R2OK!

Rachel · Guest

We’ve had a DAB deck on our Hi-fi system for ages but rarely use it. On Saturday we bought a DAB radio for the kitchen (it looks like a Dualti toaster!). It’s really cool beans, but these things are dangerous. I took the time to read the destructions, put in 10 preset stations and bingo! The thing just works. ( It has an egg timer on it too! Who’d have thought of that?) Anyway the dangerous part of it ( in our house anyway) is you can just press a button – and like magic …..hazzan kabarr- a whole new station… I’ve had Radio 1, Absolute Radio, and a truck load of others I cannot remember (just to try- you understand) None of them as good as Radio 2 in the main but at times I can see myself being tempted to press a button. Smile

MadeinSurrey · Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 7:31 am Post subject:

Rachel, I've recently invested in a DAB, and it's great to have so much more choice. Increasingly these days, Radio 2 just isn't doing it for me (Alan Carr? Steve Wrong? Elaine Pain no thanks~) so my horizons have been broadened.
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MiS

RockitRon · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 7646

Funnily enough I was just poring over some DAB radios, since Amazon had sent an email about a special offer on one (which isn't very special, it turns out).

I've always been very sceptical about DAB when I've heard the radios on display in the stores - poor reception and sound quality. I can get fifty-odd digital stations through my television courtesy of Virgin and Freeview,, but apart from the odd excursion to BBC7 for classic comedy or BBC Radio Scotland or Planet Rock I'm still largely content with Radio 2, so I haven't felt I'm missing anything.

When I wanted a new portable with an i-pod dock last year there were very few with DAB, so I got this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Altec-Lansing-inMotion-Docking-Station/dp/B000SKN5RC/ref=tag_dpp_lp_edpp_img_in which does sound good (I know it looks old-fashioned but that's me all over, anyway I don't want to look at it, or worry (too much) about it getting scratched) and it has come in very handy when we've been on holiday. If they could do that with DAB I might be sold.

Actually, if they could do that with DAB and an egg-timer and a facility for making toast properly I'd be over the moon!
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Ron

Rachel · Guest

This is the one we bought...

http://www.johnlewis.com/230510201/Product.aspx

It's fab. It only looks like a Toaster, Ron. Smile

but it does have a timer, and a clock.

Yes MiS it's fab to be able to flick ( liike having a TV remote), obviously all the good shows, Alex, Sarah, Chris and the oher weekday crew are hard wired, but at the weekends, I'll be spending for time in the kitchen so I can dab-ble with some others. Smile

RockitRon · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 7646

Blimey, it is actually a Dualit, and they even do a black one, which defeats the object, but why aluminium and not stainless steel? (Aluminium will mark easily).
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Ron

Rachel · Guest

It's Chrome, Ron , the same as our kettle, bin and other kitchen things( I can't spell cafetiei) Smile

, I spend a significant chunck of my day polishing off finger marks....

- it sounds great in the kitchen ... the one we have on our Hi Fi is a Cambidge Audio - here it is...
http://www.cambridgeaudio.com/set_territory.php?TID=1&Redirect=/summary.php?PID=25&Title=Azur%20640T%20Cambridge%20Audio%E2%80%99s%20flagship%20DAB/FM%20tuner

sounds ok but it's not CD quality- or that is to say it doesn't sound as good as the Hi Fi does when playing CDs... and it's in the dining room- so we only listen to it when eating or when I'm up the pole , so sit in there on my own. Smile

Helen May · Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 19382 Location: Cheshire

Rachel · Guest

Helen, I've not heard of those E cloths before- just checked em out on the web- they look like they do a good job- I'll give em a try. I use a mild solution of Detol mixed with water, wipe on with a cloth, polish off with a dry kitchen towel at the mo for all my kitchen glass, oven doors, Microwave and Chrome polishing. It works pretty well- just time consuming.

It was the same with us Helen,- I thought wow! It looks like a Toaster!... Of course hubby was all- what's the spec, how many channels, power output etc? But it was too late. I'd picked it up by the time he'd stopped telling me that I should compare it with some others. Smile

Helen May · Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 19382 Location: Cheshire

You won't regret buying one Rachel! They are great on bathroom taps as well, they even remove water marks with a bit of water and then polishing.

H
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88 - 91 FM this is Radio 2 from the BBC!

