My Clarion Radio / CD player in my Navara has just broken again. I have decided to replace it. I would quite like a DAB radio / CD player as I live in the Highlands and there are few regular radio stations. I do not have MP3 / IPOD so feel fairly indifferent to them. I have a bluetooth connection from my satnav for my mobile phone so I am also indifferent to that. There are four speakers already in the Navara which I will not replace.
I believe fitting a DAB radio may cause a bit of work as you require a windscreen aerial?
I have identified a couple of potential models:-
1 Sony CDX-DAB6650
2 JVC KD-DB101
Any recommendations / guidance would be much appreciated
slt
Edited by Pugugly on 11/11/2008 at 18:27
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Are you sure you can get DAB? We live in the Highlands but can't get it, can't even get FM.
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If you play CDs think about getting one with Ipod connectivity and get an Ipod Classic for around £130 on Amazon. Like you, I'd never bothered with an Ipod before until my current car which came with an Alpine system. It is so nice to have your entire CD collection available and not have the car cluttered up with CDs. Have you room for a double din head unit? This then gives all the Ipod functionality on screen.
No experience of DAB in cars but I asked a similar question about a year ago and the consesus then was that the reception isn't good enough yet but that may have changed by now. I hope it has as I'd love DAB in my car.
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I actually live in Inverness and I have a little portable DAB radio that I can put in my pocket and seem to get most of the channels. I think on these systems you can also get the regular channels as well.
I take your point about the IPOD but I am slightly daunted about trying to copy all my CDs, Vinyl and cassettes (yes I am that old) on to IPOD. It is a question of finding the time. My other vehicle has a casstte player and much of my vinyl is on casstte, so I can listen to those there
Think technophobe / dinosaur!
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Contemplate one with either a USB socket or SD card socket.
With a 4gb SD card you could get the equivalent of 40 or 50 CDs on a single card.
Worth the effort of ripping CDs?
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The choice of head unit is probably going to come down to cost (although I would go with a Blaupunkt Woodstock - gives you DAB and an SD card. It constantly records the last 20 seconds of radio, so if you want to record to the SD card, you can do so from the begining. It also is fully customisable (is that a word?) to its screen colour, so will fit in with any car, if that is important).
More importantly you can now get an FM aerial splitter. This simply attaches to the aerial lead before it attaches to the head unit and it divides the signal in two. One lead then goes into the FM aerial in, and the other into the DAB in.
This avoids the need for a windscreen or external aerial, and when I used one actually gave a better signal than the supplied windscreen one. Very useful for when you change car, as you don't have to go and buy another £50 windscreen aerial!
Try fleabay for this, it's where I got mine from. Someone in Germany sold them. Less than £30 at the time, and not expensive postage. You may even be able to get them mainstream in the UK now. Actually try fleabay for the Woodstock head unit - £299 unit for less than £50 often!
Note - I'm a bit out of date with the head units and costs etc, as I've not kept in the loop since I bought a car with a good fitted stereo. In my previous Focus I used the Woodstock in, I just used a blanking plate (as the space was double DIN) and an ISO converter.
DAB is great for ex-medium wave channels (test cricket is crystal clear on radio 4 long wave, and radio 5 is also better, although they have improved their MW signal - spot the sports fan). FM is still best for music though.
Posting, as always, in the hope that it helps.
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The splitter sounds a good idea, but there's nothing to stop the OP having a roof-mounted DAB aerial.
Just means there would be two aerials on the roof - think pretendy police or MI5.:)
Variable reception is the biggest question mark hanging over DAB.
I'd want to road test a DAB radio in my car for a fortnight before committing to buying one.
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"A second aerial on the roof"
I wouldn't want to drill a hole in my car! Nor would I want to run a 5 mtr cable from the roof, squish (now that definitely is a word) the cable through the boot, and along the inside of the car to the headunit. Much better using what the manufacturor built in originally.
I found in-car reception great, with both types of aerials. At least when you could get reception. The trouble with DAB is that is is all or nothing. A bit like 3G for your new mobile. If you get reception, you get it fully. If you don't get reception you get complete silence, no hiss, no fading in and out of sound - nothing.
And DAB broadcasts are area dependant. This meant when I left home I had the BBC and one other station set, and when I got to e.g Cambridge another two sets. Driving in or nearer to London was great, as there were hundreds of station sets (sorry can't remember the proper name for the sets of stations in DAB).
You really need to know what is being broadcast where you are (as a minimum you will get the BBC set and the Virgin/Talk Sport set as they are both national sets), and whether you can get reception where you will be driving.
Posting, as always, in the hope that it helps.
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....a second aerial on the roof....
mufcnumber18,
Are you too young to remember the first car phones?
A second roof aerial back then showed everyone you had 'arrived'.
Mine was just over an inch high with a little knob on the end, if you'll pardon the phrase.
Lots of Silver Spirits and Bentley Turbos had the same type.
