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I have a DAB tuner in my JVC head unit ? it cost an extra £140 inc fitting. I travel all over the south of the UK, the Midlands and occasionally up to Yorkshire, Manchester, Liverpool. Reception is pretty good with the occasional dead spot. With DAB there?s no gradual loss of signal, you have it or it?s gone. Mine switches automatically to FM if the signal is available and better which is a bonus. Quality is just about as good to my amateur ears as FM. 5Live, Talksport, and all MW channels plus TMS are miles better through DAB. I don?t bother taking my iPod in the car now as DAB gives me so many stations to skip through and select I always find something to my liking. The Traffic channel works well and is more current than the Orange or Vodafone service I used to call.
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FM will be phased out in 2015 by the gov. The car makers have agreed to have DAB as standard by 2014. Apparently there is a chip availble that wil handle all the proposed dab standards across europe. (The UK is unique in our standard of DAB, wont be the same as mainland Europe - which has not adopted DAB yet, hence few DAB equiped cars as standard)
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I have used one of these tinyurl.com/6sc6n for years,clipped to the dash and running through the cars system.It works suprisingly well considering there is no external aerial.
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I've also got a JVC DAB radio, but with a roof mounted aerial. Reception is not a problem apart from a few remote area's where FM isn't available either. In some places it's better - I can go through the Meir tunnel on the A50 without losing the signal at all on a good day, FM always used to cut out.
I'm changing the car soon and the first thing I will do is get another DAB radio fitted - once you have DAB I don't think you would want to go back to the limited choice on FM.
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Can't really comment about DAB radio in the car but have recently bought two DAB based radios for home use, after having rejected this technology ever since its inception.
I needed a new Roberts Alarm clock radio and so bought one with DAB and then wanted to replace the radio in the kitchen and so bought a Roberts DAB radio there.
They work perfectly but no better than the FM they replaced and for my tastes, apart from having the advantage of access to BBC 7, there are no extra DAB stations that I'm interested in, to be perfectly honest as all they seem to broadcast is awful pop music - anathema to my ears!
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apart from having the advantage of access to BBC 7 there are no extra DAB stations that I'm interested in
I agree, that the only extra station that i ever use on DAB is BBC Radio 7, other than that its BBC Radio 2 and 4 for me.
Thefore if Radio 7 was on FM, I woould not see the need for DAB, however thats the only platform that it is on
Edited by redviper on 07/10/2009 at 17:50
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I hope they scrap DAB before it becomes defacto rather than after everyone has spend money on poor quality mp2 codec, power hungry hardware of this obsolete 1990 tech. We should adopt the same system as everywhere else. If you buy a DAB radio, make sure it supports the continental standards of AAC+, DAB+ and DMB.
Edited by Hamsafar on 07/10/2009 at 18:56
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Oh, there was one other advantage of a household DAB radio and that was that many have the facility of recording radio to and SD card. And that's about it, really.
However, I'm very pleased with my kitchen radio, a Roberts Ecologic 4 which looks very smart. I had to choose carefully, as I wanted a radio that had some sort of treble enhancement for enjoyment of voice-based programmes. Some of the radios out there particularly the earlier and cheaper 'Pure' brands sounded very bassy and boomy and not suitable for the older ear!
Edited by oldgit on 07/10/2009 at 20:31
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Personally I enjoy Planet Rock ( apart from the AC/DC) and 6 Music in addition to BBC7 on DAB. I find the audio quality adequate and prefer a couple of seconds of bubbling mud an hour to FM background hiss. I find the ability to 'live pause' programmes then skip through the duff tracks & adverts useful, although the commercial stations probably aren't so keen on that feature.
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I see so many misconceptions regarding DAB radio.
Here are my experiences.
Fitted a Blaupunkt Woodstock 6 years ago. Reception has been fantastic with perhaps only three drops in signal over these years. One case was in Exmoor, between some hills! I travelled the UK extensively.
Sound quality is so good that I cannot listen to FM now.
There are many additional stations, but not all to my taste.
My partner then fitted one to her Audi (4 years ago), and has the same experience.
So, once you actually use one, you will find:
- its so much better
- good signal strength
- no mushy sound quality
- more stations.
Don't be misled by those who only repeat stories, or are opinionated without actually experiencing DAB. Its light years ahead of FM.
If you have a good head unit, reception will be wonderful.
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DAB. Its light years ahead of FM.
no its not. I have a dab and fm reciever at home. DAB is inferior in sound quality to FM. It coul dbe good if they didnt compress so much to include stupid fringe radios like snip - point made
Edited by Pugugly on 01/11/2009 at 13:32
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DAB is dead, its not the future at all. When are we going to get satellite radio like they have in the US.
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Some forum readers will know me as fairly regular contributor to this forum since I am a car nut, but what I have never needed to reveal (before) is that my actual profession is RADIO!
