arcam dt81 dab review

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Average Ratings

Sound Quality	5/10
Features	10/10
Value for Money	2/10
Overall rating	1/10

Not Recommended

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By Mark Flury on 5th Aug 2004

Mark Flury's Ratings

Time Tuner Owned	1 - 6 Months
Sound Quality	5/10
Features	10/10
Value for money	2/10
Overall value	1/10
Mark Flury's recommendation

Good Points

Looks great. L-band reception.

Bad Points

Poor quality. Unreliable.

General Comments

I owned 2 DT81's bought in Sevenoaks HiFi: don't waste your time, with the shop or Arcam's DAB tuners.

The 1st one bought in Jan 2003 developed a fault (it would keep coming up with 'service not found' on the display, even though the portable DAB unit I own worked fine)) soon after purchase and was sent off to Arcam 'for repair'. That was assuming Arcam ever saw it!

Unfortunately 3 months after it was 'repaired' the same fault occurred again and I took it back to the shop, rather fed up and not happy to accept another 'repair' for a 5 month old tuner.

The shop 'phoned' Arcam to ask if they could give a refund on it, as it was faulty and supposedly Arcam said no. They could have rang the speaking clock and said the same thing.

I insisted on my money back and they kept stalling saying they would send it back to Arcam (again!), would lend me another one (funny they didn't loan me a replacement for the 8 weeks it took for it to be 'repaired' the 1st time!).

I was annoyed that they were supposed to have rang Arcam before that and it was clear that when I turned up 2 hours after the shop opened, they weren't bothered enough to have rang them by then.

Eventually, after half an hour, they relented and refunded my credit card.

I bought a Cambridge Audio DAB 300 for a quarter of what the Arcam cost me (£650), it performs the socks off the Arcam, despite being a simple design and less buttons on it.

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