Intempo PG-01

The Intempo PG-01 is easy to use and good sound.

Very poor reception. I live in London so should get all DAB stations available. However, can only receive TalkSport clearly and BBC Radio 2 cuts in and out to the point it is useless. Every other station says STATION NOT AVAILABLE on the display. The FM band cannot receive a single station! When I place a Pure DAB in the same spot in the kitchen I get everything. Also only two pre-sets available. Very very disappointed. Will now scrap this and buy another Pure.

There are so many alternatives available and you cannot do worse for reception. Goes to show that they are not all the same.

This Intempo PG-01 was my first foray into DAB. At 99 quid it seemed like a lot. And was. Reception is very fickle on this machine. I've moved to 3 different houses since I owned this radio and it's been a challenge to get a good DAB signal at any of them. I'm in the middle of Nottingham, not out in the wilds of Scotland.

Components are very cheap on this box. The headphone jack is MONO. For those born after 1980, that's what they used to use before stereo. It was great until humans evolved two ears. And this is old style mono where only one headphone works.

The display flashes on and off at random, so some poor wiring is evident.

Functionally it has only 4 preset buttons. If you don't use presets you have to plod through endless channels, many of which it decides you can't receive anyway. There's a 3 second delay every time you change channel. Why that should be is anyone's guess.

All in all this is a very poor box. It was clearly rushed to market to catch the DAB wave. In summary - don't buy it.

I bought the Intempo PG-01 DAB digital radio for £70 to replace a cheap FM bedside clock radio, about a fifth its size and price, but which suffered from intolerable interference (I used to spend ages trying to get clear reception by repositioning its silly dangling wire aerial). At least the Intempo has an effective telescopic rod, is interference free on DAB, and has minimal interference on FM. And it has clock radio alarm/sleep functions.

The sound quality of the Intempo in DAB mode is mediocre - muffled, boxy, muddy, with compressed frequency response, slight distortion and no audible stereo separation, somewhat reminiscent of a 1950's MW radio, but without the crackle. CD quality it is not. The FM sound is marginally better, apart from slight hiss and interference.

Just about the only point of the UK DAB system, apart from being interference-free, is to offer vast numbers of stations, although this is admittedly not much of a point since most UK stations are dreary and repetitive beyond belief. Once you have heard two or three pop music stations you have surely heard the lot - but with DAB you get dozens of them. With the Intempo's measly four presets, it is such a hassle to tune into most of the available stations that you are unlikely to waste your time trying. Every time you want to listen to a non-preset station you have to click sequentially through all the available stations, which is a slow and laborious process.

The unit, in common with many DAB radios, has a sort of chunky, retro, army radio for a suburban semi look. Its design is a masterpiece of implied but non-existent sturdiness and functionality: the radio equivalent of a cheap 4x4. It could almost have been made by an enthusiastic schoolboy in a carpentry and metalwork class - but then it might have looked more interesting. I suspect its pale wood-effect finish will get shabby pretty fast.

As for ergonomics, the brightly back-lit LCD display has small characters, so you tend to get totally dazzled at night before you can read it. Switching between FM and DAB entails an inexplicable several second delay. And the elegant legends of the microswitch controls are in such a small pale font, that you can hardly see them even while they are still fresh and new; if you intend keeping this radio for more than a few months you will do well to learn what they say by heart, before they fade away.

Anyone with good hearing, who is not interested in the plethora of dreary pop stations available on DAB, and who currently enjoys good FM reception, is likely to be disappointed with the audio quality of this radio. But if you suffer from FM interference, do not require high quality sound, and you need the wake-up and snooze facilities of the Intempo, it could be OK for you.

