I Got A DAB Radio For Christmas And.........
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....... it's actually rather good, or is it?
A thread hopefully, for people with more DAB knowledge than me, to help new comers like me to the world of DAB.
I got a portable DAB radio (Tesco non-brand) and quite excitedly pulled it out of the packaging, found the power adaptor and plugged it all in.
I've always been sceptical of these portables with one small speaker and the lack of quality they must produce and I was not wrong.
Thank heavens for a short lead with a 3.5mm jack to go into the headphones socket of my DAB radio and a pair of RCA plugs on the other end to go into the Aux sockets of my HIFI.
My Portable DAB radio is now part of my HIFI. Cheap and easy option to convert any existing HIFI to DAB if you dont mind a portable DAB radio sat on top of it with a 4ft aerial towering above it.
You'll notice a distinct lack of technical words from here on in.
After a quick scan, it did the search thingy, then I could flick through the stations. Small disappointment to find some of the stations it shows as there, do not receive properly or nothing appears at all. Very patchy reception, or nothing!
On the other side of this, I can receive stations in my area, which although I should have been able to receive on FM, I could'nt due to the reception black spot I live in and a couple of big hills between me and the main transmitter site (Emley Moor)
As a 34 year old, I've found "Absolute Radio 80's" my new favourite station. So much so, I'm pondering over getting one of those Pure Highway car DAB receiver/FM transmitter devices.
Are they any good?? Although I do like my new DAB unit at home, I was put off DAB initially by being in my friends car who has a factory fitted (Ford) DAB radio, where the reception 'drops out' quite a bit.
Is this common?
Is it worth me buying a DAB car kit?
Would I need anything extra with it?
If I'm listening to a national station on DAB, does it change transmitter relays on it's own, like RDS/EON does on FM?
Lots of questions I'm hoping the more qulilified people in these forums can answer, which in turn will produce more questions along the way.
A thread hopefully, for people with more DAB knowledge than me, to help new comers like me to the world of DAB.
I got a portable DAB radio (Tesco non-brand) and quite excitedly pulled it out of the packaging, found the power adaptor and plugged it all in.
I've always been sceptical of these portables with one small speaker and the lack of quality they must produce and I was not wrong.
Thank heavens for a short lead with a 3.5mm jack to go into the headphones socket of my DAB radio and a pair of RCA plugs on the other end to go into the Aux sockets of my HIFI.
My Portable DAB radio is now part of my HIFI. Cheap and easy option to convert any existing HIFI to DAB if you dont mind a portable DAB radio sat on top of it with a 4ft aerial towering above it.
You'll notice a distinct lack of technical words from here on in.
After a quick scan, it did the search thingy, then I could flick through the stations. Small disappointment to find some of the stations it shows as there, do not receive properly or nothing appears at all. Very patchy reception, or nothing!
On the other side of this, I can receive stations in my area, which although I should have been able to receive on FM, I could'nt due to the reception black spot I live in and a couple of big hills between me and the main transmitter site (Emley Moor)
As a 34 year old, I've found "Absolute Radio 80's" my new favourite station. So much so, I'm pondering over getting one of those Pure Highway car DAB receiver/FM transmitter devices.
Are they any good?? Although I do like my new DAB unit at home, I was put off DAB initially by being in my friends car who has a factory fitted (Ford) DAB radio, where the reception 'drops out' quite a bit.
Is this common?
Is it worth me buying a DAB car kit?
Would I need anything extra with it?
If I'm listening to a national station on DAB, does it change transmitter relays on it's own, like RDS/EON does on FM?
Lots of questions I'm hoping the more qulilified people in these forums can answer, which in turn will produce more questions along the way.
0
Comments
DAB is very patchy. It depends where you are as to whether you get much at all. The bit rates are no better than FM on most stations as well.
If it's patchy where you are, you'll have to wait until (or if) more transmitters are built. Commercial radio, led by Global (Heart) now believes that the BBC should pay for new transmitters, even though Global were allowed to make Heart a semi-national station on the condition they promote DAB. They won't even run the adverts for DAB now & Ofcom does nothing about it.
As for your car, personally i'd rather have either internet or MP3 in the car than DAB, which again you'll find patchy depending where you are & what station you are trying to listen to
As dpb says, the rollover of the three national analogue licences (Classic, Absolute, talkSPORT) is conditional on their owners promoting DAB. The owners of these stations will be carrying a promotion for in-car DAB in January.
http://www.getdigitalradio.com/dab-news/view/173
So just like VHF FM except if your VHF FM reception is poor then it is unlikely to get better whereas there are new DAB relays coming on almost every week.
thats one area DAB can help. getting local stations that are impossible due to terrain. As DAB has more transmitters you have more chance that one will be line of site to you.
