Pure Digital Sonus 1-XT gives radio a new voice

By Mary Lojkine on 09 March 2005, 1:04pm

We had the freakiest experience with the Sonus 1-XT. It's a DAB radio that talks, not just the way that all radios talk, but also to provide feedback as you punch the buttons and turn the knobs. You can even pat it in the middle of the night to find out the time.

When we plugged it in, the friendly female voice said, "Welcome to the Pure Sonus 1-XTwith IVOX. Autotune in progress, please wait." We waited, it tuned, we twiddled the knob and selected Radio 4. We touched the handle on the top and it said, "The time is 8:43pm."

And then it started talking nonsense… "You are now listening to BBC Radio 3, Radio 4, Radio 5…"

"That's enough of that," said the Radio 4 announcer. Turns out we'd tuned into In Touch, which was reviewing the Sonus. It wasn't our radio talking nonsense; we were hearing the headbendingly identical voice of the BBC's Sonus, transmitted with all the fidelity of DAB radio. How serendipitous was that? Lovely radio, even if it is haunted. -ML