Denon TU-1800DAB review

Setup
Of all the DABs we've tested so far, this radio has the fastest autotune speed. When the Denon TU-1800DAB is first switched on, it tunes itself to all available DAB stations and displays the percentage of the scan complete, along with the number of stations detected at that point. After a few seconds the scan is complete and you're ready to listen to radio.

If the aerial is incorrectly attached, or not attached at all, the radio will indicate that no stations have been detected. Because of the nature of digital transmissions, there is an all-or-nothing behaviour to DAB receivers -- in difficult areas of your home, you may find that a DAB detects and stores multiple station names, but won't actually play radio at all. Repositioning the aerial will solve the problem. In our London labs we were extremely happy with reception once we'd picked a good position for the aerial, but unlike analogue radio, you won't be greeted by static in areas of bad reception -- instead, you'll hear almost nothing at all. This experience is true of all DABs, but may puzzle the first-time user.

Features
DAB reception on the TU-1800DAB covers all Band III and L-Band broadcasts -- meaning there's not a DAB station in the UK this thing can't lock onto. It's possible to set up to 100 DAB presets and 100 AM/FM radio presets. The radio can decode FM RDS transmissions and RadioText as well as converting digital broadcasts to analogue at 192KHz 24 bit -- though the full potential of this is wasted on the kind of DAB bit rates we're seeing from broadcasters in the UK. Trawl the alt.digital.radio newgroups for a while and you'll discover that many audiophiles out there are extremely disappointed with the low resolution of UK digital radio broadcasts, but more on that later.

The analogue and digital optical outs on the TU-1800DAB are easy to connect to an amplifier using standard cables. The remote control includes a numeric pad which lets you recall DAB presets from across the room. Because the radio is sat on 15mm feet, there's enough space between the radio and the ventilation slots of the equipment below to make it suitable for resting directly on top of a fairly hefty amp.

Performance
Reception and fidelity on the TU-1800DAB left other tuners for dead -- this much was obvious from the moment we turned it on. Bass was well separated and talk stations like Radio 4 sounded rich and unstrained. Despite this excellent performance, there is one caveat, and it's a big one -- DAB radio broadcasts aren't currently good enough to do justice to even a mid-range hi-fi separates system. Listening to a 256Kbps MP3 on our reference system was immeasurably better than DAB and listening to a CD exposed a dramatic difference between Radio 1's DAB broadcast of a song and the original recording. While FM is no angel, we expected something a little more special from DAB when using a dedicated tuner.

A higher audio fidelity is not one of DAB's strengths, but choice of stations and stability of reception is. The TU-1800DAB is an exceptionally good tuner, let down only by the shortcomings of current DAB broadcasts. Side-by-side comparisons of music on digital radio and then on CD demonstrate just how far the format still has to go before it can begin to match its claims of near-CD quality sound. Though clarity varies from station to station, most music sounds muddied and overcompressed -- but you may well find that the range of station choice compensates for this. If you want to listen to radio, the TU-1800DAB is one of the best tuners out there, but don't expect it to deliver miracles: look to the broadcasters for that.

Edited by Mary Lojkine
Additional editing by Nick Hide