DAB – radio with knobs on

Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) brought with it a number of benefits. More stations meant greater variety and niche listening; claims of CD quality sound which, though not always entirely accurate did mean an end to hiss and crackle on stations like Radio Five Live and Virgin; and the ability to manipulate radio in much the same way as you can TV on systems such as Sky Plus. The doorbell goes just as Poirot is about to unmask the villain in the BBC7 dramatisation. No worries. Just hit pause and you don’t miss a thing. Or your attention wandered just as Chris Moyles was delivering his most brilliant bon mot. Just hit re-wind and crank the audio back to hear it again.

But the DAB revolution also brought with it a supreme irony. The medium which had been accessible and easy to use for almost everyone suddenly got highjacked. Choosing a station was no longer a case of cruising up and down the dial. Information was presented textually on the screen. Controls required the ability to twist and push in combination. Other functions were hidden deep in a system of menus.

But we’re not easily robbed of one of life’s necessities. Many disabled people were determined not to let the technology exclude us so we set about finding our own ways of reclaiming radio so that we could share in the benefits some sets afford.

Two with the most functionality are the RD 41 Sound from Roberts Radio and Pure’s high-end model from its Evoke range, the Evoke 3. This could easily be seen as a contest between solid experience and impetuous youth. Roberts have been making radios now for well over 50 years. As it comes out of the box, the Roberts looks reassuringly familiar and solidly reliable. However, the Evoke does more than stand up to it, showing why Pure has become one of the market leaders in DAB radio production and sales.

Following switch-on and the obligatory autotune scan, the RD41 proved disappointingly poor at pulling in a signal, even struggling with strong stations in my area like Radio 2, Five Live and Classic FM. And the thing with DAB is that poor reception results in no broadcast sound. In exactly the same setting and position, the Evoke 3 performed far better and ran away with this element of the test. The Pure was also the clear winner when it comes to number and use of presets, allowing for 99 – more than there are stations available currently – while the Roberts weighed in with a puny six. And because the Evoke has a remote, choosing and switching between presets is very easy as you simply punch in the number of the preset you want. In fact, the remote made for greater ease of operation all round, which meant the Pure won out here too.

Things are evened up slightly on visual displays. The Evoke’s is not great, small text in pale green on an off-white background. The Roberts, with strong large white text contrasting well with a blue background, is much more vision-impaired friendly.

Given that these two are evenly matched in price (£139.99) there can only be one winner here. The Evoke, pure and simple.