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mufcnumber18 Are you too young to remember the first car phones?
ifithelps,
I'm not, but flattery will get you everywhere!
I agree with the latest post, that the quality of the aerial is key. Losing reception is the bane of DAB. The OP will have to balance cost and ease of installation with whether any signal can be received via the different alternatives available.
Probably need to find someone that does get signal from an in car DAB and look at their set up, although each car can and will react differently. Apparently roof mounted aerials allow the plane of the roof to act as an amplifier to the signal, whereas screen mounted ones don't get this benefit.
Posting, as always, in the hope that it helps.
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sets (sorry can't remember the proper name for the sets of stations in DAB).
Multiplexes
Trouble is - you could leave home happily listening to the station of your choice, and find that 100 miles down the road that station is not carried on any multiplexes near you.
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quality of antenna is more critical than head unit for DAB as it is for indoors DAB kit
rather cheap DAB radios indoors fitted with top quality antenna will out perform v expensive DAB radios with their standard antenna
especially important in highlands i would have thought where hilly bits will make signal quality variable
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I have just ordered the Sony CDX-DAB6650 at £139.87 from Amazon. My local garage will fit it when it goes in for the MOT in two weeks
I will update you on how good it is
thanks
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Good luck hope you get what you were hoping for with DAB. I loved it.
What are you doing about an aerial? Was your local garage able to give you any advice on that and cost of fitting it?
Posting, as always, in the hope that it helps.
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Just to sy that I have had my Sony CDX-DAB6650 fitted. The guy doing it fitted a windscreen DAB aerial (not supplied with the pack), which he fitted across the top of the windscreen, which is good as you do not really notice it. Interestingly you appear (if I am understanding the instructions) to be able to coordinate a signal through both the internal and external aerial at the same time, to maximise the signal.
I like the appearance of the unit, it has a fairly subtle appearance and actually blends in well with the plastics in the Navara, although I suspect a 20 year old in a modified Corsa might find it a bit dull. The buttons are fairly tactile and feel less fiddly than the one it replaced. It has eighteen FM presets, six MW and six LW as well as eighteen DAB presets. There is connectivity for a MP3 player. CD performance is good and noticeably stronger than the Clarion it replaced. The FM performance, whilst slightly softer than the DAB, seems to produce a more rounded sound. The DAB appears to have a thinner sound. I am not sure about the reason for this but I am very pleased to have a much wider choice of stations. All music sounds much better than it was before. The Clarion had an annoyingly tinny quality, which you only fully realised when you replaced it.
At £139.87 from Amazon, it seems to have offered a very significant upgrade. Only gripe is that it makes a noise a bit like a pinball machine when you turn the engine off.
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> DAB appears to have a thinner sound. I am not sure about the reason for this
because they have crammed too many stations on to dab, and cut the "bit" rate of the stations. In laymans speak they are transmitted at poor quality.
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As the success of the iPod shows, capacity beats sound quality every time.
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At one time, if the test cricket was on 5Live Sports Extra, Radio 4 DAB went to mono to make room for it.
Virgin - now Absolute - use one of the higher bit rates, so their quality is nearer to FM.
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Well, with personal experience of two DAB radios and two WiFi radios at home I'd say the lower bitrate stations sound 'dull' rather than 'thin'. 128K MP2 DAB ( OK I know several stations don't reach even that bitrate ) sounds better than hissy FM anyway. 'Poor' is arelative term I suppose ...
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It would be very useful, Gan, if you could tell us which areas of the Highlands you have tested this out in, and how DAB compares to FM. In my experience the FM is poor in most of the mountainous areas, causing resort to R4 LW except when the awful cricket is on. Thanks.
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 22/11/2008 at 14:58
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if you could tell us which areas of the Highlands you have tested this out in and how DAB compares to FM.
I am in Inverness. As I said in the comments above, FM seems to have a fuller richer sound whereas DAB is a bit thin. The real reason why I wanted DAB is the lack of channels : Radio 1,2,3&4, Radio Scotland, Gaelic Radio (no I can't understand a word), MFR (don't ask) and Classic FM (reception for this is always poor in Inverness - you struggle to receive it indoors even). When I used to live in London there were so many channels on FM and I have always missed the choice up here.
When we travel around the highlands, we tend to play CDs. As you rightly state, you lose reception on FM. I have not tried DAB yet in a wider area
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Others have mentioned the benefits of an ipod - I don't have one yet msyelf - but I have been researching DAB radio add-ons for the ipod.
If you google "DAB ipod" you will find that there are several add-on DAB radios for the ipod now so perhaps this is the way forward as you will get yourself both the DAB and the ipod and both will be portable.
Robi, made by Roberts, is one such DAB radio add-on for the ipod. The iDAB, made by Intempo, is another. Amazon sell both and a few versions of the later. Check the Amazon reviews for pros and cons.
I am not convinced that the solution truly exists for an ipod with a DAB add-on for the car yet though but it might be worth you investigating this option.
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