Acoustic Solutions Portal 2 DAB/FM

I thought it easy to use and I wanted to hear BBC 6 Music. I bought the same radio for a couple of friends as presents. We all have similar problems now. One big issue is the fact that the Acoustic Solutions website is unavailable - I would like to know if anyone has had problems with contact or customer care from them.

Presently, I can't access many Digital station. I retune and there are dozens different digital stations with unreadable names and described as DATA. I can't access Radio 4 and 6Music comes and goes. The presets go too, so I have to scroll to find the stations again.

My friends have similar problems with this radio, one had new metal frame window fitted and cannot get any Digital signals in the flat. What with this and BBC 6 Music's proposed closure - Its a DIGITAL REVULSION

it is an absolutely brilliant DAB radio for its age. :) i would honestly reccomend this to anyone that wants a good quality, easy to use portable DAB radio. mine is now eight years old and it is still in complete working condition and is extremely good value for your money. :) the only thing i didnt like about it is the fact that it had a green backlit screen. it could of realy done with a different colour screen.:)

Very difficult to change stations as the scroll wheel tends to either go slow or overshoot. rattles like crazy until you take the battery cover off. Very good sound from the line out into a good sound system. Reception poor but that could be down to where I live (edge of Dartmoor). Despite this I do like this radio. Bought it a long time ago so it's early tech and must expect some faults in the design.

The Acoustic Solutions Portal 2 DAB/FM without preset`s, is a bin job, gave it away !. I have now had 4 DAB`s...the one`s with blue readout seem to fail within a year. so you don`t know what station you have till the ID.comes on. there is no tone control ..bad ....stick to FM

I bought this at Argos for £29.99 as i needed to replace an old analogue radio. I thought i'd start off at the cheaper end first , just to see what DAB was like. I accept that DAB can be of inferior quality to FM as i believe they are trying to cram a lot of stations into a narrow bandwidth, but as i listen mostly to Talksport and BBC 5L who broadcast on AM ,these stations sound very much better on DAB. Next purchase for me is going to be an internet receiver that will connect to my hub via wireless, offering many thousands of stations at excellent quality. Anyway this DAB radio is good first buy to start you off.

I got this Accoustic Solutions radio for £3.74 from a Tesco clearance section, less than you would pay for an equivalent FM one! I'd never really considered DAB before this mainly due to the cost as I've never experienced a bad FM signal on the stations I listen to in my area. However to pick one up for this ridiculous price was just too good to refuse and the reception is certainly crystal clear. I would recommend this radio to anyone (especially if you can get one for the price I did!)

To be fair I'm hard to please, and I suspect that my Acoustic Solutions Portal 2 DAB/FM radio may have been defective, at least I hope so.

The sound of this unit was atrocious. No ifs or buts.

The case rattled very badly at normal speech listening levels, and for any rock/pop music it was constantly vibrating at normal levels, and to cap it all there was a load of distortion, especially on speech via the line-output through a very high-end hi-fi system (which was what I primarily wanted to use it for).

There was no problem with signal strength, and I was getting extremely high signal strength - I should hope so too... I live in a rural area, about 30 miles from the centre of London, almost at the top of a hill, which is the highest point for 120 miles in any direction! (So the Portal 2 had no excuse based on signal strength).

I should add that my listening consists mainly of Classical and Radio 4 type broadcasting, however I also listen to some hard rock, and bands such as Tool, Faith No More, Metallica, quite a bit of Jazz, and general rock/metal. Mostly it's classical though.

I am new to DAB, and I love the vast selection of channels. I'm hooked and I will be getting another DAB set, but not one of these. I had grave reservations before I bought it about buying a cheapie, but budget dictated the choice. Now, however I'm willing to double the budget and get the Evoke 1 XT Tri-Band and hope that will be better. I may however beforehand 'sample' the Sony XDR-S1 which Salisbury's are currently selling online for £75 incl delivery, but if that fares no better, then I may just give up and start saving for an Arcam tuner.

Incidentally I liked the styling, although I know not everyone will, but I didn't like the silly rubber thing covering the output sockets, I didn't like the flimsy handle (it really is very flimsy) which would also be uncomfortable to hold whilst walking for long, as it was too broad to fit comfortably in the hand and had some indents in it that would annoy further if holding for long. I also felt the antenna rest/stay (for when not in use) was ugly/vulnerable.

The features were good, and the fact that you could remove the antenna and fit an external antenna (by design) was a good idea, as was the fact that there was a line output socket (although I'd have preferred RCA phono connectors).

I am not impressed with this unit at all. I imagine it may turn out to have had a defective pre-amp section or some such, but even so, the case rattle was unacceptable. Shame really as the tonal quality at low levels through it's own speaker was quite pleasant.

Handle could be stiffer to act as stand - bows a bit.

I use it as an FM/DAB Tuner.

Using line out socket gives very good quality input to a hi fi amp.

Compares well with fancy tuners costing £150 - £200 or more.

I'd expect an Acoustic Solutions Portal 2 DAB/FM digital radio to sound crisp and clear but this was far from it. Also the bass is very weak - almost embarassing when listening to a rock music station. Signal strength was fine so I tried headphones and the sound quality was miles better. However at my preferred (low) headphone volume there was a clearly audible hiss and the left-right balance was off so I won't be using headphones. Other quibbles: minor scratches on the clear top panel, mains adaptor is a struggle to fit in a socket, and with batteries this radio weighs more than some laptops.

After comparing reviews I bought the Acoustic Solutions Portal 2 for its good quality at a competitive price. It takes less than 30 seconds to find all the stations and set itself up. You can check the level of reception with a metering device activated on the display panel. I had good reception here in Warrington and the sound quality is excellent. The signal strength is better than FM signals which can also be received. With good quality headphones the performance on concerts on ClassicFM is superb.

The retro design is a personal matter. I savour the difference from my other radios. It will sit face down with the handle supporting it on top of my Hifi and the Line Output will give me great playback quality through my lounge speakers.

It is battery or mains so I can carry it through to the bathroom or into the garden shed. There are only 6 pre-sets, but all stations can be accessed in alphabetical order via a rotating selection knob.

The LCD screen is on top and so difficult to see when vertical, but not when you lie it horizontally. The aerial can be swung into any direction.