Been looking out for a DAB radio for waking me up to wonderful Radio 4 in the mornings. Was going to go for the Pure Evoke but prefer a wood effect radio. Was surprised with the features with this. Internet Radio and (more importantly as far as I was concerned) an aux port for hooking up my smartphone etc.
A downside is that it isn't portable. And I'm not sold on the buttons. Will try to remember to report back once it arrives however.
Latest comments (31)
john2357
11 Feb 17#31
Does anyone know where to find the instruction manual online for sanstrom sdabxir13 dab interrnet radio ?
Carlos1974
11 Aug 14#30
Bought one today. No sound whatsoever grrrr
fr930
12 Jan 14#29
Expired
Elevation
12 Jan 14#28
This same model was down from £100 to £30 in my local Curry's/PC World, just after Christmas. :smirk: I was impressed as I tried it out in the shop, the display seemed to always have enough room to display everything at once so choppy side scrolling wasn't an issue. Then I saw it had internet radio and was also impressed. I remained impressed.....right up until it stopped responding. Couldn't press another setting, couldn't press Back. It was at that point I decided "time to turn it off again now". :smile:
kna872
12 Jan 14#27
Showing 69.99 on website. Heat added to those who grabbed 1.
fishmaster
12 Jan 14#26
DAB a sad failure of radio, and a poor implementation of a digital radio system. DAB is crap.
andysuthnopassword
11 Jan 14#24
Currys own brand.
No other source.
Sorry. Let us know if you find another model.
Capvermell to andysuthnopassword
11 Jan 141#25
PC World is another source of these radios. That is if your local one is still located separately from Currys.:stuck_out_tongue:
Anyhow your unthinking bigotry against all DSG own brand products is unjustified as this is built with the same Frontier Silicon chipset in precisely the same factories in China that build many of the Roberts internet radios. It is also an extremely good DAB radio with outstanding reception and virtually any other stereo DAB radio of this quality will cost you the same money but not have any internet radio functionality.
The previous Logik internet radios built for DSG in China by probably the same supplier did have some issues with both mains hum on the speakers and the signal strength of the internal wifi dongle. But both these issues seem to have been successfully addressed in the construction of this radio.
There is a minor fault that if you try to operate the menus too fast and do not wait for each menu operation to return its results that you can lock up and crash the radio software, requiring a plug out mains disconnection to reset. However once you are aware of this problem you can avoid it by waiting for each button press to return its expected results. Once you do this the radio no longer ever locks up or crashes. This minor fault could easily be cured by a firmware update from Frontier Silicon although it remains to be seen whether or not they will bother given that there has not been a new firmware update for these radios for quite some time. Or perhaps it may be the usual issue that we faced with our Reciva radios that DSG's labyrinthine internal structure makes it difficult for the radio makers to get the required approval to release the updated firmware.
So here's hoping for a Frontier Silicon Beta test group (similar to the old Reciva Internet Radio Beta Test Group) in order to provide is with future enhanced versions of the firmware for this radio.
Capvermell
11 Jan 14#23
Now back at £49.99 if ordered online (either for home delivery or Collect in Ctore) as of 00.05 on Saturday 11th January 2013 for anyone who still wants one. This now appears to include a £10 discount element that you will not get if you just pitch up at a store to buy one without pre-ordering online.
Coming back to the product the one other main fault that can be levelled at it is that it is operated by several tiny buttons with labels in very faint writing that simply cannot be read at any distance in a poorly illuminated room at night such as a bedroom. This could actually be easily overcome by making both the buttons and the labels for them larger and/or ideally by illuminating the words describing the function of each button. Reciva clearly steals a march here as it is possible to operate almost its entire interface without ever having to carefully refer back to which button you are pressing.
Also the fact that Frontier Silicon is missing several whole countries from its internet radio database such as St Helena, Seychelles and North Mariana Islands (plus quite a few other small and obscure countries) that are listed on Reciva's station database is not altogether easy to forgive.
Set against that is that for anyone who is an internet radio fan and already has a Reciva radio that this is a rival product that works in a different way some of which is better and some of which is worse than with Reciva. But if you are a true Internet Radio fan you will want to own both a Reciva and a Frontier Silicon based unit.
Jeff_W
8 Jan 14#22
I bought one before Xmas at the excellent price of £49.99 (thought it was also worth the extra £15 for extended 3yr warranty). I was so impressed with it that I went back this week and bought another for £44.99 (only 2 left in store!). Didn't bother with extended warranty with this as I can "double up" with the other one! Bought it so I can listen to Jazz FM once more, which has sadly recently shuffled off the National 1 DAB platform. Discovered additional countless excellent stations on the internet radio. Had to take first one back, as it had a problem in that it would become locked in a certain mode, which required you to switch off and on again at the wall. However, absolutely delighted overall!
