Cheap portable digital radio - Technika DAB-108P Portable DAB/FM Radio

Some technologies take a long time to recover from early hype. Digital radio or Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) is a classic example. It was supposed to offer CD-quality sound. Unfortunately it often can’t even match FM radio.

The better the audio equipment, the more DAB’s shortcomings are revealed. Away from the living room hi-fi, however, there is an area where DAB should be prospering, that’s in the pocket. Portable music player sound quality isn’t that critical because the music’s usually in competition with trains, cars, buses and all the other sounds of the city.

There have been pocket DAB radios around for a while, but compared with MP3 players they seem bulky and expensive. The smallest pocket DAB radio was the size of a pack of cards, and that doesn’t compare well with devices such as the dainty iPod Nano.

Now this is changing. New DAB chips can be put into smaller and cheaper packages such as this Technika device from Tesco. An even tinier and slightly more stylish portable DAB player has also been launched by Goodmans although it’ll set you back an extra tenner. Both, incidentally, have FM radios built in as well.

Unfortunately they haven’t shaken off one DAB radio annoyance. Both use their headphones as an aerial. So if you find the supplied set uncomfortable or are dissatisfied with the sound quality you can’t do much about it as your spare pair of buds probably won’t work.

On the quality front, digital radio could be set for a resurgence, but perhaps not here. There is a new standard called, unsurprisingly, “DAB 2” which offers superior sound and the potential for more stations. But, because the UK was one of the first countries to adopt the original DAB standard, there are loads of old sets around that could be left behind by the new technology. So it could be a while before many British broadcasters start to invest in DAB 2.

Price: £34.97 Further information from tesco.com

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