I said it live on air in the studio with Jeremy Vine on 10/3/2005

RockitRon · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 7646

Rachel · Guest

Ron, I'm not up on or into HiFi stuff so I don't know really, but I do know that Chris buys only good stuff, after days- weeks( sometimes) of research- so it must be ok.. we have a Cambridge Audio Amp deck but a Sony CD deck and Monitor Audio speakers on rather snazzy speaker stands with really sharp points on the bottom. It's all black! Smile

RockitRon · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 7646

I've got Monitor Audio speakers as well, in black(!) ash on stands to match; CD and amplifier are Arcam (not the very expensive ones) and I have a Rega Planar 3 turntable for all that vinyl I salted away in the 70s. In a Betamax moment I also got a full-size Sony MiniDisc Recorder, which now serves as a pre-amplifier for the i-pod, whose signal isn't very strong.

Cambridge Audio has always had an excellent reputation and has for the last twenty years been owned and distributed exclusively through Richer Sounds; unfortunately our local store is the size of a postage stamp and they couldn't let me hear anything before buying last time round.

Like buying a car, you can do limitless research (I did) but you end up with information overload which totally confuses you (I was) and the only way is to test-drive/listen to a few, albeit in the totally foreign and artificial environ of the store. You then have to be very strong-willed, because they will inevitably encourage you to listen (and buy) something which sounds better but is rather more expensive than you intended.
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Ron

Helen May · Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 19382 Location: Cheshire

Some impressive kit there Ron!

Ah the mini disc recorder, my favourite method or recording! I've 2 of them although one doesn't record well all the time. How I wish they had come out years ago. Do you still use it?

H
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88 - 91 FM this is Radio 2 from the BBC!

I said it live on air in the studio with Jeremy Vine on 10/3/2005

RockitRon · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 7646

Not very often now, H

I bought it when my old tape cassette deck gave out, and the intention was to transfer a lot of my LPs and singles to the more durable format (and then perhaps offload most of them), in the days before it became much easier to put them onto CD or HD, but I didn't get very far in the process. I just used it in the same way I had before, to make compilations for home entertaining and parties. Now the i-pod is used for those so the MD deck is used just as a pre-amp for that.
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Ron

RockitRon · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 7646

Popped in to John Lewis this afternoon for a look at the Dualit radios - I reckon they should be shown the Trades Descriptions Act (if it still exists).

They only had the big brother of yours, Rach, nearly twice the price, and it looks more like an engineer's toolbox than a toaster; It's definitely brushed aluminium (even though they call it Chrome), so it's not even very shiny. http://www.johnlewis.com/230306909/Product.aspx So smaller looks better in this instance.

Downstairs in their kitchen department I had a look at the toasters, and even they aren't all stainless steel chrome any more - the two "bookend" sides are that brushed stuff again. At a fiver short of £200 for the 4-slice version I think that's a bit mean. The samples on display also looked as if they needed a lot of your TLC with the E-cloth!
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Ron

Rachel · Guest

Been out with Mum in law most of today- "ladies what lunch"....it was sunny but a tad on the windy side.

The little one is really shiny- defo chrome- I love it, it's my favorite thing at the moment. Smile

... well hold the cream cakes, chocolate, fast cars, sunshine, those washing machines that you can see through, sit and ride lawn mowers and of course listening to Alex,,, then after those it's my favourite thing.

Good things come in small packages.... my great grandma used to say that a lot. Smile

RockitRon · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 7646

Phew! saved me bacon with that little phrase at the end of the second paragraph then! Smile

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Ron

RockitRon · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 7646

I've seen it now!

Wisely, they haven't displayed it next to, or even on the same shelf, as the bigger one, because it's as shiny as the other one is dull.
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Ron

Rachel · Guest

It is very shiny Smile

Also has an egg timer Smile

but I may have mentioned that already.

Helen May · Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 19382 Location: Cheshire

Rachel,

I saw both of them in JL this afternoon. The small one is MUCH shinier!

H
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88 - 91 FM this is Radio 2 from the BBC!

I said it live on air in the studio with Jeremy Vine on 10/3/2005

RockitRon · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 7646

colby · Joined: 06 Feb 2009 Posts: 1216

Thanks to DAB I can listen to Planet Rock in the kitchen. Such a great alternative to R2 at breakfast and drivetime.
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