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Pure Evoke-1S Luxury Portable DAB/FM Radio
by Luisa1981
After breaking my TV and waiting for it to be repaired, I decided I needed a little radio.
I really liked the style of the Roberts Retro ones, but couldn't justify the price and was worried that they were more 'style over substance'.
This little beauty was recommended to me by a gentleman in John Lewis, who ... confirmed my suspicions about the Roberts ones. He said that the sound quality on this was decent and that it was better value for money than most radios. I went away to 'think about it' (i.e. look for a bargain on the internet) but was incredibly fortunate to find one in the sale section (damaged box) for £40! WIN.
I don't know enough about sound quality to comment, but it seems clear enough and not tinny.
SIZE
This radio is lovely and compact and fits nicely on my bedside table. It's dimensions are:11 x 21 x 17.5 cm
STYLE AND FINISH
I love the wood finish on this radio, it's nice and pale and would work well with most contemporary furniture colours. My bedroom furniture is dark wood and this contrasts it gently. The main colour is sort of matt brushed metal, and it's very pleasing to the eye.
FEATURES.
The radio is an am/fm, DAB radio. I have accidently tried the FM function a couple of times but it's incredibly crackly and I prefer the 'cleaner' sound of the DAB. You can tune to a number of channels, and tuning is via a simple dial. The display is very very clear but doesn't seem to glare too much at night. The buttons are a decent size and you don't need tiny fingers to use them
The feature that makes this a better proposition than the Roberts for me is the alarm feature. You can set the radio to come on as an alarm whenever you need it, setting it to tune to either the last station listened to, or a different one. So you can go to sleep to Radio 4 but wake up to Kerrang if you wish! I personally tried waking up to Radio 4, but it didn't make me spring out of bed!
There are a number of other features that I have not played with (like pre-setting channels so you only have to press one button to tune them) but everything's very self-explanatory so I think it should be easy to work out.
DISADVANTAGE.
The only disadvantage of this lovely little radio is that to make it portable, you have to buy one of their special battery packs, that you have to buy separately, rather than regular batteries. I resent this so haven't bought one!
SUMMARY
All in all, this is a good looking, easy to use radio that has some useful features. Even at full price, I would definitely recommend it to people.
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Mikomi CT-318
by topsyturvy
I think an alarm clock is an essential in every household, although not as much now since we all rely on our mobile phones to wake us up. I have had this Mikomi CT-318 alarm clock radio for quite a while now and it has lasted well since I purchased it. I have had it for a year or so now but in the middle of the night if I wake up, I can ... always rely on the red LED display to tell me what time it is. I can't actually remember where I bought it from but it is not the radio part I got it for, more just to have it sitting on my bedside table as an essential item. It isn't the smallest but it does sit well and doesn't get in the way.
APPEARANCE
This alarm clock comes in black and it has dimensions of (H)4.5, (W)10, (D)11.6cm. It is a normal size, not too big but not small either about the size of an A5 book and as I said before, it has a red LED display on it. The alarm clock has quite a short cable which is probably why it annoys me as sometimes I knock it over as the cable gets in the way being so short. It can also run on a back up 9V battery but I don't see the point when I can have it plugged in all of the time. There are quite a number of buttons on it and it has a silver round shape on the top with three black buttons which are how you set it and get it working, it is all quite easy to work out when using.
MIKOMI CT-318 ALARM RADIO CLOCK
The alarm clock first of all has a sliding button underneath it which can be set to AM or to FM radio, there is a tuning dial on the side to get it set to the station that you want it to, the quality is ok, as I said thought I didn't use this a lot. The buttons on the top of the alarm clock are to set the time, to the right there is an hour and min button which is what you need to keep clicking until the time is correct on the LED display. You are on 12 hour clock so when the red dot shows next to PM on the front, you know it is 7pm not 7am the display is showing and also when the red dot is showing next to ALARM you know the alarm has been set to go off when you need to wake up.
On the top of the clock also, is the button for snooze if you want a bit of a lie in, it is a big button you cannot miss it. To the left of this, there is also a button for time sleep and alarm, you hold alarm down to set it to the time you want woken up. These are all of the buttons you will need and I always found it easy to use really, when you have the alarm go off it is loud enough to be heard, definitely, quite a standard sound and you just turn it off at the side. It is very straightforward to use, nothing too fancy and I like that about it, it looks stylish at the same time as well as the fact that it works and always wakes me up. The clock has never had any faults since I have used it and is reliable enough.
I have dropped this a number of times and it still works fine, I have never heard of the Mikomi brand until I bought this but it seems good to me. The numbers on the display are quite big and easy to see in the day or night which is good for all ages, even if you do need glasses like me and wake up in the night without them on, you can still read the time. On this you can also choose whether you want to wake up to the radio or the buzzing noise, it is up to you. I never found myself using the snooze setting, so I cannot comment on whether it is reliable or not but the alarm always went off at the time it was set and still does thankfully, so in that sense there are no complaints.
I'd say for what I paid at the time I got it, this has been a great little alarm clock radio, it may not be the latest style or very advanced but it does the job and is simple enough and easy to use. I have never had any problems using this alarm clock and my only problem is what I've said above that the cable could do with being a bit longer as if you have a high up shelf behind your bed which is where I keep mine that the cable gets caught up sometimes when I reach up to the clock. This is good for all ages and I like the design of it, it is easy to see at all times of day and night and the silver disc on top shows up the black buttons very easily to know where to press.
COST
This alarm clock radio is not currently being sold on any shops but there are some models up on eBay at the minute for a bargain price so it is worth taking a look at them.
I could not come across and official website for the brand Mikomi.
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Acoustic Solutions DAB Digital Radio
by NotMyToothbrush
I bought this DAB radio over other DAB radios mainly because of its retro styling. Whenever I look at it, it reminds me of the radios you see in movies of the command tower for airports or in battleships when the users are calling for help or giving a warning. I see this resemblance due to the angles nature of the radio on the stand as ... well as the two dials on the front along with the small LCD display.
As I have said, the interface on this radio is a dual-dial and single LCD display. This combinations allows for easy selection of radio station along with interactive information regarding the radio station on the display such as name and genre along with fast volume control. The fact that there is generally just two dials to mess with to set up the radio makes it ideal fro those not too tech-savvy and need a radio that is very easy to operate.
The telescopic antenna give a wide range of different positions to pick up a good signal whilst still keeping the radio itself in the position you most prefer. Generally, because of this flexibility, it is easy to find a good quality signal but it isn't good enough to ensure a good signal at all time as in some situations is it inevitable that you will have to move the whole radio to a better position to pick up a station.
The sound quality of the radio is fair. I have definitely heard better and it may not be too pleasing to people who really want radio at the highest possible quality but for people who merely want to listen to some music or they want some background noise, this will suffice perfectly fine. Saying that, the speakers do not particularly go very loud so in a more noisy situation it would struggle to complete and would actually only become background noise.
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