Today marks the official launch day for Digital Radio in Australia and the media airwaves have been running hot with news of people tuning in to the best sound quality radio frequencies Aussies have ever experienced.
Rivalries have been reported as being put aside as radio stations and DJs come together to celebrate out in public across Australia’s major cities. Leading Radio stations like Triple J, ABC Radio National, Nova 969 and 2GB took part in events this morning to mark the occasion – many DJs and listeners discussed the power of radio and their most memorable radio moments.
In our previous blog on Digital Radio in Australia, we heard from people about what they wanted from Digital Radios. Since then, the Kogan Wi-Fi Digital Radio has pulled in some reviews in press and blogs.
While digital radio will serve up far better quality sound, I was interested to hear about what people really think of it? Will you go out and buy a digital radio now?
What do you guys think of the quality of Digital Radio so far? Will you be more inclined to flick off the iPod more often in favour of radio due to the improved sound quality?
The Kogan Wi-Fi Digital Radio offers users a raft of the latest specs and capabilities for an all round audio experience – these include DAB / DAB+ Radio, iPod connectivity, a USB slot to play music from USB drives and the ability to connect to over 10,000 radio stations through a Wi-Fi connection.
Many of us already listen to live radio streams online; do you think Digital Radio will have as big as an influence as people say? Personally, I think the internet offers more choice when you can log in to over 10,000 stations from anywhere in the world – which is why we decided to combine the best of both worlds with the Kogan Wi-Fi Digital Radio.
I also want to hear about your radio habits and how you will use Digital Radio. I personally like the local morning shows before work and then switch between my favourite radio stations from overseas (online) throughout the day. When I want to listen to the old originals, I put an iPod in the dock.
DIGITAL RADIO IS HERE: SO WHAT DO YOU THINK?
6 AUG 2009
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Comments
Hear what our customer's have to say.
Dennis says...
I like the idea that I can use the Kogan digital radio for all my sources of music/talk-back etc. One thing that hope to achieve is to be able to watch the Telecast of football on my TV whilst being able to better "syncronise" the radio commentary of the same game. The reason I want to do this is because I believe the standard of radio commentary is better than TV. Currently, the radio commentary is ahead of the vision, so hopefully with a well timed "pause" I will be able to sync the two.
Posted at 1:54 p.m. on August 6, 2009
Karl says...
Dennis the Kogan cannot pause DAB broadcasts so how will you get the sync better?
I am pretty interested in digital radio and will get one soon, however it needs to have stereo speakers and also line out as well as Wi Fi before I will buy one. Give me that for under $200 and I'll be queued up to buy one.
Posted at 3:39 p.m. on August 6, 2009
Ian says...
In my own opinion I do not see the general public buying digital radios any time soon. For most digital radio offers nothing to gain.
For starters analogue radio has no scheduled cut off date, meaning people won’t be buying new radios just so they can continue listening.
Secondly the value of digital radio at the moment just ... well ... isn’t worth it, at the moment you can buy mp3 players from as little as $10 and with sites such as iTunes people won’t see the benefits to paying >$200 for something that plays “good quality” music, for that amount you could just set up a very high quality array of fm antennas if you were desperate.
Thirdly until we see DAB+ chips integrated into car radios and home theatre receivers etc, with competitive prices people are not going to be snapping them up any time soon, think about it how many people still buy stand alone radios (never mind expensive ones).
Finally not all radio stations support digital radio, and if it suffers the same problems as digital TV (stuttering) for areas with weak reception it will be useless.
Posted at 4:39 p.m. on August 6, 2009
Roman Polowski says...
Why would you bother paying for a digital radio when as you say, there are thousands of free internet radio stations out there that DO NOT inundate you with rubbish advertising every 5 minutes?
I like that there is an upgrade in quality, but you won't be seeing me buying any digital radio hardware any time soon.
Posted at 4:45 p.m. on August 6, 2009
Matt Adams says...
Something like the Sony SRFM97 would get me buying digital.
If you can get it in a form factor like that - perfect for taking to the football or cricket where games are broadcast on radio.
Posted at 6:45 p.m. on August 6, 2009
Andrew Jeffrey says...
Does it work with an iPhone? Thats is, is it shielded from the GSM noise that mobile phones generate?
Posted at 8:54 a.m. on August 7, 2009
Jason says...
What use is Wi-Fi if it can't be used to play MP3, OGG, etc. that is stored on my server?
Posted at 9:49 a.m. on August 7, 2009
Dennis says...
Sorry maybe I'm missing something Karl & Jason but according to the Details section re this radio in the Kogan store, it says the following.....
"Extra features such as more channels, pause and rewind radio, downloadable music
Stream music directly from your Laptop or PC media players.
Stream from more than 10,000 Podcasts programs.
Stream Real Audio, MP3 and WMA audio files."
Sounds like a good unit to me.
Posted at 1:35 a.m. on August 8, 2009
Tyrone Curwen says...
i wouldn't consider buying a digital radio until they come built into as a single or double din head unit for my car. currently my car is the only place where i listen to the radio, so buying anything else just seems a waste of time. This may also be the case for most people.
Posted at 8:50 a.m. on August 10, 2009
Marian says...
Dennis I think that mention of the pause was just a general feature. I emailed Kogan to check and it doesn't have it. As it's a major DAB feature, that would put me off buying this particular unit.
Posted at 9:22 a.m. on August 11, 2009
molka says...
I agree with your general analysis. Streaming is more important than digital radio and I'll be looking for an internet savvy audio streaming device, with the digital radio feature much less important, at least until they stop broadcasting Radio National in AM (locally). Not really interested in wireless, wired is fine for me, mostly because I know the unit would never move around.
Posted at 1:58 p.m. on August 11, 2009
Austin says...
