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Roberts Fusion 

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This is a DAB/FM radio and ‘i’ device player. That is the bare bones of a quiet stylish device, not the least of these is the ‘i’ device placement. Certainly I have never seen one in a similar place or one that comes up in such a way.

roberts fusion radio ipod dock
click image to enlarge

The main body is 32x10x15cm, however when the metamorphic ‘i’ device holder rises it adds 10cm to the 15cm height and 5cm to the 10cm depth, so the overall in ‘action’ size is 32x15x25cm. The height will be more with an iPad.

It comes with a 5x8.5cm remote control that has 22 buttons however virtually everything can be done from the 14 buttons on top of the unit. These are bar type with one end doing one thing and the other end something else.

The rear has a ten piece rod aerial that extends to 64cm when fully raised. The connections are a USB socket for upgrades, Auxiliary Input and DC input the latter has a 1.5metre long lead to the power brick plug to provide power.

So returning to the metamorphic ‘i’ dock this stores when not in use in the rear of the device with only the rotate able section outside the case. Push a button on top of the unit and it raises from its base, the close it down remove your ‘i’ device and push a button on the protrusion and it will revert to its partially concealed position.

There is an A5 size 52 page manual that covers everything in detail and it has plenty of illustrations to guide you.

The front has a 5.7x3.4 four line green on black display, when in standby this displays a digital clock on the top two lines and the date in day month year format on the bottom line. In use on DAB or FM it displays the clock on top two lines, station on the third line and scrolling text by default on the forth line. In iPod mode the digital clock again takes the top two lines with track name on the third line and elapsed track time on the last line. Even when the unit is in standby the ‘i’ device will still continue to be charged Using a 3.5mm lead to connect to Auxiliary mode, top two lines are digital clock with Auxiliary mode on line three and date on last line.

On first switch on make sure the rod aerial is fully raised as it will be in DAB mode and this will also set the time and date. The scan found 62 stations is less than 40 seconds. In FM mode you use the up or down arrows and as soon as it finds a station it stops and also changes nearly all stations to name rather than the frequency.

There are ten presets for FM and also ten for DAB, some units have more but I would be surprised if anyone frequently listen to more than ten stations in total, I checked my normal listening and its only about eight stations.

There are a sleep setting, snooze setting and two alarm settings, you can choose to wake to radio, ‘i’ device or buzzer.

It has six default equaliser settings and there is also one to select bass and treble to your own preference should you wish.

Both sides of the central front section are covered with mesh and this goes round the sides to the edges of the rear. The stereo speakers are only 2.5 watts each but the sound they give will easily fill a standard room without distortion.

I am not sure how rugged the ‘i’ device dock will be but I must have opened and closed it hundreds of times without problem.

The Roberts Fusion is available from the link below for £71.25 with free delivery.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0084BZ9X0?ie=UTF8&tag=gadge0a-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634

http://www.robertsradio.co.uk/assets/Spec_Guides_PDFs/DAB_radios_PDFs/Fusion.pdf

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Features3
Performance3
Value3
Ease of use3
Design3
OverallRoberts Fusion rated 80 out of 100

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