Capvermell
7 Jan 142#21
Interesting. So Currys quite clearly move the price of their own branded products according to how fast they are currently selling and/or also how much stock is remaining. And at £49.99 I bet sales had really started to pick up, especially after the positive reviews here on this website..
Anyhow it makes me feel a lot better about snapping mine up at £49.99 the week before xmas and missing out on the £44.99 bottom of the barrel price. I did think they might have dropped the price as low as £39.99 but I would have imagined all remaining stock selling out fast at this price.
I have to say this is a really excellent product. Even though its ported back design strongly suggests to me that Hip-Shing Electronics (who used to make the Logik Reciva radios) might still be knocking them out for DSG unlike the old Logik radios they have completely cured the former horrid mains hum problem. Also the move up to stereo speakers is a big improvement and also the quality of the sound from the speakers at this price simply cannot be faulted. On top of all this the Frontier Silicon chipset has about the best and most sensitive DAB tuner I have ever come across. Sitting here just North of Slough I can tune in Muxes from both Surrey and Bedfordshire and also on the main London Muxes am getting all stations with zero signal error with the aerial up and pointed the right way. The 10 year old Pure Evoke 1 I have can only pull in around 40 stations at the same location and can't reliably receive stations on the weakest London Digital Radio Mux. Although it doesn't have DAB+ capability this really doesn't matter in the context of a mains only radio only likely to be used within the UK. This is because It is likely to be many more years yet before any UK broadcaster is brave enough to launch a new station using DAB+ rather than DAB format because of all the legacy DAB only radios currrently in use.
The only areas of the product I can fault are the fact that the connection to the router is dropped when the radio is turned off in to standby mode and so there is a few seconds reconnection time when starting up from standby, even if on the same station as when dropping to standby. Also Frontier Silicon are missing various interesting minor countries from their country listings like the Falkland Islands, St Helena and the North Mariana Islands that Reciva does list stations separately for. Some of these stations can still be found using their Find Station function but for others you will have to set up manually using the URLs for their audio feed through the Frontier Silicon radio portal. The one other failing of course is the lack of any battery facility but I suppose the radio would need to use at least four large D cell batteries and expand in size to be able to do this and even then battery life might be no more than five hours with decent quality Alkalines. So a built in rechargeable battery pack as used by some Pure Radios would be the only realistic way to go provide mains free operation.
However sound quaity and stability of the audio feed on this product seems to be way above the Reciva platform so overall this is still a great product. My betting is that sales will drop off again now the price has gone back to £69.99 and that DSG will then cut it again in due course. Of course it remains anyone's guess as to how many of these radios DSG had made for it and when they will finally begin to sell out altogether..........
Tidylls
7 Jan 14#20
I went to buy one today only to find Currys had hiked the price by £25 to £69.99! Grrr! Anyone know another source?
andysuth
4 Jan 14#19
I can confirm this sandstrom dab internet radio works well with nas media servers that use dlna like the buffalo linkstation live to play mp3 tracks.
Interface is better than the Pure evoke flow, and sound is nearly as good.
Great radio. Brilliant price. Get one.
Dr_Frankenstein
2 Jan 14#16
I have just picked this up as was looking for a DAB radio for the Kitchen and while playing with the display model it can stream music from shared drives. so will be linking this to my NAS when I get home very happy in deed.
andysuth to Dr_Frankenstein
3 Jan 14#18
All the literature says it doesn't connect to NAS (like my pure Evoke Flow) but whilst playing with one in PC World I found the settings for media streaming.
Have you got this working yet?
I'm going back to PC world later with my Galaxy S2 on network media server and seeing if the one in the shop can do this. I was impressed with sound quality for the price.
I've bought one for Daughter's birthday, it can go back if deemed inapropriate for a 2 year old.
-AS
Kua
2 Jan 14#17
is there a way to have it stream from spotify?
Kua
27 Dec 13#15
Managed to return mine at £49.99. Was actually given an expensive Roberst one from work (but not a very good looking one!).
grhdylan
27 Dec 13#14
Hi, just purchased one of these, got to say i'm quite impressed with the sound for such a small unit, Also i live in a valley where radio reception is poor, this is why i wanted a internet radio but with this unit i can actually recieve DAB broadcasts where as previous DAB sets have failed to receive anything. Cant go wrong at £44.95 :-)
richie_sk
26 Dec 13#13
Capvermell, I was wondering what is the power consumption in stand by mode and during normal operation like in Watts ?
