Spec me.... a DAB radio

shoes · 15 Nov 2011 at 00:06

The mrs has asked if i can source a DAB radio for the kitchen. Not looking to spend a fortune - up to £40 at a maximum really. Not after the last word in sound quality, but it must be smallish (small enough to sit on the corner shelf on the end of the cupboards).

I know nothing about DAB radio (I listen to all radio online / in the car) so any pointers would be much appreciated.

Would rather avoid the **** brands - alba/goodmans/bush (are any of those still in business)/technika etc.

ringo747 · 15 Nov 2011 at 00:20

Pure is a good brand. I have used a couple of them but not sure what is available at your budget. The Pure One is probably all you can get.

If you can stretch your budget to around £150 I'd recommend the Vita Audio R1. What an amazing piece of kit. Only £110 over budget!

bitslice · 15 Nov 2011 at 00:27

Pure,
Look on eBay, a radio isn't likely to get battered so most look ok.

I reckon the wooden box ones sound better (subjective)

Lonewolf · 15 Nov 2011 at 00:54

I use this in our kitchen which I purchased from Asda, not the best, but I wasn't looking for anything too expensive.

http://reviews.asda.com/1440-en_gb/000591113/asda-dab-radio-reviews/reviews.htm

Cosimo · 15 Nov 2011 at 08:35

Go for Pure but spend a bit more. A PURE EVOKE-1S is going for £79.99 on the rainforest or a PURE Move, Portable Rechargeable.

Feek · 15 Nov 2011 at 08:58

shoes said:
Not after the last word in sound quality

lol, you could spend three hundred quid on a DAB radio and the quality would still be pants. Analogue > digital and anyone who says different is either a lier, a DAB radio salesman, an idiot or perhaps all three.

Pretty much anything by Pure will do what you want.

RopAyy · 15 Nov 2011 at 09:01

I got a cheap Teknika tescos one with ipod dock for i think a 10er, list price was 30 quid. To be fair its small, easy to use, sounds pretty good and does the trick without breaking the back.

leoncuprar · 15 Nov 2011 at 09:12

HI

We got given a Roberts ECO1BK Ecologic Radio for Xmas last year. Its nice and small.. does the job.. approx £50 I think..

snail1 · 15 Nov 2011 at 09:13

I have a pure evoke2. I think it is one of the best consumer electrical items I have ever bought

Scottland · 15 Nov 2011 at 09:25

Is there a reason why it has to be DAB? I'd personally favour either an internet radio or a speaker dock for an iphone/android etc and use an app on that as the audio source.

Personally I use a little bluetooth speaker set connected to my phone in the kitchen and it works great.

shoes · 15 Nov 2011 at 09:42

ringo747 said:
Pure is a good brand. I have used a couple of them but not sure what is available at your budget. The Pure One is probably all you can get.

If you can stretch your budget to around £150 I'd recommend the Vita Audio R1. What an amazing piece of kit. Only £110 over budget!

Ha that R1 sounds a bit excessive to me - but I bet it sounds good!

I've heard a lot of people raving about Pure - perhaps I'll pop into currys this evening and see if I can cop a listen to a couple.

bitslice said:
Pure,
Look on eBay, a radio isn't likely to get battered so most look ok.

I reckon the wooden box ones sound better (subjective)

Good batting, thinkman! I'll have a look around at what's on offer.

leoncuprar said:
HI

We got given a Roberts ECO1BK Ecologic Radio for Xmas last year. Its nice and small.. does the job.. approx £50 I think..

My old man is a die hard Roberts fan - they do generally seem to be top notch tbh

Feek · 15 Nov 2011 at 09:52

shoes said:
Ha that R1 sounds a bit excessive to me - but I bet it sounds good!

Again, lol. I bet it doesn't. Any radio, no matter how it's constructed can only be as good as the source and we're talking about DAB with notoriously poor bitrates.

ringo747 · 15 Nov 2011 at 09:55

I bet you haven't done any research into the R1 at all. All the reviews out there rave about the audio quality of the R1. It isn't just dab, it is normal radio and you can use it as a speaker to play music from phone etc. For such a small device the audio is amazing. We aren't just talking about the quality of dab here.

shoes · 15 Nov 2011 at 10:06

Feek said:
Again, lol. I bet it doesn't. Any radio, no matter how it's constructed can only be as good as the source and we're talking about DAB with notoriously poor bitrates.

Why are you so anti-DAB? I've only listened to a DAB on a couple of occasions, albeit with no much interest as the person showing me was getting me to listen to radio retard, sorry, radio 1, but the quality was indistinguishable from FM? I have no idea what the radio was though - part of some mini-system with satellite speakers etc.

Scottland · 15 Nov 2011 at 10:54

shoes said:
Why are you so anti-DAB? I've only listened to a DAB on a couple of occasions, albeit with no much interest as the person showing me was getting me to listen to radio retard, sorry, radio 1, but the quality was indistinguishable from FM? I have no idea what the radio was though - part of some mini-system with satellite speakers etc.

DAB is crammed into such a short spectrum, the bitrates needed are something like a 64kbps MP3 IIRC, whereas most online stations (BBC incl) broadcast at 128kbps or above.

Feek · 15 Nov 2011 at 11:05

Too many stations stuffed into too small a bandwidth equals poor bitrates and therefore low quality.

Unfortunately the world has been brainwashed into believing that digital is good and always better than analogue. Given a good strong signal, analague radio will always be far superior quality to DAB. The same goes with television. The stupidest decision ever made was to switch off analogue television but that's getting a bit far off topic here, sorry. It's just something I feel strongly about.

FTM · 15 Nov 2011 at 11:20

the main problem for me is 5 live and 5 live sports extra..I had to get a small dab radio for the bedroom to listen to the sport in peace