Here’s a truly premium product. Beautifully made with a brushed-metal finish, the Geneva Sound World Radio DAB is an intriguing mix of ancient and modern, with an appealing old-fashioned look married to a decidedly new-world display and digital functionality.
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Geneva World Radio DAB: features
The display on the front is a touch screen, where you can select your source: FM, DAB, Bluetooth, the auxiliary input, or an alarm. There’s also a touch-point for tone controls.
The knobs on either side control power and volume (left), and manual or automatic tuning and station search (right).
There’s a metal telescopic aerial to seek out the signal, and the auxiliary input on the back of the unit for connecting an MP3 player or other device. Our review sample was a stylish silver metallic, but it also comes in black and red metallics. That’s it really, in terms of features.
It’s simplicity itself to use. Charge up the battery fully before you get going, and you’ll get a good five hours of use – more if you stick to FM and steer clear of Bluetooth. You select your input using the touchscreen on the front, which is an impressively deep black until you turn the unit on, then classy with its red and muted blue theme.
It does suffer a little if you look from any great angle, so you’ll need to be looking at it reasonably straight on. Then, it’s extremely legible and easy on the eye.
The unit will automatically search for stations, or you can manually tune it. The search for an FM station is very smart, with a classic-looking radio dial coming up on the screen and scrolling along until it comes to a signal.
With DAB, you get a list of stations to scroll through using the right hand dial then push to select. It’s all extremely easy to do, and intuitive too.
Which is a good job, as there are no presets available. Most people have two or three go-to stations, at least, and it’s always handy to have a short cut to them. You won’t get that with this Geneva. Tracking down all stations is so simple, however, that we didn’t find it as much of an issue as we thought we might.
Connecting via Bluetooth is just as simple a process really. Select the Bluetooth function on the screen, search using your Bluetooth enabled smart device, and connect. We didn’t have a problem connecting at all.
Geneva World Radio DAB: sound quality
All the premium feel and build would count for naught of course, if the World Radio wasn’t up to the job with the sound it produces. But Geneva has hit the spot here as well. It sounds superb for a unit of this size, with a full-bodied tone that’s even-handed across the frequency range.
Voices, so vital on radio, are particularly well relayed, but not to the detriment of the upper and lower reaches of the range. Treble sings clear and bright without ever being strident, and bass is impressive for a unit of this size – full-sounding but fast, and certainly not flabby.
No one area of the frequency range stands out, and music hangs together cohesively, whether you listen to classical, hip-hop or Frank Sinatra.
We’d happily use the Geneva World Radio to stream music via Bluetooth, too. It’s this that makes this ‘radio’ such a versatile piece of kit. The sound loses little when you go wireless, so as well as your digital tunes and Spotify, internet radio is also available to you via a smart device or laptop.
Marry all that with its portability, thanks to that in-built battery, and you’ve got a winner on your hands.
Geneva World Radio DAB: verdict
The Geneva Sound World Radio DAB is undeniably expensive for a radio. Yet it’s also one of those products that screams quality, making people say “I just want one”. Beautifully built and finished, it also performs superbly and is a joy to use.
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