I'm most upset that the Australian DAB+ standard has codecs with royalties attached. Imagine if people had to pay for the PAL standard, or FM? It's not the patents that's the problem per se, it's that they are the legislated standard and nobody has any alternatives.
Posted at 4:22 p.m. on August 14, 2009
Wil. says...
I don't listen to the radio often, mostly because i listen to my ipod and am a slight audiophile. When i do listen, it's streaming online. Digital radio would be of interest to me in the car however. Next time i update my stereo system in my car, ill include a digital radio enabled headset.
Posted at 8:17 p.m. on August 14, 2009
Colin Nightingale says...
I received my wifi radio this morning at work and couldn't wait to get it home.
Oh Boy! what an absolute delight. I had it tuned into the Brisbane digital radio stations in munutes and after another 10 munutes I was listening to internet radio stations from all over the world. I can't believe the clarity of most stations.
It has far exceeded my expectations and I'm happy to encourage my friends to buy one.
Cheers Colin
Posted at 8:53 p.m. on August 14, 2009
Emily says...
Like most players on the market, it is unobtrusive without being boring. All necessary control buttons are integrated into the fascia, while a simple LCD display gives information about the disc currently playing.
Posted at 11:37 p.m. on August 14, 2009
Peer Rosewall says...
I would like to know if I can use the internet radio capabilites to stream my personal radio station from Last.FM?
The display looks like it could do with a few more pixels. it is pretty ugly.
Posted at 10:43 a.m. on August 17, 2009
Peter Rosewall says...
I would also like to know if podcast managment and streaming is supported - I love to podcast Hamish and Andy or Roy and HG in the evening as I go to bed, or on the weekend.
Posted at 10:45 a.m. on August 17, 2009
Cameron says...
It can lose the ipod mount for starters, maybe a usb port interface instead.
Posted at 11:04 p.m. on August 17, 2009
Kogan Support says...
Hi Guys,
I thought I would answer some of the questions you had regarding the Kogan Wi-Fi Digital Radio.
It does support Podcasts and will stream from your computer using Windows Media Sharing.
Our Wi-Fi Digital Radio uses Frontier - Vtuner, which you can find more information on here: http://www.wifiradio-frontier.com
Frontier allows you to add new radio stations by URL and therefore it would be possible to stream your own stations.
The radio is not officially iPhone compatible but in our testing we have found that it does work - it just doesn't charge the phone.
Kindest Regards,
Kogan Support Team
Kogan Technologies
www.kogan.com.au
Posted at 9:37 a.m. on August 19, 2009
SImon says...
Received our new radio the other day. The DAB is certainly clear but when you plug in some 2.1 speakers (with bass) it is amazing. The clarity is stunning and the stereo separation seems almost better than CD's. Internet radio is excellent and streams reliably. Interestingly the wlan setup of the passkey doesn't have the $ sign and part of our pass key has that in it! Interesting omission. I'm not sure if the iphone connection works yet. It will be good to see. Love to see if a car version is coming soon too. That would be excellent too
Posted at 12:40 a.m. on August 20, 2009
Simon Humphries says...
I'm keen to get a DAB+ / WiFi Internet radio / iPod Dock unit. The Kogan unit appears to be great value, but I'd like a higher spec unit, for say $399, that offers all that you get in the $199 unit, but with the following upgrades:
* Minimum 4-Line display. Why not even full colour 4.3", since you provide one with the $269 Nav unit!
* Remote control
* Key clock radio functions like large snooze button and dual alarms / weekday
* 2.1 speakers built in (with solid bass response) and 10+10+30W RMS output
* Digital audio out socket
I guess I like the features and spec of the Pure Avanti Flow, which appears to be a great unit, BUT at a stratospheric price (and double what they charge in the UK). RRP of $999 & Street Price of A$800 or so is still double what it should be, in my book.
Kogan could match or better all of the features of the Avanti Flow and have a superior display. Ship it for $399 plus postage in time for Christmas and I'll be your first customer!
Posted at 5:26 p.m. on August 20, 2009
sam says...
I bought one of these last week, I was very happy with the quality. However upon playing around with it further I realised that all the broadcasts were delayed by up to 20 seconds, which is a massive bummer if you want the radio for anything to do with watching/listening to live sport!
So for me personally it was a waste of money.
Posted at 7:14 p.m. on August 20, 2009
Simon Humphries says...
It seems that Revo in the UK is about to launch exactly what I was wishing for, at GBP280, not too bad, especially since it has remote control, decent power output, iPod dock and multi-function colour touch screen
http://www.revo.co.uk/digital-radio/revo-ikon.php
How about something similar from Kogan?
Posted at 2:42 a.m. on September 1, 2009
martin says...
KOGAN should be care full not to order from o,s to many of these radio,s == Let,s face it the stations don,t finish the complete music track and then jump in with there VERY LOUD voices at a level loader than the music plus the adds or louder again == THERE IS NO POINT TO GET A 200 DOLLAR radio to listen to such poor quality wankers
Posted at 8:15 a.m. on September 2, 2009
Bob says...
Gotta laugh at some of the above comments - waste of money because of 20 second delay!!!
I've had my radio for a few weeks now and am thoroughly enjoying it.
It charges the iPhone, and can play whatever the iPhone can play. The internet radio is the best though. Easy access to podcasts and radio staions all over the world. I've loaded BBC Radio 4, KQED and a few others into the memory presets.
How would I improve it? Battery memory backup. Dimmable display light. Move headphone socket to the front. Have RCA lineouts on the back. The main controls are a bit unergonomic and when you press the main knob to 'enter' you have to hold the radio with your other hand to stop it sliding backwards.
I love gadgets - this is one of the best I've had in years.
Posted at 11:21 a.m. on October 8, 2009
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