Intempo Digital RDI iPod Speaker Dock With Built In DAB
Posted by Notcot on May 4, 2010 in Portable Sound & Vision |
- Integrated DAB/FM Radio
- Plays/Syncs/Charges all iPods
- 30W Speakers with Sub & Tweeters
- 16 Presets
- Alarm Clock with Sleep/Snooze
Well if you want a Ipod/ speaker/FM/DAB/recharger here it is.
Looks great. Sound a little thin but improves by boosting the bass.
DAB good but arial poor … would advise them to allow a place you could add an additional arial.
Poor Alarm facility.
FM reception not good for me.
None the less great to take away on holiday or in the kitchen etc.
NOT up to Bose / Klipsch in sound quality . So if its sound you are after go for a Klipsch andget a small Roberts DAB radio!!!
Review Part 2 … February 2010
Well on reflection … I think I was too kind to this unit. I have had problems with the reception and the speakers have cutout. Now it is defunct and the insides look pretty shoddy to me. I hve given up on it. I have replaced it with a small Panasonic Unit with a DVD/ Ipod player. Much better quality. I would knock off 1 star now
Rating: 4 / 5
I first saw the RDI in the press a couple of months ago and contacted Intempo to try to buy. To be fair to them they did say it would be towards the end of November but Im an impatient sort when I set my mind on something!
Intempo contacted me a week ago and suggested I order through Amazon as they were close to delivery. (good customer service by the way.) The little beauty arrived this morning and I must say I am very pleased it was well worth the wait.
The unit itself is a nice bookshelf size, in glossy black, it came with all relevant adapters and both euro and UK plugs. When turned on the unit automatically searched for all DAB stations (found 48 and Im in an amber area)at this point the unit defaults to DAb, to switch to fm, or Ipod you simply press the mode botton. Sound on DAB is very impressive and when playing in Ipod mode even more so. Intempo claim the delay was caused by adding tweeters, if this is the case then good call! classic FM sounded fantastic at top end.
Good quality remote control, amazing sound, DAB included all for £129.99. I would recommend this unit to everyone. Intempo has a winner on their hands I only hope they haven’t underestimated demand.
Rating: 5 / 5
I was after a set of decent speakers with a built in DAB radio for my Gen5 iPod, and this looks like it ticked all the boxes. Ordered it from Amazon on the free delivery option and it arrived 3 days later.
Setting up could not be any easier – find a space to sit it, plug it in and switch it on. Make sure the aeriel is up and it auto scanned for DAB radio channels, I live in a good signal quality area so I have lots of channels! The iPod sits in an ejectable tray, you do need to find the right fitting of for it, 6 are provided in the box and if you check them then you should find one to fit just about all iPods (I’m not sure how you change the fitting if you change your iPod though as they fit in with a distinct click). You can use the provided remote control to control your iPod – click menu to use the usual menu options and press the period key as the central button. The unit also charges your iPod even when it is on standby. If you don’t have an iPod you can still connect an MP3 player through the input jack – there is a cable supplied for this.
As to sound quality I have been very pleased so far. Quality when using an iPod is excellent, DAB radio sounds a bit hollow BUT it is still much better than my old DAB radio. You do need to play with the bass and treble settings a bit to make it sound better.
It looks, it sounds good and it is simple enough for anyone to setup.
Rating: 5 / 5
Noted the comments about the sensitivity. the aerial actually is just screwed into a standard socket so you can remove the telescopic aerial and connect up a more powerful aerial. This gives much more flexibility with placement of the unit
Rating: 5 / 5
I bought this in Feb 08 from Amazon and it’s proved to be very good value for money. It’s the first docking station i’ve bought, and I’ve found it extremely easy to use.
After receiving it through the post it was very easy to set up. All that was required was to position the unit, insert the power cord, extend the aerial and turn it on. It took 30-40 seconds to search for all DAB stations which were tuned perfectly. The remote lets you store up to 4 stations on hot keys on the remote (though you can set up to 8 on the unit) – so all you need to do is press the number and it jumps to your preset station.
The iPod fits in a handy retractable ledge on the front of the unit – again this was easy to fit and there were no problems with the connection. It’s easy to cycle through the songs and menu system by using the keys on the remote or on the actual RDi unit, though I wouldn’t try to use the scroll wheel and key on the iPod (even though you can) as there’s no support behind the iPod on the cradle so you may easily force the iPod out of it’s connection.
It was also not evident straight away which keys let you `come up a level’ within the iPod menu system. Obviously you simply press `Menu’ on the iPod but’s there’s no such key on the remote or Rdi unit. We eventually did find the key after reading the manual but the key is positioned away from the others on the remote which I thought was a bit daft.
The sound quality is very good from the unit and it has a good all round feel – you can set both the bass and treble on the unit. It sounds great loud and has no distortion (though admittedly I didn’t try turning it up all the way). However when you turn down the unit to very low levels a background fuzz (like a detuned radio) can be heard, even when listening to the iPod. This fuzz occurs in all modes – DAB, FM, iPod and Aux. It’s not really a problem as it gets drowned out as soon as you turn up the volume on whatever you’re listening to, but it may be annoying if you’re listening to something quietly while in bed for instance.
The only other thing is that although it looks gorgeous in shiny jet black it picks up dust and finger prints all the time. Something I don’t mind but something my wife tuts at every time she sees it!
These however are just niggles and shouldn’t take away that we both think it’s an excellent unit and great radio/docking station combo. I don’t know why we didn’t get one sooner.
Rating: 5 / 5