Sony launches range of DAB players

17 June 2005 17:37 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Sony has announced a family of DAB products for travelling, the home and the car as it hopes to catch up in a market it has until now left fairly well clear of.

The first new model is the XDR-M1 DAB FM WALKMAN that is suited for personal use. The black coloured metal player has a four-line backlit LCD display complete with clock, the ability to preset up to 40 radio stations lasts for up to 10 hours. As with most portable players the unit also features a FM tuner in case your in areas of poor DAB coverage.

Sony has also launched a white unit called the XDR-S1 portable digital radio, which its says is aimed at the top end of the DAB radio market. The digital receiver includes both Band III (UK) and L Band, making it usable throughout Europe. The XDR-S1 also offers FM and AM reception, the ability to preset 50 stations alphabetically using Sony's Auto tune function. There is even an alarm function to wake you up in the morning.

Get into the car and you'll be able to use the CDX-DAB6650 in car head unit. As well as boasting AM/FM and DAB radio, the unit features CD tuner capable of playing CD-R and RW disks and can playback both MP3 and ATRAC3Plus file formats. However it doesn't include an aux out jack to connect your MP3.

In the living room and Sony are keen to get you using DAB with the ST-SDB900 DAB tuner. It will feature 30 preset channels for AM/FM stations and 99 presets for the DAB tuner. Its large 16 dot 2 line FL front centered fascia panel provides access to additional information.

Sony has also announced a DAB Micro HiFi system - the CMT-GPX9DAB. The Micro HiFi System is fitted with both an AM/FM and DAB Band III tuner. Sound is provided by a single pair of speakers that measure 26cm (H) x 18cm (W). The CMT-GPX9DAB system utilises Sony's bass reflex two-way speakers, incorporating a 12cm woofer and 4cm tweeter, which generate an audio sound with a power output of 2x35W.

Sony has yet to set a price for any of the units.