We recently changed our car. My old Megane was rotting quite badly and my foot was going through the foot well floor. I might be able to put this down to the salty sea air. I had the Megane from new and looked after it well, but the four years living in Skegness seems to have advanced the corrosion process, as sea air does.
Now, when choosing a car, you don't ordinarily base your decision on the performance of the car radio. Do you? You DO? No, seriously, this was not something I considered. We just needed something with enough 'space' for us, the dogs, etc. I didn't even touch the radio when looking at the vehicle.
Luckily, luck was on our side and the radio performs extremely well. So well, that I am wondering if it includes the same chip as the Sony XDR-F1HD. The audio on an empty channel sounds exactly the same, with that 'fluttery' sound. The kind of sound which seems to tell you that the radio is trying to lock on to the slightest signal. When listening to continental reception, you can tell that the sensitivity is high by the way the signals are extracted from the noise in no time. That familiar sound of the noise breaking up as opposed to just being overridden. I have already heard meteor scatter when tuned to an empty frequency.
Sensitivity is also of the 'digital IF' kind, though it doesn't sound like SHARX where you can hear the bandwidth narrow in stages. Selectivity is just very tight, even when right next door to anything from Belmont. You can hear the slightest audio from Belmont, but it's hardly there at all and far more selective that the SHARX system.
Somebody suggested that this radio might have the XDR-F1HD chip, but this is speculation. I have no idea what is inside. What brand is the radio? Unfortunately there is no way of knowing, but I have been told that Clarion is the usual brand in many of today's Citroen cars. The radio is not visible, however, as everything is 'touch screen' operation.
Operation of this radio is slightly awkward and I cannot find a way to manually tune across the band. The radio always jumps to the nearest strongest signal and Belmont is the only transmitter it will stop on. Even then it can miss the transmitter when scanning, such is the setting of the threshold. I have occasionally been able to force a manual tune, but it is far from precise and easily locks on to a channel or two higher. VERY frustrating! How fortunate that there is direct frequency entry. This method is reliable. While I would rather see a full manual tune option, the direct frequency entry has some advantages. Maybe I will find a way to disable the auto-tuning.
In conclusion, this radio is exceptional in terms of the main requirements of the DX enthusiast, but the tuning lets it down. at least until (if) I can find a way around this. Medium wave is equally good. There doesn't appear to be any long wave band, though I haven't tried entering a frequency below medium wave yet, so don't quote me on this. This is an early stage review and I will adapt this page as I go along.
This radio has DAB radio too, but I won't give any comments about this as I know next to nothing about DAB or how to tune through the channels and multiplexes. I need to learn.
Hopefully this brief review will be useful to somebody, but I can summarize this in a few simple words. This is a VERY GOOD radio which I would not hesitate to recommend and outperforms my Blaupunkt "Digiceiver" radios. Well worth getting - *IF* I can find out what the radio is and its model number. We NEED to find out.
Good DX!
John
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