Recommend me a well engineered mid-priced DAB Radio

sirch

sirch

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I have several fairly cheap and fairly rubbish DAB radios so I am on the look out for something better in the £50 - £100 range. I want something that is well engineered, decent sound quality, decent buttons, decent software/UI. I am inclining towards something a bit retro looking, certainly not a black box.

What do you have, why did you choose it, what's not so good about it?
 
If you can stretch your budget a bit then Roberts do some really nice looking retro style radios. We’ve had a Roberts DAB for a long time, still works perfectly and sounds excellent.

Revival

The Roberts Revival range of radios has become one of our most-loved categories and for good reason! Explore our head-turning Roberts Revival radios now.
www.robertsradio.com www.robertsradio.com
 
I have a stereo Roberts RD 20 mains/battery portable, I can't remember how much it was but just wanted to say that if you're going to use one of these on batteries maybe rechargeable batteries might be an idea as mine runs through batteries in no time so rechargeables is what I use.
 
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We had a Pure One which died after a few years eventually replaced with an Amazon echo. Our bathroom radio was replaced with a Roberts Expression 6 years ago, still going strong on the original rechargeable batteries. Decent sound quality and certainly retro. Perhaps have a visit to John Lewis if possible, they have a good range and you can try them.
 
My Roberts Gemini 49 puts out good sound on FM but has an irritating low level hum on DAB, depending on where I use it.

Not recommended unless your DAB signal is strong.
 
Thanks all, I've had a look at Roberts and Pure, still debating as the ones I like are a bit over budget.
 
woof woof said:
maybe rechargeable batteries might be an idea as mine runs through batteries in no time so rechargeables is what I use
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When I used a radio I recharged the D-cell non-rechargeables ;) I don’t know if you can get D-cell rechargeables now but you used to be able to get adapters to hold AA rechargeables.
 
woof woof said:
I have a stereo Roberts RD 20 mains/battery portable, I can't remember how much it was but just wanted to say that if you're going to use one of these on batteries maybe rechargeable batteries might be an idea as mine runs through batteries in no time so rechargeables is what I use.
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Seems to be a common story with DAB. My pocket radio was the same, but I haven't used it for ages. There aren't many DAB channels I actually listen to that I can't get on FM (BBC 6 Music?), and if I want more choice anything from my phone to my AV receiver can play internet radio with a ridiculous number of stations. Today, DAB feels a bit like Minidisc or (you might argue) the dSLR in the age of mirrorless...
 
sphexx said:
When I used a radio I recharged the D-cell non-rechargeables ;) I don’t know if you can get D-cell rechargeables now but you used to be able to get adapters to hold AA rechargeables.
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They are still available.
 
We bought a Sandstrom Portable Bluetooth DAB radio from Currys. I'm loathe to recommend shopping at Currys but they have pretty well a monopoly here.I think there's a thread going on them at the moment.

That apart, it's so good we now have three. It's their own brand. As mentioned above Roberts are very good too.

Sandstrom is their own brand. Lovely colour, three presets. Forget the 10 they advertise,there are three preset buttons.The sound quality is very good. The only thing I've seen mentioned that's negative is they seem to prefer a solid flat surface. I Googled it for you but can't find it at Currys where it's still the £49.50 we paid.


Here's a Revoo article and photo.of the blue colour we have. It gets 8.8 out of 10 https://www.reevoo.com/p/sandstrom-sf-daba18-portable-dab-fm-bluetooth-radio-blue

I see someone says the display is a little hard to read...maybe so in bright light as with any LCD but normally The LCD display informs the listener what station is connected and what he/she is listening to. In the review I see someone else also says to forget the 10 preset claim. 10 is too many anyway. It's easy to just change from the preset you're on by pressing the forward/backward arrows to where you want to go,press the large volume knob down and you're connected. To go back to your preset just press the allocated preset.
 
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Which? top picks for DAB+ radios as follows Chris. Some are clock types, but at least it'll give you a starting point

VQ Susie Q £298.43 86%
VQ Monty £99.99 83%
Roberts Revival RD70 £175 82%
Pure Siesta S6 £109.96 81%
John Lewis Spectrum Duo 11 £69 79%
John Lewis Arietta £79 79%
Roberts REvival Uno £133.99 77%
VQ Rosie Lee £70 75%
Sony XDR S61D £88.99 74%
Pure Siesta Home £180 74%
 
If you can I suggest you listen before you buy as sound quality, which is the main criteria for me, varies considerably.
 
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