Sangean WFT-1D

Add DAB+ to your HiFi setup – I've had this unit for six weeks. Location: Hilly inner suburb of Brisbane - no direct line of sight to the transmitter towers on Mt Coot-tha. Set up with the included telescopic antenna, wired LAN connection and analogue (RCA) inputs to a surround sound receiver. Immediate impression: standby light! I have two other brands of mantle-type DAB+ radios, and the display is dimly illuminated when in standby mode but the Sangean has in addition a bright 'standby' indicator (there is no real power switch), /and/ a lit circle around the selector knob. What on earth for? The knob illumination would be nice in low light conditions when the unit is on, but not ALL the time, and the standby light is totally unnecessary.

Looks: a full-width hi-fi component, taller than my bluray player. The plastic fascia should have been all black and metal finish - the 'brushed silver' appearance of the lower section looks out of place in a modern hi-fi setup. The radio version WFR-1D+ looks much better. No prizes for industrial design.

Installation: When first powered up, the unit launches an installation wizard which is sufficient for most of the features, such as DAB+ scan and network installation. Ensure you have the password for your wireless LAN on hand at this point. Alpha-numeric entry is

tedious as each character has to be selected in turn, then entered with a press of the selector knob. I used a wired connection and bypassed this step.

Basic Internet station selection is easy by location, genre, My Favourites or direct entry. My Favourites is loaded by accessing a web page at http://wifiradio-frontier.com, entering a unique code provided by the tuner, then loading it with your selections.

The FM stage seems reasonably sensitive, enough that the supplied telescopic antenna is sufficient for all my local stations. FM mode also displays any RDS (Radio Data System) data which is available - usually the station name and some advertising.

The DAB+ stage is also sensitive enough that all local stations are in the scan list. The display shows signal strength - no stations show 100%, but there aren't any discernable digital artifacts. However, signal strength must be at the lower limit as sound can fade as I move around the room.

The Music Player feature will play music stored on a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) device on the connected network, or from a Microsoft Media Player Share service. I have music stored on a UPnP enabled Nework Attached Storage (NAS). It's capable of playing MP3 or WMA files.

Sound: I used Audio Technia ATH-ANC7b headphones direct from the tuner; Stax SRX Mk3 headphones through the amp, and the surround sound speaker setup.

Good to very good depending on the signal source. FM, especially commercial 'pop' stations clearly demonstrate the signal processing prior to transmission: the sound is flat and high frequencies are notably absent.

DAB+ signals are great from the higher bit-rate sources, esp ABC music, approaching CD quality. If you're listening to the same program as an FM station, the result is the same. AM program sources are notably better than the AM signal.

Internet radio is surprisingly good, dependant on the source and bitrate: some music stations have a higher bitrate than local DAB+ stations.

Headphone output is more than enough to overdrive standard headphones (>8ohm). There are 8 preset equalisation settings + custom. Interestingly, 'Normal' and 'Flat' are different; Normal seems to be Flat + a 'loudness' setting.

The manual: generally good, but suffers from unclear explanations and outdated or incorrect information. The version now sold in Australia has an optical digital output in place of the original USB socket - the manual is not updated to show this.

- refers to firmware upgrade via the USB port (now done via internet)

- refers to volume and equalisation controls without stating that they only apply to the headphone output.

- external antenna socket is hidden under the telescopic antenna - no reference at all.

There is an alarm/timer built into the system, but as a tuner, this feature is practically useless. I suspect this is part of the chipset as my other DAB+ radios have the same feature set. The same unit also features as a DAB+ radio as model WFR-1D+.

Remote control: supplied without batteries, which is quite rare these days. Most companies strive for an 'out-of-the-box' experience even if the batteries last only a couple of months. Layout is reasonable, if old fashioned, with an average chicklet button feel. Power of the remote is adequate for an average size living room. Includes a useless 'Aux' button. Good feature set, very good performance. Excessive lighting in standby mode. Disappointing front panel appearance. No remote batteries. Manual needs revising.