A review by Brian Payne
This product was reviewed in October 2011.
About me
I am Brian Payne, an RNIB member and a regional representative member for the South-East. I have been totally blind since birth.
I have been involved in the development and evaluation of products for blind and partially sighted people for some time now, and have also been actively training both children and adults to use these products.
I am also an avid radio listener, and am using 3 different DAB radio sets currently - Sonus-1 XT, Cyrus and Pure Move.
In this brief review I will be taking a look at the Pure Sonus 1XT. It was priced at just under £100 when I bought it and I purchased mine from the Pursula Foundation.
Sadly, this device is no longer available from Pure, the manufacturer, as it has been discontinued. Nevertheless, I am reviewing it because in my view, it is the best radio for blind and partially sighted people that I have come across so far.
Setting-up and using the radio
The radio has two knobs on the front and a series of press buttons. The knobs are for volume control and tuning into different stations respectively. The tuner is a ratchet control which means that as you turn it either clockwise or anti-clockwise; you will observe a small bump in its movement as you move from station to station.
For those not familiar with digital radio tuning, I must mention here moving the knob in any direction does not change the station until you press the button that is marked 'select'. So, for example, if you are listening to Radio 4 and you tune to Radio 2 by turning the knob, the audio menu will say Radio 2 but you will still hear Radio 4 until you press the button called 'select'.
All the digital radios I have seen have a number of presets. Typically, you will get ten presets for your favourite stations. The Sonus 1XT has five preset buttons plus a button which will switch from preset 1 to preset 6 so that you can use all five buttons again to set numbers 6-10. This is useful because it relieves the problem of having to tune the radio every single time you turn it on.
Once the presets are set you can find your favourite stations at the press of a button.
Benefits
The biggest advantage of the Pure Sonus-1 XT is that it features a voice feedback technology which means it delivers audible menus - names of the stations, the settings including current time, even alarm settings. The names of stations are spoken or even spelt out as you tune the set. The female voice will also tell you the time as you tap the handle.
Crucially every action you may perform, even going to standby mode, may be confirmed by the voice if you prefer it that way.
It is quite an experience to have a real human voice rather than a computer generated voice, say "BBC Radio 4" as I tune in!
Drawbacks
Occasionally, the radio station names do not get updated, which for a handful of stations means that they are called by wrong names or some station names are spelt out every single time because those stations did not exist when the radio was launched, but these minor drawbacks pale when you compare them to the benefit that the equipment is fully supported by audio menus.
The fact that this radio is not available any more since the manufacturer is no longer producing this equipment is the only drawback that I can think of!
End evaluation
Blind people and those with little sight need speech or audio menus like Pure Sonus-1 XT has to get the best out of digital radios. Anything less is difficult because you have to rely on the presets.
Legal disclaimer
This review reflects the opinions of the author only. RNIB cannot be held liable for opinions expressed in this article.
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