Roberts Gemini 3 DAB Radio

...now the owner of a Roberts Gemini 3 Digital Radio.

Looks
Well to be honest, it looks very much like any other radio - in fact in comparison to other digital radios I've seen, it actually looks rather old fashioned. It's mostly chrome with the whole of the front being the speaker, except a band across the top which has an LCD screen and all the necessaries knobs and buttons for tuning, volume, etc.

Juice
...
...this is not the first Roberts radio I have owned. I also have a portable radio cassette recorder which is still going strong after much use. In fact, if I was going out to buy a digital radio, it is very likely I would have gone for a Roberts model - they are known for their excellence in the portable radio market.


Price
Did I mention mine was free!! For those who have to buy their radio - this model costs around £140 ... more

Digital Radio - why on earth would you want one of those when Digital radios seem to cost a minimum of £99 and you can hear the radio perfectly on a £5 model from the market? Well, that was my view and as I didn't listen that much to the radio, I had no intention of buying a radio with Digital Audio Broadcasting (to be referred to in this op as DAB) technology. But then I entered a competition on Virgin Radio - well all I did was submit my details on the Virgin Radio website - they were giving away a Digital Radio every hour of every day for a couple of weeks. I thought nothing more of it, until suddenly I received a large box in the post, opened it up, and found I was now the owner of a Roberts Gemini 3 Digital Radio.

Looks
Well to be honest, it looks very much like any other radio - in fact in comparison to other digital radios I've seen, it actually looks rather old fashioned. It's mostly chrome with the whole of the front being the speaker, except a band across the top which has an LCD screen and all the necessaries knobs and buttons for tuning, volume, etc.

Juice
My radio can either be operated on the mains or by using 6 C size batteries. As I would very rarely want to use the radio with batteries, I'm not even going to get bother getting any, I shall just plug in using my mains cord. By the way, I would just like to say at this point that I'm glad in this day and age most electronic gadgets come with plugs attached. I still remember buying radios and other electronic equipment, and having to come home and hunt around for a plug, and then make sure that I had the right fuse in the plug, etc., and then having to sit there with my wiring diagram, making sure I put the brown, blue, and green wires in the right direction!

Tuning In
Ok, you've plugged your radio in, so now you're ready to rock and roll so to speak! Extend the telescopic aerial which is located at the top rear of the set, and when you switch the radio on, you are not immediately greeted with a cacophony of sound, but instead you are greeted with silence. Now, don't think your radio isn't working, it's auto tuning. It's detecting all the stations it can pick up. Now, I admit that when I first plugged in and turned on, I hadn't bothered reading the user manual, and me being impatient, turned it off and put it back in its box (I was just about to have dinner mind you, so I didn't really have the time to spend!) Anyway, a little later when I had more time to devote to my new toy, I got it back out and plugged it in again, and I was greeted with music from the radio station which had come first alphabetically when it had auto tuned. I started to scan through all the stations, and realised that something wasn't quite right - there were missing stations - where were the new BBC stations, surely as I live in London I could pick those up? So, out came the manual and I sat down and read it. Aha, because I'd switched the radio off the first time before it had finished auto tuning, it hadn't had a chance to complete the tuning of all stations it could pick up. I discovered that there was an Auto Tune Button on the front and I had 2 choices. I could either go for a quick scan which will add any stations missed, or I could hold the button down longer and it will go forget what has already been tuned, and begin from scratch. Due to my previous ineptitude, I decided this second option was probably the most sensible! Now I could watch and learn. The radio scans the airwaves and as it scans it shows the names of the stations it's picking up, and also keeps a count of the stations as it picks them up.

Station Selection
Ok, the radio started blurting out some rather off beat music, not my scene. So I used the station select button to go through the radio stations before selecting one that was playing my choice of music. There is a huge choice - I wasn't expecting so many - over 60 stations to be exact. If you want to see the range of stations you can pick up where you live, please put your post code in on the following website:-

http://www.ukdigitalradio.com/coverage/search/default.asp

You can easily see the choice of stations on the radio - use the select buttons to scroll up and down the named choices which are shown in the front LCD display, when you see the station you want, just click on the select button - it really couldn't be any simpler.

The Listening Experience
I was rather disappointed. I had this concept that I'd hear some incredible miracle coming out of my new radio, and I didn't think that it sounded any different. But the key phrase in that last sentence is "I didn't think", we are so used to the rubbish that comes out of our stereos that we don't hear the hiss and the crackles, we've blocked them out. It wasn't until I turned on my Hi-Fi (not any cheap rubbish, it's a Denon with B & W speakers) and listened to the same station on both. I was amazed. the quality of sound from the digital radio was immediately apparent, the sound is crystal clear, my only gripe being that the sound is not in stereo - but what do you expect of such a portable radio? I could plug the radio into my speakers for the stereo experience.

The Display
As stated previously, there is an LCD display where you can see the choice of radio stations, but it provides a lot more information than that. There is an info button which you can press which provides details of any information which is broadcast by the Digital Radio station with it's show. For example, they can send information on the artist, the name of the track, the name of the DJ, etc., whatever they choose to broadcast. I have to admit that in 99% of the cases when I will have this radio on, I won't be sitting there with my eyes glued to the LCD display, wondering what I'm listening to. But on that odd occasion where you hear a record that you can't wait to go out and buy, or you are just dying to know what you are humming along to, you can go and read it for yourself on this display.

Preset Stations
As you would expect it's possible to preset stations - 10 DAB stations to be exact. There are 5 numbered buttons which allow you to choose the first 5 pre set stations. Then a 5+ button, which allows you to pick stations 6 to 10. When I tried this, it was as easy as pie, though as it's so easy to select stations by name with the DAB technology, I can't actually see me using the pre-sets much.

FM
Now I know I'm not going to use this facility. I've got a huge choice of 61 digital stations of superb sound quality, and I can make the radio into an FM radio receiver - why would I want to do that? Well, ok, I may go somewhere in the middle of nowhere where I can't pick up digital radio, and I would want to use the FM receiver, but to be honest, I never take a radio away with me, so I won't need to worry about this facility. But, this is very useful for those who do like to carry a radio around with them and take one on holiday, etc. My brother is a painter and decorator, and as we know, all decorators carry kettles and radios onto a job, so if the radio was his, I expect he may use this facility occasionally (but it's not his!!!) If your turn onto the FM mode, you have another 10 preset channels - and to be honest, if I used it in FM mode frequently, where all the channel information is not so available, I would use the pre-set buttons.

Reliability
I've only had this radio 2 months, so long term reliablity is difficult to comment on. However, this is not the first Roberts radio I have owned. I also have a portable radio cassette recorder which is still going strong after much use. In fact, if I was going out to buy a digital radio, it is very likely I would have gone for a Roberts model - they are known for their excellence in the portable radio market.

Price
Did I mention mine was free!! For those who have to buy their radio - this model costs around £140 in store, and about £10 cheaper on-line.

The Technology
Ok, I'm not technical, so this will be brief. The way I understand it, the difference to normal analogue transmission, is that digital transmission is in blocks of sound, which helps retain the quality. The digital stations use the old black and white TV transmission frequencies in case you wondered.

Recommendation
I have been quite surprised at how good DAB technology is. I hadn't realised how clear the radio stations would be, and how easy it would be to tune and select stations. I can see why this is the way forward for radio technology. At some point in the future (the date seems to keep changing) analogue TV and radio is to be switched off, and we are all expected to have digital receivers. I'm impressed with the sound quality I would say that if you are a frequent radio listener and you can pick up your favourite channel digitally in you area - make the move now, it is worth it.
 

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