Groov-e Lisbon Review

Design

• USB-C input
• Backlit LCD display
• Headphone output

Though this radio has been transported to a new city, the Lisbon feels similar to Venice in most ways. Aesthetically it looks nicer, the black glossy surface of the Venice swapped out for a faux-wood appearance.

The Venice felt a bit cheap and lent itself to visible marks and fingerprints. That’s less so with the Groov-e Lisbon, though given the name, you might have expected colours more in-keeping with the city of Lisbon (a green or perhaps even a warm yellow).

Regardless, like the Venice, the Lisbon doesn’t feel flimsy, though the plastic nature of its build quality does mean that I wouldn’t want it to (accidentally) drop it from a semi-decent height. The minor changes made to the chassis see the headphone output moved to the side, joined now by a USB-C input, helpful to power the radio via a USB-C power adapter (one isn’t supplied, however).

On the fascia are six buttons and a volume rotary control that doubles as the ‘Select’ button. The main six cover Power/Mode, Scan, Preset, Menu, Previous and Next (the latter two for scrolling through radio stations).

Like the Venice, there’s clicky feedback from the buttons; though this time the Power button doesn’t get lodged in place when pressed. To power the radio requires a long press, while a hold puts it in standby, and another hold turns the Lisbon off completely, which seems sensibly simple enough.

The backlit LCD display is bright and clear from across a room, though like before, it’s only readable if you’re looking directly at the radio. The viewing angles of the LCD display aren’t the best, and can make it harder to read text if you’re not straight on.

Around the rear is the telescoping aerial, a 3.5mm aux output and a compartment for four AA batteries.

Features

• DAB, FM and Bluetooth support
• Alarm/Sleep timers
• Full radio scan seems limited

The aforementioned controls are simple and shouldn’t present any problems in terms of operating the radio. Hold the Menu button and it’ll dip into the menu options (press Menu again and it’ll jump back out of the various levels).

The menu settings include System (Sleep, Alarm, and Time settings), DRC (Dynamic Range Control), which refers to the difference between loud and quiet sounds (I can’t tell if it makes a difference), and a ‘Full Scan’ to search for stations.

I don’t think the Full Scan fully works as a search only brings up 35 stations with a number of stations missing that a Groov-e Vienna radio picked up.

With the Mode button, you can switch through DAB, FM and Bluetooth modes, the latter is where you can pair the Groov-e Lisbon with another source such as a smartphone or other portable device.

You’ve got twenty presets, 10 for DAB and 10 for FM stations, for quick access to your favourite radio stations. There are two alarms, and you can set the time, duration, wakeup call (buzzer, DAB, or FM); when it happens (daily, once, weekend, weekdays) and if you pick ‘once’, you’ll be asked to set the date for the alarm. After that, it’s a choice of volume and then whether to set the alarm on or off – the usual, standard stuff.

Sound Quality

• Lean, bright sound
• Better with voices than it is with music
• Decent headphone output

My hope with the Groov-e Lisbon was that it would offer an improvement over the Venice where audio is concerned. Unfortunately that didn’t seem to be case. Like with the Venice, the Lisbon is better with spoken word content than music.

With voices, there’s a decent clarity, if a slightly dull edge to broadcasts in terms of tone. But commentators sound distinct from one another, and there’s a smoothness at ‘normal’ volume levels that makes listening to stations easy enough. Push the volume up and the Lisbon moves into sharp and tinny territory; the increase in volume also comes with a shrill tone.

Music, though, is where the Lisbon falters. There’s a lack of detail and clarity. Vocals come through okay, but that dull edge does make for a dour rather than expressive performance. The sound lacks weight, and bass is virtually non-existent. That’s no surprise for an affordable radio, but if you want more than that, I’d advise you to spend more.

Highs are dulled, the Lisbon’s sound lacks energy, coming across as rather one-note across all types of music. There are some tracks that sound decent – Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up and Madness’ House of Fun. But Queen’s Hammer to Fall and Martika’s Toy Soldiers fare less well; the guitars in Hammer to Fall lack detail and sound compressed, while the highs in Toy Soldiers sound tinny.

At best, the Lisbon sounds okay with music, but it can’t handle all genres in a consistent manner.

With Bluetooth, there’s a softness and a lack of detail, not helped by the max volume starting low and not getting much louder over a Bluetooth connection. You’ll find that you need to raise the volume on your device to get decent output from the radio.

Like the Venice, it’s the Lisbon’s headphone output that turns out to be surprisingly decent. With a pair of Oriveti Purecaster BD300 in-earphones plugged in, the radio’s clarity and detail are better. It can’t completely overcome the Lisbon’s dull tone and lack of detail, but I preferred using the headphone output to listening to the Lisbon’s mono speaker.

Should you buy it?