My new DAB radio

Merlin5 · 29 Jun 2014 at 17:39

New radio for the kitchen! Bought it this afternoon.

Sound quality is excellent with quite deep and clean bass. No distortion at full volume. I'd say a fairly 'hi-fi' quality sound for just a radio. Better than Pure and Roberts imo when I did a side by side in the shop. Snazzy looking too. It's selling for £80 on amazon but I found it in the high street for £49.

Bobmunkhouse · 29 Jun 2014 at 17:51

Looks nice....its always good to have a radio in the kitchen...

Caged · 29 Jun 2014 at 18:02

Is this another Vestel badge?

Merlin5 · 29 Jun 2014 at 19:17

Caged said:
Is this another Vestel badge?

Having just read a thread on AV forums about Sandstrøm TVs, apparently Sandstrøm is a Currys brand name. So I guess it's not made in Scandinavia.

Couple of things worth mentioning. Reviews on their products seem to be generally good. And when I compared it in the shop to Currys other brand Logik, it was night and day.

Logik is crap, and it sounded crap next to this Sandstrøm. I had a Logik DAB stereo radio but it was rubbish. Had one where the buttons failed, replaced it under guarantee and eventually the second one died. Sandstrøm seems to be competing with the higher end brands so hopefully this one will last me.

From the Dixons website: Sandstrøm[25] - Intended to compete with higher-end consumer electronics brands, Sandstrøm is claimed to be "Inspired by Scandinavian design [and] designed to combine aesthetics with performance"

Caged · 29 Jun 2014 at 19:24

Yeah I can't really complain about the look of the thing, very Tivoli-esque. Would be nice to know who builds them though, things like DAB radios live and die on the ability to fix things in software updates.

Merlin5 · 29 Jun 2014 at 19:41

I would have gone for this, which has similar aesthetics to the Sandstrom.
Even has an analogue volume control.

http://www.musicmonks.com/2013/04/03/radio-days/71wlpcvb9hl/

but Currys stopped selling it. Last time they had it, it was down to about £70+. But seeing it on amazon now, it's very expensive.

Mel_P · 29 Jun 2014 at 22:02

DAB is not of "HiFi" standard. It's pretty midfi.

FM radio is "HiFi".

DAB could be but they have packed too many stations into the available frequency bands.

purplesky · 30 Jun 2014 at 11:23

Mel_P said:
DAB is not of "HiFi" standard. It's pretty midfi.

FM radio is "HiFi".

DAB could be but they have packed too many stations into the available frequency bands.

Yeah, DAB is pants for audio quality due to the low MP2 bitrate. I suppose these types of radio are OK for a bit of background music in the kitchen - I think the OP said that's what it's for, but forget any sort of decent sound from it.

Merlin5 · 30 Jun 2014 at 16:27

I'm sure you're right guys. Still, I'm very impressed with the build quality of this radio. Nothing on it feels or looks cheap, the knobs and buttons feel nice to use, and the sound is great, as nice as any Sony. If any of you are passing a currys, try one out, I'd be really interested in your thoughts.