Matsui DA-1

Everything is fine except that I do not know how I set the OFF Alarm when I have set the time for On Alarm. I should like to set the radio off at 08.00 after i has been awaked at 06.00 hours.

Peter

The Matsui DA-1 was a bargain at about £45 and has performed well over the 18 months to 2 years I have had it. I live in a "fringe" area for DAB so I removed the throw-out antenna wire and fitted an F-socket to the case to enable a connection to my multi-point distribution system. The resulsts are superb and it forms the main DAB receiver in my lounge. The quality is excellent and it has been entirely reliable.

My DAB antenna is sited in the loft and consists of a single dipole cut to the 210 to 240 MHz range......seemples!

The Matsui DA-1 DAB Digital Radio works all over my house in a marginal area where other receivers have failed completely (see my Ferguson frg-120d review for example!)

Screen is easy to read as long as you prop the tiny radio up at a suitable angle.

Stick the aerial up with some blue tak and you're away!

Note - this is not a portable radio, but a 'tuner' to be added to an existing system with an 'aux' input free. As far as I am concerned it is highly recommended.

Available on ebay new for around 25 pounds.

I am generally quite pleased with the Matsui DA-1 DAB digital radio, which I have connected to my surround sound system. It sounds great over the speakers with no hiss. However, I am unable to pick up radio Scotland, Forth 1 & 2, which is a bit disappointing. The wire antenna can receive them, but you have to hold the wire taught, and when you let it go the reception is lost.

For the price I have paid I am very pleased with the unit.

Note: You have to buy an additional lead to connect it to your sound system.

The Matsui DA-1 is a very neat product. Basically you plug it directly into the Tuner (or similar) inputs on your HiFi or other amplifier, plug the unit itself into the mains (via a transformer) and you then have superb digital radio reception. It is very small, has an inbuilt antenna (no trailing wires) and a good remote control. For the remote you can switch between 10 pre-programmed stations or browse through dozens more.

So for £60 (or less) you can convert your existing sound system to Digital radio. Cool!

The Matsui DA-1 is a great way of getting into DAB radio at minimal financial risk.

The product concept is very simple - it's a digital tuner that plugs into your existing stereo and allows you to access DAB radio.

There's no built-in amp or speakers so you have to a stereo with line-inputs already but if like me you have more than one of these in your home the Matsui is surprisingly portable. This is due to its small size, low weight and the fact that the aerial is just a piece of plastic coated wire. I regularly swap my DAB tuner between the micro hi-fi in my kitchen and the separates I have in my lounge, and it only takes 30 seconds or so to disconnect or reconnect.

Reception is excellent. Despite the primitive looking antenna it receives all the DAB channels for my area, whichever room I have it set up in.

The sound quality you get will depend partly on what you plug it into but in my case I'm entirely happy that I'm hearing much better results than I would from any of the portable DAB radios that I've listened to.

Setting-up was very easy because the DAB-1 automatically scans for available channels when you first plug it in and the instructions for storing favourites on the number keys of the remote were very easy to follow.

Using it day-to-day is just a case of pressing the red button on the remote to switch it on and pressing a channel number if you want to change stations so it's the sort of product I could really recommend to anyone.

My one criticism of this tuner is that although the display is very useful it's hard to read unless you are very close and looking at the right angle. But that is a minor quibble and I'm very happy with the product overall.