Roberts RDK-2 kitchen radio
A 'kitchen radio' actually designed for the kitchen
Review Many radios are dubbed ‘kitchen radios’ solely for the reason that this is the room they end up getting most of their use in. Roberts has gone the whole hog and designed a radio specifically for kitchen use.
The first thing to note about the RDK-2 is that not only is it designed for the kitchen from a functionality perspective, it's intended to become part of the kitchen’s fixtures and fittings. It's designed to be mounted to the underside of a kitchen cupboard.
Roberts' RDK-2: at last, a kitchen radio designed for kitchens
It's not a bad idea this - radios that find a permanent home on a kitchen surface often become covered in all manner of grime and general stickiness. Still, a little DIY competence is needed to get the unit fitted, so if all your shelves end up wonky, this product is probably not for you.
For the rest of us, installation is straightforward. The cupboard you pick for mounting should be away from direct sources of heat. A good tip is to check the reception where you intent to hang the unit before doing the fixing. This sounds obvious, but it's one of those things that can easily get overlooked in the desire to get the unit up and running quickly.
Another thing that needs a bit of thought is making sure the power cord is long enough to reach a power point. In fact, Roberts could have helped by fitting a longer cord. The unit is supplied with a simple wire FM/DAB aerial which provides decent reception, but there's an F-type socket on the back also if you need to something more serious.
Have cupboard, have place to hang radio
When testing the proposed site for signal strength, if you're using the wire antenna, it’s a good idea to fix the aerial in the proposed spot with a bit of tape. Holding the aerial in place may well give a false reading. With aerials of this type, it's more usual to get the best signal by fixing the aerial vertically rather than horizontally - that was certainly the case with our unit. It's also a good make sure you're not near any water pipes or other metal objects as this can affect reception.
COMMENTS
@Anonymous Coward
LOL. You really are a git AC. You will find them in your local store along with other brand quality items which are cheaper.
To answer you other questions, delivery to/from Europe should cost around £6.85.
The current exchange rate British Pound to Euro is 1=1.07218 (from xe.com)
Re: Lidl
How much for shipping from Malta then?!
And that's before considering the crappy euro exchange rates.
Lidl
Lidl are selling a kitchen radio for a tenner.
http://www.lidl.com.mt/mal/home.nsf/pages/c.o.20081222.p.Kitchen_radio
Not DAB but who cares.
Or because...
An analogue radio is essentially a few transistors and maybe a simple IC or two thrown together with the odd resistor and capacitor as glue. A DAB radio is to all intents and purposes a miniature computer bolted on to a conventional tuner, and whilst they are still a bit over-priced, it will pretty much inevitably always be a bit more expensive than its analogue counterpart.
Mind you, Roberts radios of any flavour don't tend to come cheap, so a lot's in the name. For affordable and stylish DABs, look to Intempo and the like. Rather like with "real" computers, you'll find there's actually only a very small number of people manufacturing the innards, and you may even end up with pretty much exactly the same radio in a different and more affordable case.
