Sony XDR-S20 user reviews
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User reviews2
Jan Nerem 4 October 2006
Good: Good looks
Bad: Some flaws
Comment: I have the black version and I think it looks really good with the yellowish background light. If you have a classic style in your home I would recommend a black one. The glossy white version would look good in a modern white kitchen. When the 220V lead is put into the radio, a small switch is activated that cuts off the batteries, and the result is that if the lead isn't also plugged into the wall, after a short time the radio forgets all stored data such as all the FM stations that you had carefully searched out and identified (no RDS). The radio then does a new "initial search" on the DAB band which all happens automatically but your favourites and any FM stations are gone. If the lead is pulled out of the back of the radio this is not a problem (with batteries inside).
With the small side button you can select different modes of sorting the stations, e.g. "favourite", "latest", "alphabetical", "normal". I think "alphabetical" and "favourite" would be enough. "Favourite" makes sense as you then only have to click through between your few favourites instead of going through the whole list every time you want to change to another of your most-used stations. The big side button is used for manual search or to click between stored stations. Only the volume button is a normal turning button, the others only move a bit up or down. In my opinion this works well.
The sound quality it quite okay, it also depends on the bit rate the signal is sent in. However the sound can not be adjusted in any way such as treble and bass.
Unfortunately there are no alarm possibilities on the radio.
All in all I do recommend the XDR-S20 which both looks and feels high quality.
Russell Toon 13 March 2006
Good: Display is good on mains power.
Bad: Drains batteries fast, many features could just be 'better'.
Comment: This radio uses so much power on DAB it makes listening with batteries impractical. Even with batteries in, plugging the mains lead in the back makes it forget all settings. The tuning dial doesn't actually turn. It would be nice if it had RDS for the FM stations. Clock only displays when radio is on, and though there's a sleep function, there's no alarm. Overall: disappointing from Sony.