The company I work for make FM, DAB, DMB trasmitters and are also specialists in the field of audio encoding. (see www.worldcastsystems.com)
I could write a thesis on DAB, so will try to keep it brief.
DAB is very old technology now (but read on please), it relies on an audio encoding system called MPEG Layer 2, which is the precursor to MPEG Layer 3 (or MP3).
MPEG2s main problem is that if you encode/decode mutliple times it sounds horrid, it is also not good at very low bit rates. If care is taken, it can sound quite reasonable from 128kbps upwards for stereo.
The broadcast "chain" uses audio encoding at many different points, 5 different encode/decode cycles is not unusual before it arrives at your receiver. This repeated encoding/decoding which is really horrid, (rather than the bit rate alloted) was the main reason DAB sounded so bad in the early days, and got itself a bad reputation. but the press just blame the bitrate used.
Most broadcasters (e.g. BBC and GCAP - GCAP own Capital Radio, Classic FM etc) now use alternative non destructive compression technologies on their studio to studio and studio to transmitter links so that the signal is preserved MUCH better prior to DAB encoding. meaning MPEG2 in DAB can sound pretty good.
The car manufacturers have difficulties with DAB, because worldwide it is not a standard. America has HD Radio, Germany (and others have DRM), Australia has DAB+, Korea & soon France have DMB, China has CMMB, etc etc, there are SO many standards that for us (an equipment manufacturer) it is a nightmare. put an FM radio in a car and it can be sold worldwide!
DAB+, HD Radio and others use more modern audio encoding algorithms, mainly AAC HE, but as indicated above the choice of algorithm itself is not the only issue if the broadcast chain not is carefully looked after. MPEG2 can sound pretty dammed good if such care is taken.
BUT... DAB has been pretty successful in UK, it has sold very well as "bedside / radio / portable" application, less so for in car and Hi-Fi purists, but there are millions of sets out there which will never be able to receive any other format of digital radio broadcast, so despite the fact it is old technology WE ARE STUCK WITH IT. Ultimately they may find a way of DAB+ broadcast along with DAB at same time, but no plans at moment.
Another reason is this. It isn't making any money, indeed GCAP who are the biggest independent company on DAB have threatened to pull out of it, and have indeed shut down a couple of small minority channels. So far there is no commercial case to justify the investment. Broadcaster who invested in DAB, will not repeat that for DAB+ or something else. Remember Digital TV is largely drivem by Sky with a pay per view model. Freeview has it proponents, but also is heavily promoted due to impending analogue switch off.
There is no such switch off planned for FM. plus many "radio" listeners these days use their PCs to provide radio from anywhere in the world via the internet.
Listening habits are different. Radio listeners tend to be very loyal, sticking to the same channel on multiple sets around the home. TV viewers on the other hand tend to channel hope to find what they are looking for, aided by such devices as EPGs.
DAB is not perfect, but I rate it quite highly, having said that I wanted a new ICE for my Jaguar recently, I needed USB socket to play MP3s off a memory stick, I needed front Aux Input for my childrens MP3 player, and I wanted Bluetooth handsfree built in.
Despite all the 21st century trickery I wanted and found, I could only find that in a FM set (Sony), not DAB.
I say go for it, but don't expect it to work when you drive to france! if you ask a car salesmen (or indeed a car audio expert) if it will work with DMB, they just won't be able to tell you. There aren't any DMB broadcasts in France yet, it is going to start next year.
Guy
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Thanks for that guy - It is nice to hear from an expert
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I was just about to say the same.
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Re. switch-off of FM radio, although there's no set date for switch-off, the previous government stated in 2009 that there was a desire to get the switchover in place for 2015.
In July this year, (according to Daily M so take with pinch of salt) Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt re-affirmed the same aim, although there was a hint in this announcement that there would be a transition period after 2015. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders has reportedly said that a 2015 date for all new cars being fitted with DAB would be "challenging but achievable".
Bearing in mind the length of time there has been for transition to digital TV, 2020 seems reasonable to me for the earliest that there could be an all DAB radio service.
So, if you're buying a new car, would seem sensible to me to buy one with DAB now if you plan to keep it for 5 years or more and you're fussed about not having to change the radio later.
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guygamps has summed it up well.
European car manufacturers won't be happy with no European standard, and while the UK may have a first and it's taken off in the home, it now obsolete technology.
I have a Sony headunit in my car and a second DAB-specific aerial. The national channels are great, and UK coverage is very good in the urban areas.
The local multiplexes are prone to sound pixellation when in shadows behind tall buildings or in motorway cuttings, there's no summation of signal from other transmitters.
Sound quality is very clean and clinical, lacking the richness of FM.
If several channels e.g. R5, R5Sports, R6, Gold, Highways Traffic and so on were on FM, I do wonder if I'd ever have fitted DAB.
There's some interesting arguments here about the merits of DAB: digitalradiotech.co.uk/articles/French-Broadcaster...p
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