Agree with most of the other Reviews about the Intempo PG-01. Sound and ability to receive weak signals is good. LED is bright. One word of warning, replace the rubber feet if you have a painted bedside table. They bled blue stain into the top of our table totally ruinning it. The stain will not come off with any solvent I have tried and seems to soak right into painted surfaces

I have owned the Intempo PG-01 for about 8 months now and have no real complaints. Sound quality is good, though be warned a lot of DAB stations are broadcast in mono or at low data rates, but this is a fault of DAB in general and not the unit. Besides the speakers are so close together on this and similar units it does not make a significant difference. You can add an external Aerial via the 'f' connector on the rear of the unit, which I did (built one myself) and could get loads more stations this way, though sensitivity of the unit with its supplied aerial is good. Addition of FM a good idea too - some stations sound better on FM due to them being in stereo! Like the addition of alarm and sleep mode though the LED lighting the display is fantastically bright and lights your room at night! No complaints really overall a very good unit.

As this Intempo PG-01 DAB Digital Radio was my first DAB purchase I did the usual research and initially opted for the Goodmans GSR80 due to its good looks, price and the fact that it included the FM waveband. After using the Goodmans for just a few hours though, it became clear that this was not the unit for me with poor sound quality and and poor sensitivity being the main problems.

My home location is classed as an "Amber" area for DAB reception so I needed a receiver with good sensitivity. So the Goodmans went back to the shop and I opted for the Intempo PG-01 instead. What a result! Plug the Intempo into the mains and it immediately scans for all available multiplex's and my receiver (in an amber area remember) found 43 different stations straight away! Tuning in to the first couple of stations it was immediately obvious that this receiver had vastly superior sound quality to the Goodmans which I can only compare to like listening to music over the internet, a bit flat and lacking in depth. The sound from the Intempo is much brighter and packs more punch. The receivers DAB display is nicely backlit and has two lines of text showing the station name and underneath any combination of information including the current song being played, the signal strength or the time and date etc. Up to four favourite stations can be allocated to the receivers pre-sets, but with the amount of choice available on DAB it would have been nice to see at least 8 or 10. When you're fed up with DAB the PG-01 has a built in FM tuner so that you can tune into Dave Double-Decks on your favourite "local" station. Another big plus for this radio is that it features a sleep mode and an alarm so that you can drop off listening to those soothing love songs then be awoken to the breaky show in crystal clear DAB the next morning! And on top of all that the Intempo comes with a headphone socket that you can use to connect it to your hi-fi and also a 2 year manufacturers warranty....Cushty!

On the down side, this unit is a mains only affair and has a much too large adaptor and there is no socket for an external aerial, which is a shame. That said, this unit is still, in my opinion a great buy for any one looking to make their first purchase in the wonderful world of DAB radio. Have a DABble yourself, you might just find a reason to turn off the telly!

I looked around for no particular DAB digital radio until I came across the Intempo PG-01 unit produced by a British company. The absolute best price I came across is on Ebay. I got mine for £75 and no other seller could come anywhere close. You can also bid for 1 starting from only £1 with NO RESERVE. I couldn't wait so I used the buy it now feature. Search for 'Intempo DAB' on ebay and you will find 1 for yourself. Goodluck.

I have just purchased an Intempo PG-01 for £90, so i was reallly suprised to see the last review,

(by the way I checked the user guide and with DAB Digital Radio you do need to do a system reset if you move the radio to a different area; perhaps thats the reason for the poor sound quality experienced by the other reviewer?) - my radio tuned into 57 stations, all of which are received perfectly, with warm clear sound, and even the wife can change station which is a miracle! We live in sheltered accomodation, and to be honest this has really made a difference to us. I will certainly buy another when I can, and have recommended it to all our friends and the other residents.

Bought this Intempo PG-01 DAB Digital Radio from Dixons, but couldn't get reception in store, so took it home. First thing I noticed was how rubbish the sound was and the distortion at any level above 50% volume. Then I realised it did not have a wood veneer, only a cheap paper skin, which I am sure would start peeling off. I also felt the product and did not like the clicky buttons. I took it back and bought the PURE Evoke-1 which sounded a whole heap better even being in Mono!!! The EVOKE-1 has much better reception and felt quality wise in a different league