And what about bass quality ? Is it just a tiny radio sound ? Thanks for your reply.
Capvermell
26 Dec 13#12
Forgot to mention this radio also has a much nicer display than the old dot matrix units used on the Logik Reciva models.
As the Logik Internet radios weren't stereo, didn't have DAB and didn't have an FM radio these units offer an awful lot more than the old Logik radios when they reached their cheapest prices. Of course there were no tablets or android smartphones in those days though. This is probably why DSG Retail has met with only limited success in selling this product.
Capvermell
26 Dec 13#11
Paid £49.99 for on at Currys/PC World in Crawley last week but see they are now down to £44.99 Could only get that price if I was to deem this one faulty on the basis that it periodically locks up and requires a power off reboot if certain menu sequences are used. This could easily be remedied by a firmware update if Frontier Silicon can be bothered to make the effort.
Overall this is much better radio than the earlier Logik IR100s sold by Currys and PC World. Firstly the DAB section of the radio is excellent and has much better ability to receive and resolve far away DAB stations reliably than any dedicated DAB radio I have so far owned. Secondly the internet radio is probably simpler to use than the Reciva Radio based models and Frontier Silicon also do a better job of pruning out dead stations than Reciva seemed to do, although they do seem to be missing some internet radio stations from their list in more obscure locations.
Also this radio is stereo compared to the mono only Logik IR100 and the mains hum problem previously associated with the Logk radios has gone.
I'm beginning to wonder how low the price could actually fall before DSG Retail run out of them completely (as they seem to be in clearance mode as most of the stupid British public only seem to think they want internet radios). There were at least 7 or 8 of them left at Currys/PC World in Crawley just before xmas but I have a feeling they will not be getting any more stock in at this clearance price. If they fall as low as £29.99 I am definitely going to have to get another one.
postroom
24 Dec 13#10
Just collect one from curry, s now £44.99. Just got home and switched it on. The radio is dead just a light on the display. Will have to go back on boxing day to get my money back.
Sponge
23 Dec 13#9
I ordered this for in-store collection. I was just about to leave when my phone rang. It was the store calling to tell me they'd failed to reserve one for me and had sold them all. Not pleased.
Sponge
20 Dec 13#8
1p short of the £50 I need for my £10 Amex 'cashback' offer...time to look for cheapest thing they sell. :smiley:
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Opening post
A downside is that it isn't portable. And I'm not sold on the buttons. Will try to remember to report back once it arrives however.
Latest comments (31)
No other source.
Sorry. Let us know if you find another model.
Anyhow your unthinking bigotry against all DSG own brand products is unjustified as this is built with the same Frontier Silicon chipset in precisely the same factories in China that build many of the Roberts internet radios. It is also an extremely good DAB radio with outstanding reception and virtually any other stereo DAB radio of this quality will cost you the same money but not have any internet radio functionality.
The previous Logik internet radios built for DSG in China by probably the same supplier did have some issues with both mains hum on the speakers and the signal strength of the internal wifi dongle. But both these issues seem to have been successfully addressed in the construction of this radio.
There is a minor fault that if you try to operate the menus too fast and do not wait for each menu operation to return its results that you can lock up and crash the radio software, requiring a plug out mains disconnection to reset. However once you are aware of this problem you can avoid it by waiting for each button press to return its expected results. Once you do this the radio no longer ever locks up or crashes. This minor fault could easily be cured by a firmware update from Frontier Silicon although it remains to be seen whether or not they will bother given that there has not been a new firmware update for these radios for quite some time. Or perhaps it may be the usual issue that we faced with our Reciva radios that DSG's labyrinthine internal structure makes it difficult for the radio makers to get the required approval to release the updated firmware.
So here's hoping for a Frontier Silicon Beta test group (similar to the old Reciva Internet Radio Beta Test Group) in order to provide is with future enhanced versions of the firmware for this radio.
Coming back to the product the one other main fault that can be levelled at it is that it is operated by several tiny buttons with labels in very faint writing that simply cannot be read at any distance in a poorly illuminated room at night such as a bedroom. This could actually be easily overcome by making both the buttons and the labels for them larger and/or ideally by illuminating the words describing the function of each button. Reciva clearly steals a march here as it is possible to operate almost its entire interface without ever having to carefully refer back to which button you are pressing.
Also the fact that Frontier Silicon is missing several whole countries from its internet radio database such as St Helena, Seychelles and North Mariana Islands (plus quite a few other small and obscure countries) that are listed on Reciva's station database is not altogether easy to forgive.
