Pure: Tempus 1 XT

Phil, Midlands, on June 8th, 2006
Leaving aside the usual point about how DAB is a crippled medium and could sound better than it does... This is a nice piece of kit. It's very similar to the XT-1 - the difference being that this model has 3 alarms and a "snoozehandle" - so if you touch the handle after the alarm goes, it shuts off for a while. The radio uses the Imagination Technologies chip which is, I think, common to many DAB sets. I found this set to be more sensitive than other portables I have seen and used. This is important given that DAB signals are generally weaker than ideal and are affected by buildings. The sound quality is excellent given the small size of the box. You can buy an extension speaker (same as for the XT-1) which means you get stereo output. Worthwhile in my opinion. The main receiver box and the extension speaker have a bass port which, together with the wooden case give a "bigger" sound than its size might expect. There are both analogue and digital (optical) outputs. The radio covers Band III only. This doesn't affect the choice of UK stations, although "L-band" may be introduced in the future, this is looking unlikely in the short term. L-band is in use overseas however, and this could be a problem if the receiver is to be used outside the UK. Downsides? It's mains-only, with a big plug-in power supply. Setting and resetting the alarms is fiddly, requiring a lot of button presses. There is no simple way of cancelling an alarm if you wake up before it goes off. I find the scrolling text on the LCD can be difficult to read - each letter seems to fade in and out as it appears to move across the display. It's a bit pricy for an alarm clock - unless you're addicted to one of the digital-only stations. That said, I'm very pleased with it, and would certainly recommend it. 4 out of 5, losing a point because of the user interface issues noted above.