Norman Bradshaw brings the noise and tries out the latest DAB Site Radio from Hitachi.
Music has always played a part of my life. Back in the late 90s, I remember going to site owning an Opel Manta GTE Exclusive and a Hitachi TRK-W540E Boombox with detachable speakers. The car was for getting me from site A to site B and the Boombox to help me dance and keep warm on those cold winter days at work.
I smile as I reminisce how I would insert all those batteries (must have been about six!) and then tune in to my favourite radio station or put in my favourite cassette tape (do you remember tapes?) and ‘got on down’. It felt good to bring some Hitachi hardware on a job with me again after all these years.
Hitachi’s latest on-site music system is the UR 18DSDL cordless radio and, believe you me, if music is your thing then you are going to welcome this addition.
This ‘Job-Site radio’ really is site proof. The unit features six ‘shock absorbers’ and a triangular frame, which makes it feel sturdy and allows it to be rested in almost any position (but the right way up will always look and sound best). What I liked about this is that the two speakers, situated on either side of the main face, are recessed behind the resin and rubber frame, protecting them from damage. The 7W speakers produced some very rich and crisp sounds and this was enhanced by being able to adjust the bass and treble individually to my desired taste.
Setting it up is relatively straightforward as you just press the power button, select your ‘Source’ – with ‘Bluetooth’ and ‘DAB’ being amongst the options. I synced it up to my phone and in less than 30 seconds I was tapping my feet to the groovy beats.
You can also add the date, time, alarm, radio alarm, buzzer alarm, sleep and equaliser, quite a host of on board gizmos if you ask me. Furthermore, most of the above could be stored in the internal memory and recalled when you powered it up. I did have some fun trying to get the DAB radio to work but once I finally worked out how to tune it, it worked well.
One of the features I really like is that you can open up the front cover and put your smart phone in it. Inside the housing is a USB charging adaptor which allows you to charge your phone on site, although, I did notice that if you turned the volume up too high then it stopped charging your phone.
The version I tested came with an AC Adaptor. However, as an optional extra you could purchase a Li-Ion battery and charger, making this sound machine totally cordless. Alas, the battery doesn’t come as standard.
