For this XDRS20 Dab radio is rather retro for the likes of Sony, our review unit was styled in hardwearing black and looked like it might have been ex MOD or arrived from and army & navy store. Still dig a little deeper and you'll discover that this is in fact a fully featured DAB digital radio boasting crystal clear sound and access to many more radio stations than are available through analogue transmissions.

The case might more like something from Roberts than Sony but dire up the LCD screen and you rapidly see that under the bakelite exterior beats the heart of some Sony kit, there are 2 x 20 presets to store your favourite DAB stations plus all browsing of available programmes by name on the display. It's more like browsing the EPG of a TV set-top box than a radio and one of the other major features of DAB, Sony have relied on the LCD screen and simple rotary controls to interface with the DAB EPG and the XDRS20 menu system.

There are some compromises made by Sony on this model, for a start there is only a single speaker providing a mono output which perhaps hints that this is intended as a kitchen radio or perhaps one for the potting shed. With the ability to run from mains or via the 6 x C cell batteries its certainly portable if not a tad weighty when loaded with that many Duracell's.

When it came to some listening tests we were impressed with the clarity of the sound and the lack of hiss that we now demand from any DAB set, however we did note that the single speaker lacked the audio quality of some of the radios from Pure digital. The bass is not as well weighted on convincing as others we have tested although it is certainly better than many FM portable radios, switch to FM mode and you start to realise that Sony have used components from a different bin for this model and it does suffer from variable reception on FM plus the sound quality does not quite match its price.

£82 is quite a large chuck of cash to pay for a portable radio which lacks both stereo and the quality of sound found in an Evoke 2, however you are paying for 3 things, first the battery capability, then an FM tuner should you DAB reception be poor. But lastly and the normal issue, you are paying for the Sony badge and that 1 year warranty.

Published - 09/01/2006

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