Absolute 80s is a breath of fresh air in a band full of jukebox, cookie cutter stations that all sound mostly the same
i'd say if you get apure highway don't skimp on anything. get the external antenna you buy separatly. From the sounds of it your in a marginal area as it is so if you stick to what antenna it has your probably going to be stuck with burbling mud
Enjoy Absolute 80s too but would like them to widen their play list a bit. Also for them to get Abs Classic Rock on DAB around the Derby area....
The BBC are supposed to be adding Drum Hill soon so hopefully once this is up Digital 1 and Now Digital can piggy back on this.
Be nice to see further expansion for Absolute Classic Rock as well - not sure if it'll be the East Midlands as I imagine Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire (if not Leicestershire) will end up being merged.
I like being able to get the BBC World Service and BFBS in particular. When I lived near Bristol FM reception was terrible, but DAB was fantastic.
Yes, you are correct. I'm pretty much in the middle, or edge, however you view it, of all catchment areas. Living on the border of North & West Yorkshire, with South & East borders only being around 5 miles away to both as the crow flys, I get a good arangement of stations, to which I feel apart of none and in-turn, not near any of the main transmitter sites for any of the stations.
Although I have an LS (Leeds) postcode, I can not get Aire FM on either FM or DAB.
There are reports that Absolute 80 drops it's bitrate and goes mono for some periods of the day but I am not sure that it is still true after they dropped from 128kb/s to 112kb/s.
DAB has to be run at 256kb/s to be considered hifi.
I found that using an exterior mag mounted aerial helped boost reception strength by 30-40% .. well worth the investment. I got mine from dabonwheels.co.uk
John Lewis are flogging "refurbed" Highways for £39 in their sale .. good value
The power lead from your 12v socket is an odd right angled affair. The cheap replacement off ebay seems to sit better in my car !
The "burbling" or "station listed but cant hear it" is an annoying bit of DAB .. the unit can see the data info .. but cant get the signal strength to give you audio. Even more annoying if on one side of your house you can get a station but not on the other ! Longer term look for "prune stations" on your menu to remove these orphan stations
Planet Rock for me !
I understand what you are saying and thanks for your input.
Listning to it through a semi decent HiFi (Sharp 25 watts RMS output) it sounds fine to me. Guess if I put a decent pair of headphones on, I may notice it more. Gotta say though, does still sound better than FM reception on the same HiFi unit.
The problem I have with the mag-mount idea, is people stealing them. Anyone heard anything like this happening??
I remember what it was like back in the old days of CB Radio, if it was not clamped to the car, it went missing and even then, clamping it to the car was not always going to stop anyone with a spanner to unscrew the 3/8 thread aeriel from the mount.
£39.00 for a unit is the best I've heard. Seen them on Ebay shops for a penny short of £45.00. Although by the time I've travelled to a store, used the fuel and no doubt paid for parking, it maybe as cheap to get one off the net!!
Absolute 80s is always at 112kb/s (joint) stereo on Digital One.
Absolute Radio 90s is 64kb/s mono except on Saturday afternoons when it's replaced by Absolute Radio Extra for the football.
True.
Plus my particular favourite DAB phrase: "no hiss and no crackle".
Yes, but you can now get 6Music so why would you need anything else?
DAB radio really is quite awesome, dispite it's knockers. All those channels, the sound without the hissing or cross-noise of FM which I get on our portable sets here. Ignore those who go on about low bit-rates for music, I am usually one of those people when in geek-mode and using my main audiophile set-up, but DAB sounds just fine when coming through a small system and it's on in the background and for general use.
Just need to get myself a personal DAB player for my walks now and I'll be happy!
Take the portable DAB Radio in the car with you (if possible) listen to the broadcasts throught th DAB radio on routes which you normally do, then test the DAB Signal and then if you get a good signal purchase a DAB Radio for the Car
yeh i got that as a hard sell, when i purchased a new one from Currys
Not always as i receved Digital One before BBC National DAB on my transmitter
The thought did enter my head.
Could happen in the car I suppose, I have the 3.5mm patch lead which I use for my mp3 player which would plug straight into the portable DAB radio.
The down side is the size of the radio's own aeriel. It's massive, just under 3ft long (I know I said 4ft on my original post, just measured it properly). Would need to be on the dashboard in the car for a bit of height and accessibility, but then the aeriel would be very distracting as it needs to be fully extended to work.
I also have no AUX plugin for the stereo in my van and there is no way, even with today's new van engine designs, that I would hear the radio's own speakerat a reasonable level.
I know I may be sounding picky here, it would only be trials after all, but I'm sure there are people out there who already have the gear in question who can give the answers.
Depends on where you live, Dab is pretty poor here, i don't mean the sound as that is poor, but I mean the reception.
i had a Dab radio and I had to switch it to Fm a lot to get a signal. Sadly the radio died and I chucked it in the bin. i need to get another portable, but it will be a FM one, no more DAb for me.
Shame really as i did like listening to the World service when i could get a signal.
I was referring specifically to the Derby area as that is what krob2 was talking about.
There are a lot of transmitters where Digital One or the relevant local operator have come first - however Drum Hill isn't one.