Ministry of Sound thoughts
Tuesday 12th August 03

I have the Ministry of Sound DR-011 radio unit for its portability and I listen to it at night-time. I've found that in built-up areas the reception can sound "bubbley" and in areas of good reception the fidelity of the stereo sound (if available) is not as good as that of FM broadcasts.

Nevertheless, once achieved, it does give clear reception without annoying crossover spillage from other broadcasts, as experienced on dated and inferior frequencies such as AM and MW.

Paul
via e-mail

Thanks for your comments, Paul. I would like to wake up to Radio Five Live, but even during the day reception is atrocious. Instead, I listen to Swansea Sound. DAB digital radio at least addresses some of the problems found with AM stations. Ed.

Glad I've bought the Ministry of Sound handheld radio
Thursday 22nd August 03

I've had the MOS DR011 digital radio for about a month now and I'm delighted with it.

I'm not generally an early adopter of newish technology, but in this case I made an exception.

The reason is because of my job and where I do it. I've worked as a postman for several years and I'd been using an ancient analogue Walkman, to listen to Radio 4's early morning output. When I changed offices, I found myself in a low lying area beside the Thames in the outskirts of West London. Analogue radio reception is hopeless to the point that I had to abandon listening to the radio.

I took a chance on the DR011 and hoped that the reception would be acceptable. I was lucky, the reception is fantastic. There are only a couple of places when I experience any distortion and these are fixed areas when surrounded by buildings. The breakup sounds very similar to a bad line on a mobile telephone.

Making the change from analogue to digital is interesting when wearing a Walkman-style radio on the move. In the analogue days I had to lock the unit in mono mode to get an acceptable level of hiss, and I found the constant drop-outs and distortion tiring. With the new DAB unit the sound is so consistent that I can easily listen with volume only a notch or two above minimum which greatly lessens ear fatigue.

Joanne
via feedback form

Thanks for your thoughts on the Ministry of Sound radio - feedback like this (either positive or negative) is always useful for those of us thinking about buying a DAB radio. Ed.

I have a Ministry handheld!
Monday 24 Feb 03

I have had a the new GBP149.99 Ministry portable DR-011 digital radio for a week now.

I live in York which is okay for reception, but not brilliant. I had the Perstel portable radio, though being in York, I had to have the radio's aerial fully extended the whole time to get some standard reception. This was awkward as I had to carry it around and I looked a bit daft to people walking by.

The new Ministry radio is far from this; the reception is still the same, though if you buy some headphones with a longer cable, the reception is perfect and you are able to put the aerial in your pocket like a normal walkman.

The preset facility is so much better, too. If the reception is lost, as soon as the radio regains the signal it goes straight back to the station you were listening to before. The Perstel used to go back to the first station on the waveband, meaning you had to retune to what you were listening to (I think this problem has been since solved with a firmware upgrade. Ed.).

I have also noticed the batteries in the Ministry last about 33 percent longer, which is a massive extra.

Overall the Ministry DR-011 radio is a very well recommended item; I wouldn't want to give the Perstel DAB radio a bad review as it gave me an early opportunity to have access to DAB, though the Ministry radio is a big development forward this and is a must for new buyers.

Rob
via our feedback form

Mad about this DAB
Monday 17 Feb 03

Obviously I am still getting accustomed to the Ministry of Sound portable DAB radio, but I am very positive and excited about it. A lot of thought has gone into the design which, amongst many features, incorporates six listening modes giving studio or panning sound effects, for example. It also has a choice of methods to access stations. For instance you can instruct the radio to prune out those channels which cannot be currently received properly.

There are at least a couple of shortcomings. One is that the central joystick doubles up as a volume control (up and down) as well as a station finder (left and right). This means that if you are a touch clumsy you can increase or decrease the volume whilst attempting to adjust the station choice. The other misgiving is that for such a hefty price tag the set might have included a pouch in which to keep the product safe. The unit could easily get scratched without any protection!

By the way, reception on my daily commute by train seems fine, for a select few stations, for most of the duration of my journey.

David
via e-mail

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