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| Eton Mini 300PE | LG LPC-BM340A CD Cassette Recorder | |
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Will
this be the last analogue radio the Waffler is temped to buy?
I doubt this. I was on
ebay recently and noticed this radio on auction for £25. I nearly bid but
fortunately I had bought shortwave magazine. In here I saw that the radio
was a mere £24.95 and that it also had FM stereo on board if you listened
on earphones. I decided to send off to Nevada for a radio and it came the
very next day - unfortunately I was out so I had to wait until the weekend
to pick it up. It
takes 2 AA batteries in a compartment at the rear and is not that flimsy in
construction - although I feel the battery door could be a bit stronger but
for the money it is fine. They put a set in the box so that is good.
It is palm sized and sounds great for the money you pay. Also
as a freebie comes a plastic pouch carrying case, rather like the one I use
on my palm organiser and cost a good £14.99 on its own! The
telescopic aerial is good for reception and does not need to be extended
fully for all stations. It
protrudes from the case about 3 inches and cannot be pushed in - it gives
the appearance that it is a mobile phone.
Turning it round finds the best signal on am. It
more than passes my tests for distant stations on am and fm it is quite
sensitive and receives weak signals well. Jackie and Resonance FM come in,
as does 1008 Khz and 675 khz. It
has a largish digital display of frequency and and alarm and sleep timer.
When it is turned off you get a current time display which is good.
Tuning is manual on a round dial on the side as is the volume.
The on and off switch is on the front - a simple touch button. The
set is available in a range of colours - mine is blue. It
covers FM, AM (medium wave) and 7 short-wave bands. It does not cover all of
the short waves but ample to find the best short-wave broadcasters currently
on air. SW1
49 mtrs 5950-6200 KHz SW2
41 mtrs 7100-7300 Khz SW3
31 mtrs 9500-9950 Khz SW4
25 mtrs 11600-12100 Khz SW5
22 mtrs 13600-13800 Khz SW6
19 mtrs 15100-15800 Khz SW7
15 mtrs 17500-17900 Khz Also
included is a very good set of inner earphones which make s the FM stereo
sound good. I could detect a light background hiss under speech.
Thankfully when I tested recording to mini disc this was not evident
on recordings. I
am going to use this set for recording on holiday, alongside my trusty
Superdrug £4.99 radio if stereo signals are poor - there is no way of
switching to mono on the Eton. When recording the usual precautions of
keeping the mini disk recorder away from the set on a long recording lead
avoids the laser light causing interference and intervals. I actually found
it recorded a weak station on short-wave well and there was digital
glitching on 5955 Khz on a strong signal. The recordings are good with
plenty of top and slight bass boost evident on my Sony recorder. Recording
is done via the 3.5mm earphone socket which mutes when the lead it inserted
- you need to listen on headphones off the recorder to monitor input and
output. Frequency
read out like the Superdrug cheapie is a about 5khz out but if you know what
station you are tuned to you can tune the dial so that the digital frequency
matches. It is not always out
on read out but enough to need to check if you do radio logs seriously.
Another review a read said the set was prone to hand capacitance but I have
not found that to be so. To
conclude a great little radio - bought for holiday use but it has been in
use by me for 2 weeks and goes all over the house - not a disaster if you
lose this but it is sufficient quality to use all the time.
My wife who does not know why I need to buy another raido at all says
the output is what you would expect from s small radio. It is not room
filling but the sound is almost fm like on a good short-wave station - top
and slight bass. A great set!
Wireless Waffler 17/03/05 |
Very pleased with the LG cassette dab cd radio which I got off ebay brand new. The cassette quality seems very good so far. I base this on when you take the ferric tapes it uses and put it in the hi fi cassette and listen on speakers. I also like the way it will play mp3s from cd or cdrw (not that I use that much now) You cannot scroll through an mp3 to find a place but can do on an audio cd. The dab reception is spoilt by the aerial but when it works it is superb but glitches if not in a hot spot in a room. It is not as bad as the Psion wavefinder was for reception. My area is fine for dab on a Pure Evoke 1. The funny thing is it breaks Pures rule of dab - namely you can move the aerial off the vertical to better reception. It switched on to the BBC national network when I switched it on then I couldn't get it on again. It seems to tune into dab each time you select it, mind you I have moved it from room to room. I can get the BBC with it but have to pick a spot in the room - this never happens with Pure digital radios which get it anywhere. It is around at Comet for £79.99 and other places for £129. My advice is to treat yourself to a Pure model and only get a radio cassette as a second set. My Pure receives all multiplexes with no problem at all. The mono dab sets have output to stereo . Drg is the weakest multiplex here and the LG picks that up best! The LG radio output makes FM and dab and am sound alike. A full review will follow on site when I have put it through its paces. The FM and AM reception side is sensitive and picks up all the stations I use as a point of reference at a distance. The remote control is also very useful and essential in order to control the tape deck separately whilst listening to the radio.
Further use of the LG Cassette dab cd radio BM340A and keeping the aerial on a slanting position has greatly improved reception in my kitchen. Unlike the Evoke radio which has a set up which you can run once and then it saves it, the dab side goes silent for around 30 seconds or more whilst it initialises (tunes to find which multiplexes it can receive) Sorry if you are not interested in digital reception or do understand these ramblings. Overall dab still has a long way to go for the general public to be able to use it. The set up procedure on sets is great if you understand what is happening but existing radios are just turned on and receive signals. I can get the BBC mulitplex now in most parts of the house The poorer reception may have been due to a tropospheric low - but I will not make any further comments until an adequate soak testing of the product has been completed. Overall it is a delight to listen in to DAB radio which has a better variety of stations without adverts on it in the Kitchen
The sound on FM, DAB and AM is very similar but quite impressive but it lacks deep bass which I do not mind too much. It has an equalizer which provides a variety of setting and ROCK is the best to my ear. There is also a dbb (bass) setting. They tell you to push it repeatedly to obtain different bass levels, but to my ear there is only one and it is quite good enough in the kitchen. No way is the output tinny or cheap but comparing it to the Pure it is not true hi fi.
Final opinions some days on: I have now had the time to finish the soak testing and overall I am now very pleased with the set, the only annoying feature is the need to wait for it to tune in the DAB stations when you switch over to it. It is good value for money, either at the £69 I paid or the £79.99 that Comet are charging, ideal for a second set but not a first. I would be interested to learn is anyone has purchased one of the Bush cd dab cassettes which retail at £49.99. The price leap after this seems to be around £99.99. It looks like Philips have an excellent cd radio dab recorder, the Goodmans looks too good to be true, Read also a review on Amazon where the author admits a disliking of LG due to a faulty video recorder they made. http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000621SRG/qid%3D1108555396/202-4148071-1216638 I have a similar aversion to Ferguson products based on 4 track tape machines and a diablolical video recorder in the 1980s. Interested to read other BDXC reader's reviews.
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