BMW and M Power Owners

Morning all

I have a 14 plate 5 series BMW which I purchased from my local BMW dealer in July last year Stevenage herts, Since I've had it the DAB radio drops out on stations that I always listen to in certain areas between my home (Letchworth) and where I work in (Watford)
it been in to be looked at the they said I need to keep it on local stations so herts, beds & bucks and not national channels but it's still doing the same on those. The guy said that old cars have older hardware and software (assuming he means firmware) and
these sort of things can happen? But I fail to accept that, or am I being difficult?

Does anyone else have the same make/model mines got the H/K sound pack if that makes any difference

Thanks
 
iMacMart said:
Morning all

I have a 14 plate 5 series BMW which I purchased from my local BMW dealer in July last year Stevenage herts, Since I've had it the DAB radio drops out on stations that I always listen to in certain areas between my home (Letchworth) and where I work in (Watford)
it been in to be looked at the they said I need to keep it on local stations so herts, beds & bucks and not national channels but it's still doing the same on those. The guy said that old cars have older hardware and software (assuming he means firmware) and
these sort of things can happen? But I fail to accept that, or am I being difficult?

Does anyone else have the same make/model mines got the H/K sound pack if that makes any difference

Thanks
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Old cars... it's a 14 plate! The DAB standard has been around for ages so I don't see how that could be the case.

I assume it's not just a DAB blackspot where there's no signal and in previous cars it's always been fine?
 
I have a 2015 5 Series with HK (though the HK makes no difference to the radio reception) and I wouldn't describe DAB as perfect. It often drops out for a few seconds at a time, I think it's partially a limitation of the technology, in a poor reception area with FM it's a bit fuzzy but with dab you get nothing.

Mine went through a phase a month or two ago of having no reception for huge chunks of my commute but that's gone away now. I suspect it's local signal issues.
 
Glad its not just me who finds DAB a bit crap and actually a step back (other than channel choice which isnt limited around london anyway) over FM.
 
Jez said:
Glad its not just me who finds DAB a bit crap and actually a step back (other than channel choice which isnt limited around london anyway) over FM.
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Audio quality is so much better though I can't stand FM radio anymore
 
Not sure what you mean there, FM has superior sound quality? DABs benefits are efficient use of air space allowing loads of channels, at the expense of digital compression hampering it.

No doubt at all that FM sounds better if you have a good signal! There is also DAB+ "HD Radio" but i am not sure if we have that here. My car cant receive it to my knowledge so maybe we do and i am simply experiencing rubbish normal (~128kbps) regular DAB.
 
chanjy said:
Old cars... it's a 14 plate! The DAB standard has been around for ages so I don't see how that could be the case.

I assume it's not just a DAB blackspot where there's no signal and in previous cars it's always been fine?
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My brother had a DAB in his 15 plate Audi A6 and we've tested that channel in the stops it drops out for me and it never drops out?

So would I be wrong to pursue this with the garage do we think, I do feel there are black spots around where I live coming into Letchworth but as stated above other DAB radios in other cars I travel in don't drop the signal

Thanks All...
 
Shouldn't be by a margin, it is heavily compressed at ~128kbps? As i mention above there is a DAB+ "HD Radio" standard, but either we dont get it in the UK or my car cant do it. I just seem to get regular DAB which is not as good as FM by any means other than the obvious channel selection benefits. (Although FM selection is great around London, it totally sucks when i leave the area).
 
iMacMart said:
Since day one as far as I can remember and and yes a couple, my brother and another friend same channel same place and it doesn't drop out....
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If it's cutting out in the same places every time and coming back in the same place every time then it sounds like a reception issue.

It is possible that your car has a fault in its aerial or reception somehow, alternatively it could just be that our cars just don't get very good signal and there's no fault.

It's pretty hard to know unless you drive the exact same route with another F10/11 to compare it :(
 
Shivy011 said:
I think DAB is far superior for sound quality no?
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DAB, to my surprise a few years ago, is lower quality than analogue.

Digital can obviously be better but it’s limited by the transmission and they keep the bitrate low. DAB+ is better than DAB but I always stick with FM.
 
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