Bluetooth DAB+ Radio & CD Player | Mains Powered 60 Watt Stereo Hifi System for Home | Inbuilt Speakers, LED Display | Dual Alarm, 20 Presets & FM | USB, MP3, AUX | Remote Control | OAKCASTLE DAB500

Really pleased with the sound. I doubt if there is a cd/radio with as good a sound for the price. Feels very solid and I think this helps with the sound quality. Very good value for money. Relied on previous reviews and was not disappointed. I agree that the cd tray is a little on the flimsy side and will have to be treated with care. The Bluetooth worked immediately and it’s great to play music from my tablet through a decent pair of speakers. The dab radio tuned into nearly 60 stations and all my favourites are there. Arrived in 2 days. Very well packed including power lead, remote control and batteries. For anyone looking for a compact system, at a reasonable price, delivering a surprisingly good sound I would definitely recommend this.

The media could not be loaded. Firstly, the weight of this system surprised me, it actually felt like a good quality product, instead of a lightweight attempt at being one, which is so common these days, sadly. I was sceptical at first because it arrived in the manufacturers carton, not in a plain cardboard transit box, just as if it had flown off the shelf to my door! Then I thought more about this, like the saving on weight, packing, and a greener planet, lesser carbon footprint etc, so I put that initial concern aside.Opening this product revealed it had been well packed, but not over the top, just sufficient packing material to protect it in transit, and indeed it arrived in perfect condition, when I removed it from its box.Its overall design is minimalist, not trying to be anything other than a superbly made, competitively priced music system, and nothing else, no pretence here. No wild claims, just honestly described,. It’s a classical black box shape, in a life like dark wood grain, which fits in anywhere, streamlined insomuch that nothing sticks out of its casing, just pride and pure simplicity.I plugged it in, without having looked at the instructions, so far, the display came alive and the DAB radio immediately started playing the station it was already tuned to. I looked at the control panel below the clear cut and well lit ( dimmable) digital screen ( after removing the protective film). I tentatively pressed the scan button and it commenced searching out stations available in my area, finding 98 of them, including most of my favourites from a different area I had just moved from!Still not having checked the instructions, feeling that this intuitively designed music system was just so simple to get to know, I pressed the mode button, impatient to find the CD setting, and it confirmed my curiosity by showing me the modes of AUX input, USB, FM, Bluetooth, DAB radio CD ! The supplied remote is a bonus, ergonomically designed to fit nicely in a hand, with a tactile finish, so won’t slip out easily, and it works so well, the batteries supplied in the box, so full marks.Worldly wise readers will notice from my short video clip of the system playing a CD, will hear a track from a Clifford T Ward album, which immediately gives away my advanced years! The clarity, breadth and crispness of the ‘true to life’ studio like audio response on playback, is truly awe inspiring. The base is bang on, and for me, with elderly hearing, the treble response is like listening to someone in the room, singing to me, which is praise indeed these days with modern lifeless systems out there.I have to admit that in selecting and paging through the equaliser settings, I didn’t notice a tremendous amount of difference between them, they all sounded great to me, but I settled on Rock, but later discovered that the speech setting was obviously pleasingly different when listening to the radio news. Maybe I really do need to go and get my hearing checked!I’m blown away with this music system, truly. I usually try the volume of systems before purchasing one, and at first, when I advanced the volume on this model, it only seemed to change slowly, but towards the last quarter to maximum, the gain comes through swiftly, and powerfully, surprising me, indeed. For such an economically sized all in one system, I found the volume to be more than sufficient. It’s not a linear response curve, with the distortion free punch at the upper end, like a well tuned sports car or motorcycle.I have not at the time of writing this review, tried all the modes yet, but I have complete confidence that they’ll all impress me as much as those I’ve tried already. I understand that this unit is of of UK design, and manufactured abroad, and one reviewer commented that he would be happy to pay more for this unit if it was assembled here in the UK. Obviously, using a company with the production facilities and transport infrastructure already in place seems to be an obvious choice, but overall I agree that it would be great if it was also manufactured and distributed from within the UK, but let’s not forget the importance of utilising trade links abroad, either.Stunning and amazing music system, which I have no hesitation in recommending to anyone thinking of purchasing it. The free extended 3 year warranty was simple enough to initialise, and worked, simply by pointing my iPad camera at the QR code and up popped the registration web site with a list of products covered, took about two minutes, and all done! I’m so happy with my purchase, and it takes a lot to satisfy my quest for good quality, value for money equipment these days.Update 20/10/2024: Thrilled to have found searching for and saving radio stations as presets in preferred order, so easily. Having the facility to swap allocated preset numerical positions is brilliant too, just add another station to preset 1 and it overrides whatever was stored before, so it really is easy to instantly change your priority favourite preset allocations.Bluetooth worked so well with my iPhone 8, again, intuitively. The only difference I found was the volume level was lower on Bluetooth, so it was necessary to advance my volume button on the iPhone or on the music system to compensate. That wasn’t a problem, I just felt that the overall volume was lesser on the Bluetooth setting than playing CD’s or listening to DAB radio. It’s not a criticism, simply an observation.Also, before I sign off again, one reviewer commented that the speakers, or the greater volume of sound, was coming from the rear of the music system, or appeared so. Yes, there are two cones on the rear of the system, and when it’s playing, sound can be heard emitting from them. Without going into the science involved, some of the sound created from the speaker cones vibrating at the different musical frequencies, will, in the main, go forwards through the front facing speakers towards the listener.However, as the speaker cones vibrate forwards and backwards at very high speed, sound vibrations naturally occur BEHIND the speakers, too. In a totally sealed unit, these sounds hit the rear of the case, and bounce back towards the speaker cones, and can cause different effects within the cabinet or casing. Sometimes described as out of phase, ie, original sound bounced back towards the source. There are different methods of reducing these sometimes unwanted effects, and in this music system, the designers have introduced cone like structures on the rear to effectively allow these extraneous sound pressure waves to escape freely. This is an over simplified explanation, which I hope explains why sound comes from the rear. To some it may appear better, according to the efficiency of their own hearing, or to the range of musical frequencies being created by the speaker cones, either way, it’s designed to increase the overall listening pleasure. Judging by the amount of comments from reviewers mentioning how good the system sounds, proves beyond doubt that those conical apertures are doing their job well!

Good sound and volume for the price. However the controls that pertain to CD playing do not work unless you first set the "mode" to CD which is annoying I'd have thought it would intelligently switch. Also if I dont play a CD for an hour then come back to play another it has switched itself back to its default Non-CD mode which is double annoying.Sentence - four stars

This Oakcastle dab500 player is excellent for the price its very robust and has a sleek design.The set up is simple plug in and it starts to search for dab staions in my location and what pleases me most is I didn't what it near a window and it still found plenty of stations in the centre of my lounge.CD player is very good too it plays my recorded cds as well although I found the sound was not quite as loud as a purchased cd, I tend to enjoy my music quite loud , tip...speech setting on EQ gives a good clear sound.Majority Tech support is great very quick to reply with any issues you may need answered also the 3 years extended warranty is simple to activate & a clear manual is included in the packaging which is really well made and secure for transit .Overall for the price this device is great and feels quality.