A two band DAB and FM offering from Sharp that they describe as a kitchen radio. Not that sure why it needs a sleep timer and alarm, however it does do things slightly differently to other such offerings.
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They do a white and a silver finish I looked at the former. It is 32x9x13cm, it has a carrying handle that extends another 3cm above the 9cm of the given height.
This is a battery or mains unit. It runs on 6 C cells and also 2 AA the latter are provided. The 2 AA batteries are to keep the time, station presets and alarm settings when switched off.
The majority of my tests were conducted using mains power and this is provided by a substantial power adapter brick/plug.
On first switch on tuning automatically takes place on the DAB band. This was perhaps the most rapid of any of these units I have used. By default stations are listed alphabetically.
The top of the unit has a total of ten buttons, while the face has a 6.5x3cm display, four rod buttons and a circular four position offering. I had pretty much fathomed out what they all did before consulting the 20 page manual but this should help if you are unsure.
DAB reception in my area is pretty good and I always manage to get around 50 stations during an autotune. You can store up to 20 stations via two button pushes.
Changing to FM via a single button push allows you to store another 20 stations on that band, these will only be identified by there frequency IE 105.4 whereas their equivalent on DAB if any will be called by station name IE Magic.
This unit has an 87cm rod aerial in five sections and wherever I placed the unit I got good reception.
As I stated earlier this has a sleep timer and alarm. I see no reason why this should not be used in a bedroom, it was Sharp who called this a kitchen radio There is only a single alarm other DAB radios seem to have two. The sleep timer can be set for any amount of time you wish between 1 and 120 minutes. I note that the sleep and alarm options are not available when run on batteries.
There are a whole maze of adjustments and settings available when you delve into the menu settings. However some are less than obvious and here the manual helps out. This unit has the ability to set bass and treble as well or course volume. This unit also supports DRC dynamic range control - and this can help make sound more audible when volumes are low, however not all radio stations make use of this at the moment.
I recently noted a Comet add where they had this unit on sale for £79.99
Link http://www.sharp.co.uk/products/product.asp?id=880
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