dab radio in the car

ci_newman said:
Surely using the original FM radio as a receiver defeats the point in listening to DAB since it'll be a reduced quality...
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its more the fact that you can listen to dab radio stations that are not available on fm - it is only those people who listen to dab that will be in the market for these obviously! Quality wouldn't really be reduced that much would it?
 
ci_newman said:
Surely using the original FM radio as a receiver defeats the point in listening to DAB since it'll be a reduced quality...
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DAB is compressed like digital TV so you'll probably get a worse sound quality on DAB than a conventional radio signal. Then you've got the internal transmitter that is probably not the best quality chipset in the world etc etc.
 
Conscript said:
Are there any companies making DAB headunits?
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yep there are indeed - but i didn't want to have to change from the standard stereo to a new one so i think that wee unit would be nice job. I only listen to 5 live sports extra on dab so voice only isn't too important for sound quality!
 
I have a Revo unit in my car with a powered aerial

In good reception areas it is superb but that is a big if , most of the time it is near useless, dropping out or no signal
 
How come satellite radio hasn't crossed the pond yet? We had it in our hire car in Canada and it was excellent, reception was good everywhere (except the underground carpark!)
 
Johnny69 said:
DAB is compressed like digital TV so you'll probably get a worse sound quality on DAB than a conventional radio signal. Then you've got the internal transmitter that is probably not the best quality chipset in the world etc etc.
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What he said. The hifi buffs are going beserk at the moment because 99% of the DAB hifi tuners on the market sound like turd compared with good analogue tuners. Oh and don't think that you will not get any interference on DAB. Ok you don't get the hiss but you do get horrible digital noises when the signal is not quite right etc etc. Don't get me wrong I am in favour of progress and the concept of DAB is good but the reality of it at the moment is far from great. I would suggest sticking with analogue headunits for the forseeable future.
 
There's nothing wrong with DAB tech in theory - the problem is stations are crammed into a very small, very compressed section of bandwidth, mostly resulting in sub-fm quality.
 
I know Dab isn't the best quality, but my father has been looking at these as they have stations you cant get on normal radio, Arrow, Planet Rock etc. Would the sound quality be that bad compared to a normal Dab radio?
 
Hate said:
I use my portable DAB in the line in of my car stereo, and yea, its mostly useless.
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Here in NI I have used my handheld dab radio in the car loads of times and it sounds really good on 5 live sports extra. The problem is that the lead that runs to my stereo line in is used as the antenna and so has to be strung up over the rear view mirror and its all rather messy. Reception is great though. I guess it just depends on what your location is.
 
I am suprised that DAB in cars hasnt kicked off.

My american/Canadian rental cars all had digital radio, its awesome as its like listening to a CD and you dont have to tune in!

downside is that it doesnt work at 7000ft on a mountain road in the middle of no where.
 
I have a JVC AVX33 dvd unit with the DAB add on, i use the existing aerial and i must admit it very good most of the time. i do get some breakup in Birmingham city centre, and also going up the M1 around Chesterfield/Nottingham i get break up, around the rest of the country its been fine.

Quality isnt great as FM in all honesty, but i listen to a lot of Radio 5 (im a news junkie) and its bloody fantastic for that, the choice is simply staggering, so many stations, so many genres.

The only down side is cost, I was lucky i picked up the dab addon for £70 off Ebay, but new its more like double that price.I think Blaupunkt and JVC do DAB radio's with all built in, and they are quite cheap, but they also look a bit tacky and lack other features.
 
Further to the original post here just updating this thread to say i got one of the pure highway incar radios. Wow what a great job they are too! They really are so so handy and very well designed. The aerial is very discreet, the mounting is so solid and the unit is very easy to use. Radio quality is very very good here and sounds way better than the equivalent channels do in FM. I am in the middle of the countryside in NI and so this is very useful for me! If you are thinking about buying this product then definitely go for it!
 
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