Ten... digital radios to suit all budgets
hanssolo
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http://www.reghardware.com/2012/09/08/product_round_up_ten_dab_radios/
The Register has been quite critical of DAB in the past, but
The Register has been quite critical of DAB in the past, but
Not sure of the title as the cheapest sets looked at were £99, The new Yamaha set was the editor's choiceProduct Round-up After a slow start, digital radio might finally be getting somewhere. More people are buying DAB radios, coverage is increasing and, digital stations account for a growing share of the radio audience, according to the stats [PDF]. The BBC’s four main exclusively digital radio stations, for instance, reach a combined total of well over 5m listeners a week, mostly received using DAB.
Whether this format could or should replace FM is another matter and one that probably doesn’t concern typical digital radio users. They’re going to be more interested in the bigger choice of stations, the naming system that makes it easier to find what’s on, and other extras.
Depending on the price, you can also get added features such as an iPod/iPhone dock or an internet connection for audio streaming. So here's a selection of what's out there that can find a place in any home and suit a range of listener needs.
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The one that I purchased for Mum and sadly she only managed to hear for 4 weeks before she passed away was from Tesco and was a Pure model(Mono but with a stereo line out)might have cost the same but certainly no more)
I think I must have bought the same one a few weeks ago, excellent value for money!
The pocket DAB radios have improved a lot. The Asda budget receiver my mother has for £25 is great considering the price. My Pure Move 2500 is simply the best around, although pricey at £80.
Is your Bush similar to mine, wood sides and has a seventies look to it with a brushed metal front?
It's similar to this model.
http://www.radio-now.co.uk/bigimages/bushtr2004.jpg
I know the one.
Agreed, but the Pure One Mi is perfectly useable, and costs a lot less than £99
They've made a compromise between quality and budget ?
Going back 70 years, when a radio set was seven shillings and six pence, it received broadcast stations on medium, long, and short wavelengths, and many came with an input socket for the audio stages to play music from the family gramaphone deck ( 78s of course ). The ones still around will still work exactly as they did - brilliant value for money.
Radios from the 1970s, if thirty pounds including the FM band have likewise been value for money.
In the final days of Woolworths, they were selling FM radios for two pounds, the suspicion is that none exist now...
Those of us who were pioneers in buying DAB receivers, and bought quality ones, paid 200 pounds for the decision, but the majority are still working as they did over a decade ago - again good value for money...
My point is that vale for money has nothing to do with initial purchase price.
It is fair comment that we should be able to buy throwaway or short-life technology - but it has to be recycled after a year or two when we no longer want it. Does it get buried in landfill, or sent to Brazil, Africa or Asia to poison the children who set fire to it to reclaim the metal ? Or does it get properly recycled via the WEEE Regulations ? These are described in :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_Electrical_and_Electronic_Equipment_Directive
I'd say that the Yamaha is a good buy, now costing 99 pounds for a quality product which a decade ago was 200...
The one i bought,which is branded Onn,is quite good in that respect,i know which ones to steer clear of and for the kitchen a cheap one is more than sufficient.;)
Tesco only have one DAB radio under Tesco value, but 9 DAB sets under Technika.
Asda are now using Polaroid.
Sainsburys are using Red
Argos are using Bush
Currys was using Grundig and now Logic
Hopefully will be able to keep up quality on these brands, but the chipsets may not be the latest to keep down costs?
There is a digital radio kitemark testing system for quality proposed which may start if the Government decides on a future switchover, or not, in October. The shops will try and get their own brand sets approved.
My main radio is a Pure Evoke 3,which I bought reconditioned about five or 6 years ago for a hundred pounds.I think they've long since been discontinued and the nearest model now is the Evoke 2s,which still costs in excess of £130.The radio I use at work is a Sainsbury's Red brand,which was a very sensible £30.It doesn't have half the features of a big name brand,but very good value and quality nonetheless.And the one I use in the kitchen is an Argos value radio.It sounds like it's playing in a bucketful of ice water.It is really horrible! But I don't spend a huge amount of time in the kitchen so it's not that big a deal.
I would like to see a list of ten or so radio's priced between £20 and £100 pounds.
a Roberts Solar DAB, 5 years use in garden, bathroom, around the house & on holiday - and generally only needs a mains charge once or twice a year,
a Morphy Richards pocket DAB set that holds a signal well and doesn't have a nerveous breakdown with it's station list like some others,
and a Pure hi-fi DAB tuner (bought S/H), which can excel sonically, picks up with he proverbial piece of wet string, and demonstrates that it's sometimes the circuitry of the set that is deficient in audio terms rather than the DAB source itself.
Must go out and launder the "cloth ears" someone will claim I have (reference the last bit).
Still going strong and does me, it's my main method of listening to the radio.