Digital Radio with combined CD Player

[Guest]

I am looking for a new bedside DAB radio with built in CD player. I was hoping for something with decent sound and was willing to pay something in the region of £150.00.

It seems to me there is little choice on the market for this type of product. I saw the Tangent Cinque on a website and thought it looked brilliant. It seems it is now discontinued and the only real current option seems to be THE PURE Chronos CD Series II.

I wonder if anyone had any advice or experiences they could share about products of this kind? Many thanks.

[Bryn]

How about the Roberts Sound 38 which can be found at amazon.co.uk for just under £90, or the PURE Chronos CD Series II for just under £80, also at amazon.co.uk.

[MrGongGong]

I like the sound of the Pure ones but i'm a bit biased as my mate designed the amps

[gurnemanz]

I've had a Pure Chronos for a while and found it to be perfectly OK. Sound is not bad for what is a small plastic box. Station presets are available but for me not as conveniently arranged as in other small radios I have had. I quite often listen on earphones in bed when other half is asleep, so having a socket on the front is very useful. I hardly ever seem to use it to play CDs.

[Resurrection Man]

I can certainly help you, I hope, as just before Christmas I went through exactly the same hurdles. I researched and researched. I discounted anything with a tiny loudspeaker size (3" or so). I visited shops and took a CD with me and tried them out. I bought three, took them home, auditioned them, tried out their radio reception both on FM and DAB and took them back.

Finally, but it is a bit more expensive, I settled on this one ...the Philips DCB852.

http://www.philips.co.uk/c/audio-system/dock-for-ipod-iphone-ipad-dab-plus-dcb852_10/prd/

It also has the added advantage that i can plug in my old iPod Touch and then play downstairs in the kitchen anything on my iMac that resides in iTunes. I can also use the App in the iPod Touch to play internet radio stations. Sound quality is excellent....it has a bass reflex cabinet which helps enormously.

[gurnemanz]

I can certainly help you, I hope, as just before Christmas I went through exactly the same hurdles. I researched and researched. I discounted anything with a tiny loudspeaker size (3" or so). I visited shops and took a CD with me and tried them out. I bought three, took them home, auditioned them, tried out their radio reception both on FM and DAB and took them back.

Finally, but it is a bit more expensive, I settled on this one ...the Philips DCB852.

http://www.philips.co.uk/c/audio-system/dock-for-ipod-iphone-ipad-dab-plus-dcb852_10/prd/

It also has the added advantage that i can plug in my old iPod Touch and then play downstairs in the kitchen anything on my iMac that resides in iTunes. I can also use the App in the iPod Touch to play internet radio stations. Sound quality is excellent....it has a bass reflex cabinet which helps enormously.

It looks good and no doubt sounds good but having the controls on top is surely a potential drawback if you are in bed next to it.

[Bryn]

I have one of these as my bedside audio device. No FM, just DAB, but it does have a facility to capture the DAB mp2 stream to an SD card. Unfortunately the card capacity it limited to 2GB, but it does also function as an mp3 player, has a both optical digital and analogue audio outputs and the firmware is updateable via a USB link or from SD card. Until the iPlayer stream became downloadable it was my main source of time-shifted listening. Yes it's an ugly Bug Too, but it functions well. I see there is one in good condition available via amazon.co.uk. I don't think it is upgradeable to DAB+ (aac coding), however.



One annoying 'feature' is that the clock is always nearly 1 minute fast. Pure know all about it but say they can do nothing to resolve the problem.

[Beef Oven]

I have one of these as my bedside audio device. No FM, just DAB, but it does have a facility to capture the DAB mp2 stream to an SD card. Unfortunately the card capacity it limited to 2GB, but it does also function as an mp3 player, has a both optical digital and analogue audio outputs and the firmware is updateable via a USB link or from SD card. Until the iPlayer stream became downloadable it was my main source of time-shifted listening. Yes it's an ugly Bug Too, but it functions well. I see there is one in good condition available via amazon.co.uk. I don't think it is upgradeable to DAB+ (aac coding), however.



One annoying 'feature' is that the clock is always nearly 1 minute fast. Pure know all about it but say they can do nothing to resolve the problem.

Can it take photos?

[Resurrection Man]

It looks good and no doubt sounds good but having the controls on top is surely a potential drawback if you are in bed next to it.

It comes with a remote control

[Kuhlau]

Thank you for all of these comments, much appreciated. I am interested to read that others have also experienced difficulty making a purchasing decision for products of this type. The DCB852 looks like a fine product. I have also seen this, which is slightly cheaper, and seems to have received rave reviews from Amazon users:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Roberts-Sound100-Digital-System-iPhone/dp/B00842FEHU/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1359582001&sr=1-1

[Resurrection Man]

Yup, I would have given that a chance as well but the price was up at the £250 mark when I was looking. I'd buy it online so that if, for whatever reason, it doesn't perform then you can simply send it back.