data, but a quick search on wikipedia suggests a lifespan of many years. 'Nickel Metal Hydride' batteries like these are pretty expensive, but still good value compared to other rechargables. DABs do use quite a lot of power. £29.99 free del from Amazon.

Prob off topic for a cheap dab radio thread..

Thanks for the info. Will be worth getting then when I have the money.

Regarding off-topic: As it was concerning usage of what is classed as cheap DAB radio (Pure One) I wouldn't have deemed it off topic, as it is part of the consideration of whether someone would buy it or not