VQ Monty Portable DAB+/FM Retro Bluetooth Radio Review

Reviewed by Paul Magnan

For years I have used an old-fashioned clock radio type alarm clock to wake me up in a morning. I was therefore delighted to be offered a Monty DAB radio to review from VQ. 

It arrived very quickly and well packaged, which meant that it was in perfect condition. Upon removing it from the packaging the first thing that struck me was how stunning it looks. I love the walnut design; it is also available in oak and patterned styles. It’s very understated which works.

The fabric carry handle is so useful, making life much easier when you are moving the product from room to room. The display area of the radio is black. Whatever is displayed comes up in white text. This looks amazing. I can be a bit of a novice when it comes to technology, so it was a relief to see that the time came up automatically. The speaker part of the product has a grey flecked design.  This compliments the walnut casing perfectly.

I put the radio in place on my bedside table and set the alarm for 5am, my usual waking up time. It has reliably woken me for work every day since that it has been set. I love the fact that when the radio is playing music it displays not just the radio station but the artist playing. 

The buttons are white with black symbols. They are as follows – play/pause, mode, button to switch on, menu and OK. The speaker even sits on 4 feet which are in keeping with the whole walnut casing design.

Speaking of the walnut casing, it is made of real wood. The wood itself has been left untreated so that the wood grain is exposed. Monty has beautiful modern styling and is both a DAB and DAB+ Digital Radio and Bluetooth Speaker. 

I was wowed by the sound quality. I would not go back to my old clock radio. The radio has unique acoustic innovations which adds to how amazing it is. In fact, their analogue sound processing is a patented feature. If you like listening to a variety of radio stations, Monty would be perfect for you as you can easily program in up to 60 preset stations. You can use auto scan to find all available stations or simply scroll through an alphabetical list of stations.

I love being able to stream music into Monty’s speaker using my iPhone using the Bluetooth connectivity. It is so simple to pair up Monty and my mobile devices. I quite often use Monty’s USB port to charge my iPhone and it seems to charge at a decent speed. 

Whilst I do not tend to use a hard-wired connection, it is handy to know that a traditional 3.5mm aux-in cable is included for that purpose. The speaker sound quality is amazingly clear, not surprising given that the speaker output is 10W ultra-wide full range. The bass and treble can be easily adjusted too.

I love this product; in fact, one could say that it blew me away. I am giving this product a well-earned 5/5 and would recommend it to others. 

It would make a fantastic Christmas gift idea for someone special in your life or even as a treat for yourself.

Rating: 5/5

RRP: £99.99

For more information or to buy visit www.myvq.co.uk.