Set against that is that for anyone who is an internet radio fan and already has a Reciva radio that this is a rival product that works in a different way some of which is better and some of which is worse than with Reciva. But if you are a true Internet Radio fan you will want to own both a Reciva and a Frontier Silicon based unit.
Anyhow it makes me feel a lot better about snapping mine up at £49.99 the week before xmas and missing out on the £44.99 bottom of the barrel price. I did think they might have dropped the price as low as £39.99 but I would have imagined all remaining stock selling out fast at this price.
I have to say this is a really excellent product. Even though its ported back design strongly suggests to me that Hip-Shing Electronics (who used to make the Logik Reciva radios) might still be knocking them out for DSG unlike the old Logik radios they have completely cured the former horrid mains hum problem. Also the move up to stereo speakers is a big improvement and also the quality of the sound from the speakers at this price simply cannot be faulted. On top of all this the Frontier Silicon chipset has about the best and most sensitive DAB tuner I have ever come across. Sitting here just North of Slough I can tune in Muxes from both Surrey and Bedfordshire and also on the main London Muxes am getting all stations with zero signal error with the aerial up and pointed the right way. The 10 year old Pure Evoke 1 I have can only pull in around 40 stations at the same location and can't reliably receive stations on the weakest London Digital Radio Mux. Although it doesn't have DAB+ capability this really doesn't matter in the context of a mains only radio only likely to be used within the UK. This is because It is likely to be many more years yet before any UK broadcaster is brave enough to launch a new station using DAB+ rather than DAB format because of all the legacy DAB only radios currrently in use.
The only areas of the product I can fault are the fact that the connection to the router is dropped when the radio is turned off in to standby mode and so there is a few seconds reconnection time when starting up from standby, even if on the same station as when dropping to standby. Also Frontier Silicon are missing various interesting minor countries from their country listings like the Falkland Islands, St Helena and the North Mariana Islands that Reciva does list stations separately for. Some of these stations can still be found using their Find Station function but for others you will have to set up manually using the URLs for their audio feed through the Frontier Silicon radio portal. The one other failing of course is the lack of any battery facility but I suppose the radio would need to use at least four large D cell batteries and expand in size to be able to do this and even then battery life might be no more than five hours with decent quality Alkalines. So a built in rechargeable battery pack as used by some Pure Radios would be the only realistic way to go provide mains free operation.
However sound quaity and stability of the audio feed on this product seems to be way above the Reciva platform so overall this is still a great product. My betting is that sales will drop off again now the price has gone back to £69.99 and that DSG will then cut it again in due course. Of course it remains anyone's guess as to how many of these radios DSG had made for it and when they will finally begin to sell out altogether..........
Interface is better than the Pure evoke flow, and sound is nearly as good.
Great radio. Brilliant price. Get one.
Have you got this working yet?
I'm going back to PC world later with my Galaxy S2 on network media server and seeing if the one in the shop can do this. I was impressed with sound quality for the price.
I've bought one for Daughter's birthday, it can go back if deemed inapropriate for a 2 year old.
-AS
And what about bass quality ? Is it just a tiny radio sound ? Thanks for your reply.
As the Logik Internet radios weren't stereo, didn't have DAB and didn't have an FM radio these units offer an awful lot more than the old Logik radios when they reached their cheapest prices. Of course there were no tablets or android smartphones in those days though. This is probably why DSG Retail has met with only limited success in selling this product.
Overall this is much better radio than the earlier Logik IR100s sold by Currys and PC World. Firstly the DAB section of the radio is excellent and has much better ability to receive and resolve far away DAB stations reliably than any dedicated DAB radio I have so far owned. Secondly the internet radio is probably simpler to use than the Reciva Radio based models and Frontier Silicon also do a better job of pruning out dead stations than Reciva seemed to do, although they do seem to be missing some internet radio stations from their list in more obscure locations.
Also this radio is stereo compared to the mono only Logik IR100 and the mains hum problem previously associated with the Logk radios has gone.
I'm beginning to wonder how low the price could actually fall before DSG Retail run out of them completely (as they seem to be in clearance mode as most of the stupid British public only seem to think they want internet radios). There were at least 7 or 8 of them left at Currys/PC World in Crawley just before xmas but I have a feeling they will not be getting any more stock in at this clearance price. If they fall as low as £29.99 I am definitely going to have to get another one.
Hot. Reserved one.
£29.99 for this one - half price @ Sainsbury's, not sure if its any good but thought it was cheap and looks OK .
for Dab.