Panasonic RFD1 Review

Good Points
Sounds good on FM.

Bad Points
Unreliable, eats batteries just for fun, poor reception and sound quality in DAB. Lots of repaired ones on ebay going cheap.

General Comments
Nice looking compact DAB Digital Radio. Sounds much better with FM than DAB especially with equaliser set to off. Menu system is over complicated. DAB reception is poor with interference. Batteries last very short time due to excessive power consumption. Bulky transformer with thin flimsy wire.



The Panasonic RFD1 has manufacturing fault where F76 PDET is displayed on the screen. The 5 volt regulator (marked Q315 on the circuit board) will have failed as it gets excessively hot in DAB mode. Panasonic paid for the repair on mine even though it was outside warranty. I have modified mine by fitting an aluminum heat sink to the hot component to help cool it. Hopefully it will do the trick. I think this is disgraceful and incompetent as well as a waste of energy. I would not recommend this radio!!