Buying advice

We were surprised how the volumes of different radio channels differed on FM and DAB, even on models that received both. London music station Capital FM was very loud on all of our radios whereas Radio 4 (mainly speech) was much quieter. Before buying a new radio, ask if you can listen to your favourite stations to make sure you’ll be able to hear them clearly. Remember that you may need a higher volume to understand speech than to follow music.

When trying out a radio, also consider how straightforward it is to use and to tune into your favourite stations and how easy it is to carry around (if you want it to be portable). Don’t forget, it will be considerably heavier when it has batteries in it.

We tested six different products, but many others are available. If none of these sounds suitable for you then use our general advice and recommended features to pick your ideal radio.

During our tests, we found that five of the radios had very good maximum loudness, but you might not find the Roberts Gemini 5 loud enough if you have more than a mild hearing loss. However, all of the radios, especially both Roberts radios, are capable of giving a very high output via the headphone socket.

The DAB radios all gave noticeably clearer reception (less hiss) and the two Pure radios had the best sound quality. The two Roberts radios were the easiest to use, but you shouldn’t have any major problems using any of the products tested here.