In-car digital radio

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Thu 21 Nov 2002 10:01
In-car digital radio - MancRover
I currently have a sony 10 disc changer and head unit in my car and am looking to upgrade the head unit to accommodate digital radio, hopefully keeping the changer in the boot. My medium wave sports listening is getting gradually worse.

Can anyone point me in the right direction for best price, models etc and whether I'm looking at fitting an extra ariel. If anyone has any experience of one, I'd be interested to know if it's worth fitting, or a waste of cash.

I have looked quickly on t'internet - what does 'DAB' stand for - is this what indicates that it is 'digital radio'? Sorry if I'm being a bit thick, but your advice in the past has been invaluable.
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Thu 21 Nov 2002 10:17
In-car digital radio - Dynamic Dave
what does 'DAB' stand for


Digital Audio Broadcast I beleive.
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Thu 21 Nov 2002 10:55
In-car digital radio - Steve S
That's right. DAB is digital radio with the main advantages consistent high quality reception on the move with lots of channels, some of which were previously blighted by AM reception.

In the car it means that the available stations sound as good as top quality FM.

In the home, results are more variable because people who currently use top quality FM equipment will be disappointed by the high levels of "compression" used on DAB. This comes from the need to have it sound impressive on modest equipment and your tranny.
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Thu 21 Nov 2002 15:27
In-car digital radio - pd
About the only all-in-one headunit available at the moment is the Blaupunkt Woodstock DAB/CD player. I don't know if a Sony multichanger would interface with it.

You'll need a seperate aerial for DAB & FM and make sure the aerial is well installed as DAB coverage is patchy in a lot of places.

The Blaupunkt unit is very nice and will get you some MW stations in better quality but the improvement over FM is marginal IMO.

Rgds,
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Thu 21 Nov 2002 15:50
In-car digital radio - Paul Mykatz-Tinks
Coverage might be a problem. Heard a truck driver phone in to Talksport a couple of weeks ago complaining about patchy reception on DAB. Said he loses it completely around Sheffield on the M1.
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Thu 21 Nov 2002 16:15
In-car digital radio - MancRover
Talksport makes up the majority of my morning listening, but I'm in the Manchester area. Will investigate digital coverage before taking the plunge.

Found the Woodstock DAB52 with windscreen ariel on the net for £350 without much searching - a lot for better radio reception. Other systems require a DAB tuner which fits in the boot at around £235 plus a compatible head unit.

Guess the clincher could be the compatibility with the autochanger.

Thanks for the help guys. Now which chargecode can I put the couple of hours net searching down to??
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Thu 21 Nov 2002 18:58
In-car digital radio - Keith S
Apparently Ford are going to fit digital radios as standard from now on.
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