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DAB why should we ALL bother?
Anthony_UK
Posts: 536 Forum Member
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I and many others who refuse to go DAB and touch DAB refuse for these reasons;
Power levels of transmitters are very low and this is resulting in variable reception, it's NOT perfect at all throughout the UK NO WAY,
Not all services are in very good quality or stereo;you DABlovers have ALL been conned by the BBC, commercial stations, the thick as two short planks Ofcom, and the Govt who all pulled in (rather falsely) to all this you-believe-it buffoonery about CD quality sound and perfect reception claims, it's NOT THE TRUTH it is merely a LIE,
Also a few broadcasters are STILL refusing to go on DAB as regards costs for going on the platform etc-those broadcasters who STILL REFUSE to touch DAB are RIGHT, a mono low quality slot is only fit for speech not music, a joint stereo fair quality slot is sort of ok for music stations but the stereo imagery is naff and can sound odd on some pieces especially classical music, a full stereo 128khz is just that little bit better and the top quality 192kHz stereo slot is perfection (although this is rather expensive for ANY station).
DAB is a solution WE NEVER NEEDED, WE DIDN'T WANT AND NEVER THOUGHT WAS THAT GOOD ANYWAY until the BBC Ofcom the Govt and others forced it down our throats in a sort of "what they think is good for us" type wisdom.>:(
Power levels of transmitters are very low and this is resulting in variable reception, it's NOT perfect at all throughout the UK NO WAY,
Not all services are in very good quality or stereo;you DABlovers have ALL been conned by the BBC, commercial stations, the thick as two short planks Ofcom, and the Govt who all pulled in (rather falsely) to all this you-believe-it buffoonery about CD quality sound and perfect reception claims, it's NOT THE TRUTH it is merely a LIE,
Also a few broadcasters are STILL refusing to go on DAB as regards costs for going on the platform etc-those broadcasters who STILL REFUSE to touch DAB are RIGHT, a mono low quality slot is only fit for speech not music, a joint stereo fair quality slot is sort of ok for music stations but the stereo imagery is naff and can sound odd on some pieces especially classical music, a full stereo 128khz is just that little bit better and the top quality 192kHz stereo slot is perfection (although this is rather expensive for ANY station).
DAB is a solution WE NEVER NEEDED, WE DIDN'T WANT AND NEVER THOUGHT WAS THAT GOOD ANYWAY until the BBC Ofcom the Govt and others forced it down our throats in a sort of "what they think is good for us" type wisdom.>:(
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Comments
DAB is BAD backwards, after all...
Personally, thanks to DAB, I can now receive :-
Gold,
Dee on DAB,
Nation,
BBC Radio Wales,
Juice FM,
Wirral Radio,
Free 80's,
Panjab Radio,
Radio XL,
XFM,
Kerrang!,
Heat,
The Hits,
talkSPORT,
TeamRock,
LBC,
Absolute,
Capital XTRA,
BFBS Radio,
Absolute 80s,
Absolute 90s,
UCB,
Kiss,
Premier,
BBC 1 Xtra,
BB 6Music,
BBC 5live sportsX,
BBC 4extra,
BBC World Service,
BBC Asian Network,
Signal 2,
UCB Inspirational...
plus the stations I can already receive on FM.
So, yeah, curse you DAB for giving me all that extra choice.
Where did that rolleyes smiley go...
Funny, I don't have DAB here, but I can receive it. ;-)
It seems that ALL the pro DAB support is centred on the extra stations that are available. None are about the 'quality' of the technical strengths or signal.
If DAB is the only way that all the extra stations can be accommodated, then maybe it's a price that has to paid but please do not state, as fact, that DAB is superior quality in it's present form.
Urrr - he didn't.
And technical quality isn't what sells DAB radios to punters who generally don't know an MP2 from an AAC stream or what bitrate means.
If you want a quality feed use Satellite or the Internet - the high quality HiFi tuners now have internet streaming for their feeds. DAB is perfectly good enough for mobile listening environments.
My own personal experience is to see stations I listened to over the years get watered down before disappearing due to financial costs, bitrates dropped and mono becoming the new stereo for the same reason. A toothless regulator only hastened its demise for me.
I gave up with DAB when Jazz FM disappeared nationally and mobile Internet costs became more affordable (I locked in at the right time, prices have rocketed for increasingly capped packages) and now I listen to the music I like at a decent bitrate (we could have on DAB+) in stereo from Jazz FM and overseas broadcasters. It's a terrible shame I have to pay a subscription fee to an ISP/mobile phone network to receive it as opposed to having it available free-to-air like it used to be.
Well that's the way of the world really - if you want quality you generally have to pay for it nowadays, particularly for a niche station like Jazz FM. But if you use multimedia then you are usually going to want an unlimited internet package.
I suppose you mean via Freeview, Freesat, Sky or Virgin, but my point was that it isn't available on radio other than via DAB, as far as I know.
Very true radioviewer, DAB can sound good when it is used properly BUT the system is creaking under the strain of the ever increasing plethora of stations that are appearing on it.;the more and more stations you have and accommodate on DAB the poorer the quality and the poorer the robustness of reception because you cannot have quality AND choice at the same time, to accommodate the extra stations, bit rates HAVE to be reduced to a worrying point where robustness of reception and quality both suffer.:(
The quality of most DAB is fine and very similar to FM, certainly head and shoulders above AM.
The other advantage being National commercial music stations. Something the UK has struggled to provide on FM. With another national mux arriving soon the future is looking great.
AM (MW) - Yes obviously
FM when used properly - No (Unless you think 192 DAB (which won't happen) sounds better than an FM broadcast with a smooth freq response and no encoding artifacts).
I think a lot has been improved on receiver performance and encoding to make DAB 128Kbps joint stereo sound far better than it use to be.
But I still hate the sound of those horrible low bit rate stations that use 64kbps mono. For R5L its fine when they use 80Kbps but when they drop to 64Kbps you get far clearer sound AM.
I live 20 miles out of Lincoln.
Do you know what station I cannot get on FM? BBC Radio Lincolnshire. I can however get a very tinny AM signal on 1368.
I can get BBC Radio Leeds on DAB here with 100% signal quality.
What the f**k is that about?
I have a cheapo Clarity DAB outfit in my car, no drop outs, nowhere. Up and down the A1, M1, localities, no worries at all.