Roberts RD21B(ECO4) Ecologic 4 DAB/FM RDS Digital Stereo Radio wth up to 150 Hours Battery Life - Black

I bought one of these radios for my wife a year ago (sorry Amazon, not from you on this rare occasion) as she wanted to listen to Planet Rock (probably the best radio station in the world) in the kitchen.

This is quite a good looking product, very well made and with a pleasing blue glow to the easy to read display. Setting up the radio was simplicity itself and we have had no problems at all with getting great reception, even with the aerial only slightly extended.

Sound quality is very good considering the size of the unit and I'm glad I opted for a stereo radio rather than mono....it's worth the extra money.

Roberts has a good reputation for DAB radios and I can fully understand why.

I would recommend this product to anyone wanting a very good quality, portable DAB radio.

If anyone had any doubts about this radio, forget them, you won't be disappointed!

I own a Pure Elan that I bought some years back to use in the bathroom. At the time there weren't many battery-powered DAB radios available. The Elan has always worked well but I was disappointed in the dull flat sound it produces, no bass or depth to the sound. Replacing the batteries was always a challenge as you seem to need three hands to do it without the six (heavy) size 'D' batteries falling on your bare foot and breaking a toe!

So I thought it was about time to look for a replacement. I did my research and the Roberts Ecologic 4 came out top. Now I'm left thinking why I took so long to replace my Elan as this radio has blown me away! Everything about it smacks of quality; good solid build, easy and intuitive to setup and use (very little in the box other than the actual radio), great solid punchy sound with separate bass and treble controls, and what controls! I always test the build quality of an item by it's moving parts as so often it's what the manufacturers skimp on to save cost. I love all of the dials and buttons on this, especially the two big dials at each end for volume and tuning (there are preset buttons too.) It's so much better to have analogue dial control over the volume than the usual stepped up and down buttons. Ok, it might not actually be truely analogue, it could be very small digital steps, but if it is I can't really tell so I don't care if it is. The only things I cannot verify is (1) how well it picks up and holds a digital signal because I receive a strong signal where I live (SE London), and (2) how long the batteries last (I used to have to switch my Elan to FM when the batteries weakened, as FM needs less power than DAB). However, I'd be surprised if it was anything less than good at either if these.

You can just tell when something is built well, and this clearly is. It looks really good too. I'm now a confirmed Roberts fan, although I'm not totally discounting Pure just yet.

I bought this radio for my wife for a Christmas present and I was so impressed with it that I bought one for myself to use in my garden shed whilst pottering about.

When you first switch it on it searches for all the digital radio stations that can be found in your area. You can then assign these stations to one of 5 buttons, pressing another button lets you set another 5 presets making 10 in all - plenty for me. The sound is great - clear and sharp. Separate treble and bass buttons alow you to make the adjustments you need for your own personal ear. The 9.5 x 2cm display has various settings including a streamed display of the current programme. Tuning is by pressing the "up" and "down" buttons to go through the programmes stored on the radio or by a tuning knob.

The radio looks classy with a black finish and blue display (there are other colour versions).

I haven't yet used the radio on battery, but Roberts claim 150 hours battery life which seems a long time to me. Sorry that I can't confirm this yet.

Overall you can buy this with confidence that you will be getting a good looking radio that sounds great.