Advantages: Cheap and Cheerful
Disadvantages: Radio tuning difficult

...A 3 in 1 'boombox' featuring an AM/FM radio, cassette recorder and a CD player. Available in either silver or metallic blue. I particularly liked the latter. Bearing in mind this cost just £17.49 from Argos and you have to say it's a winner. Sound quality is good and though by no means 'Hi-Fi' its more than acceptable for everyday listening. The CD drawer seems a little bit delicate, consisting of a 'damped' opening lid but so far nothing has gone wrong. The cassette mechanism is a bog standard mechanical type and the associated buttons, while no means swish, are at least stout and robust. The radio is tuned by a knob with a very small dialing window which is a bit tricky to set, but no worse than others of this type. There are not that many cheap units around that can play CD's and the now fast disappearing cassettes... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Exceptional value for money
Disadvantages: Mono output / no external aerial option

...ALBA TRDAB2820 DAB RADIO ------------------------------------------- My wife bought this radio to replace a fairly modern non-DAB receiver that we have in our kitchen. She was desperate to receive the same channels that we listened to on the DAB radio in our bedroom that were not available locally on the analogue FM and AM networks. So my wife's main reason for change was based on channel selection (Kerrang and Planet Rock). For me, apart from the advantage of receiving more channels, I was just as interested in improved sound reproduction and a reduction in interference. I am glad to say that this very attractively priced DAB radio achieved both objectives and has been used for at least 3 or 4 hours per day since its purchase. A BRIEF BACKGROUND TO DAB TRANSMISSIONS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Most... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Superb price, easy to use & excellent reception
Disadvantages: Not enough bass

...Since the introduction of DAB radio i have always wanted to buy one. This is mainly due to the appaling reception on certain channels due to Pirate stations operating near the frequency of legal channels. I was doing my normal weekly shopping at Sainsburys a couple of days ago and noticed this Alba set for an amazing price of £29.99! The normal price for this set is £49.99 so this was quite a substantial saving. Also the majority of DAB radios are priced at around £90 onwards. Below reviews the radio and details what DAB actually is..... What is DAB? DAB was first introduced to the UK in 1995 by the BBC. It is broadcast using Digital technology rather than the standard analogue technology used in most households. Digital transmissions allow much more information to be sent than analogue so stations have the ability... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Excellent value for money, lightweight, easy to use
Disadvantages: Small buttons, LCD screen not always easy to read

...I was brought this radio Christmas 2007, so have had is for seven months as I write this review. My other have chose this radio for me based on price - it was £39.99 from Argos. ALBA are generally known as a budget manufacturer of electrical goods, but based on this product their build quality appears to have improved. This DAB digital radio also have a built in FM radio, so you can use either. It has a headphone socket (so you can use personal headphones OR an adapter to plug this into your existing home stereo system). It also have phono type outputs on the back which again allows you to plug a low-level signal into your home stereo system. When you consider the cost of some digital radio recievers this is a very cheap way of making your old FM home system digital. The display is blue LCD (which can be slightly difficult... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Sleek and Stylish
Disadvantages: Pathetic EPG and Program system

...it wasn't storing them properly, it seemed to be totally unable to store the progrmas where they were supposed to go (under the correct names) and the EPG was quite frankly a joke. Technically it seemed to be quite an advanced device, as it sported the following features EPG (of sorts) Mass array of channels Radio However it did not include any interactive features which can be found on equally priced models, and unfortunately it was just not practical It was, however a decent attempt at a low cost option by alba, and once the creases have been ironed out i have no doubt it will be a super little product.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Compact size, good looking
Disadvantages: Appalling sound and picture quality, complicated set-up

...between 16:9 and 4:3 settings which meant that people's faces tended to get elongated on screen. Worst of all however was the sound quality - it was absolutely appalling. Despite having adjustable settings for tone and bass, I could not get it to sound any better than an old crystal radio set! Seriously, it did sound like the speakers had been made out of two washed-out baked bean tins. The quality improved slightly when I turned off the NICAM, but the whole point of having a stereo TV is to enjoy the sound, not compromise with it. You will note that I have written this review in the past tense. We couldn't put up with the poor sound quality, and boxed it up and took it back the next day. It was the second Alba LCD TV we'd had and the second we've taken back (the first kept losing the picture), and so it's going to be the last... Read review

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Advantages: Unusual, very different flavours
Disadvantages: A bit TOO different

...stretch it out with cheaper adjuncts like rice and corn. Doing this ensures you end up with something that can only be drunk ice-cold, because if it warms up it tastes disgusting. So, now that we've established that, here's another bombshell. I'm Scottish. Isn't all this irrelevent? I hear a pathetic voice squeaking from the back. Hmm, I won't even humour her with an answer. The previous ramblings, far from being incongruous, bring me neatly to the subject of this review. A quality, Scottish ale with unusual ingredients - ALBA SCOTS PINE ALE. (Alba is the Gaelic name for Scotland) CRAIGMILL BREWERY is located in an 18th century watermill in Strathaven, Lanarkshire. HEATHER ALES claim to fame is their practice of using different, and sometimes unusual, ingredients to produce their beers. These are based on traditional... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Inconspicuous and Easy to Use
Disadvantages: None

...Increasingly new TV’s are entering the market as Freeview ready, the internal electronics of the set eliminating the need for a separate box of tricks. However where that is not the case either with a new TV set or indeed with existing older models which you may have in the home a digital set top box will be required to receive freeview digital TV. Digital set top boxes (digital terrestrial receivers) have been getting progressively smaller and neater. For Freeview we have replaced our older larger clunky Sagem model with an Alba STB8 which comparati