World's First Affordable Digital Radio

An affordable digital radio has long been overdue
What Hi-Fi?, December 2000
5 Star Award

Ask anyone involved in Digital Radio what’s holding the format back, and they’ll tell you it’s the price of the receivers, currently anything from £500 to £1000 plus.

This is a dedicated Digital Radio tuner, with no corners cut, for little more than the cost of its nearest rival. Available from Dixons in the run-up to Christmas, it looks certain to create waves in the digital market.

Autotuning pulls in all the available stations quickly, and then you’re left with just a twist and push control for station selection, buttons to change the display, and an info button allowing parameters such as signal strength and frequency to be shown. Extra facilities come courtesy of the tiny remote handset, which allows selection of secondary services, such as when Radio 5 is broadcasting two sporting events, as well as storage and access to the presets.

And while the looks are functional, the VideoLogic is screwed together well, and under the lid uses a high-quality toroidal transformer, 24-bit/96kHz DACs and a good DAB front end.

And how does the DRX-601E sound? Just fine, thanks, and well up to the standards of all but the very best of its rivals. Yes, is sounds decidedly thin and lacking in substance beside the TAG McLaren Audio T32RDAB we’re using as a reference tuner, but remember we are talking about a £2000 price difference. Beside the more modestly-priced tuners, the VideoLogic can more than hold its own on sound per pound terms.

With a broadcast combining a lack of compression with a high data rate - a Radio 3 evening concert or a Radio 4 play, for example - it delivers a powerful bass, excellent midband and treble detail to give real atmosphere, and of course a complete lack of background noise. There’s power a-plenty for big orchestral works, making it perfectly viable to connect this tuner to high-quality amplification and speakers, and simpler music and speech are delivered with an appealing directness.

an affordable digital radio has long been overdue, and the DRX-601E fits the gap perfectly. It will be interesting to see what other hi-fi manufacturers do to catch up.