Sony XDR-DS12iP

We don’t tend to listen to CD’s in our house much nowadays as both myself and my partner both have iphones. We download music from the itunes store onto our phones and listen to these instead.

For this reason my partner decided he didn’t want a cd player in the house anymore and it would be more viable for us to have an ipod/iphone docking station instead so we can listen to the music downloaded on our phones instead.

He went to Comet and came back with the Sony XDK-DS12IP DAB radio with docking station. I had no input into his selection process as I wasn’t present but his reason for purchasing this one was that it looked smart, did everything we needed it to and was compact enough that it would sit on top of our microwave in our kitchen. I normally panic when my partner makes purchases for the home without me, but I have to say he did well with this one.

The design of the radio is basically a rectangle around the size of 30cm x 20xcm at a guess. The front of the radio is all speaker with the buttons all on top. At the front centre of the radio, in front of the speaker is the ipod docking station.

I have found this really handy as I can listen to my music and charge my phone at the same time. We have recently renovated our house and have a larger kitchen now so spend quite a lot of time in there and this radio is used on a regular basis.

Underneath the docking part is a small rectangle display which displays the time, date and which radio station you are listening to. The display is rather small but perfectly adequate and fits the design of the radio perfectly. The sound quality is fantastic, but then you tend to get that with most Sony products. I am not overly technical but with this product you don’t need to be. There are just a few buttons on top which basically switch it on, allow you to change from radio to ipod/phone, set date/time etc and allow you to change stations on the radio.

There is no cd part to this radio, but then you don’t need it if you have an iphone or ipod. The music you download onto these, as well as having the radio is sufficient for our family’s needs and we don’t miss having a cd player around at all. You plug it in at the mains and it does have a long cord so you can place it pretty much anywhere but it sits perfectly on top of our microwave.

Our kitchen has a really modern look to it now and this DAB radio fits perfectly with the kitchen. It has a really sleek and stylish look to it, as well as being really functional and excellent quality. You even have a small, thin remote control, so you can sit in the comfort of your armchair and change songs etc without having to move!

My partner purchased this around 4-5 months ago from Comet and paid £89.99 for it. I have checked the current price before printing this review and the price is still around the same depending on where you purchase it from.

Overall, this has turned out to be a fantastic purchase for our home and I highly recommend it to all. It looks fab, is excellent quality, does the intended job well, is easy to use and has so far proven to be 100% reliable. Although you can purchase cheaper ones than this, I think this is well worth the money as you can’t get a better brand than Sony where electrical products are concerned and this has proven to be a worthwhile addition to our home. Highly recommended.