Want cheapo dab radio?
- Thread starter Cyber-Mav
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If you're going to buy anything then you should be looking at a DAB+ radio. DAB+ is to digital radio what HD is to a Freeview TV. We've had standard Freeview for a long time, but if you were buying a new TV today then (I hope) you wouldn't dream of considering one that didn't include the extra tuning features to pick up the HD channels as well. Any DAB+ radio includes a DAB tuner too.
Speaking of Freeview, did you know you can pick up a lot of the same stations that are on DAB and DAB+ via your TV? The sound quality is a lot better too, even compared to DAB+. That won't cost you a bean in hardware. It's possible to get these radio stations via satellite and cable too, so if you're a Sky or Virgin customer, or you watch Freesat, then it's worth looking at which radio stations are available that way.
The other really good source for free radio is the internet. https://internetradiouk.com/ There are radio stations from all over the globe and the sound quality kicks DAB+ into the weeds. It's unlikely that you'll have reception issues either.
Not every DAB/DAB+ station has the licences to broadcast via TV or internet, so there may well be a case for buying a DAB+ radio, but I'd definitely check out whether the stations you want to listen to are available via the other sources because if we stack up by sound quality, DAB+ sits some way below FM radio on all but BBC Radio 3. The less said about standard DAB the better.
If DAB+ is still for you then there are Majority Little Shelford radios being sold as factory refurbs for £25 on eBay (item no# 363964041188). These have an internal rechargeable battery and include FM tuner and Bluetooth too. That'll come in handy when you have to move away from a power socket to get reception or you have to resort to using your phone's internet connection as a signal source.
Speaking of Freeview, did you know you can pick up a lot of the same stations that are on DAB and DAB+ via your TV? The sound quality is a lot better too, even compared to DAB+. That won't cost you a bean in hardware. It's possible to get these radio stations via satellite and cable too, so if you're a Sky or Virgin customer, or you watch Freesat, then it's worth looking at which radio stations are available that way.
The other really good source for free radio is the internet. https://internetradiouk.com/ There are radio stations from all over the globe and the sound quality kicks DAB+ into the weeds. It's unlikely that you'll have reception issues either.
Not every DAB/DAB+ station has the licences to broadcast via TV or internet, so there may well be a case for buying a DAB+ radio, but I'd definitely check out whether the stations you want to listen to are available via the other sources because if we stack up by sound quality, DAB+ sits some way below FM radio on all but BBC Radio 3. The less said about standard DAB the better.
If DAB+ is still for you then there are Majority Little Shelford radios being sold as factory refurbs for £25 on eBay (item no# 363964041188). These have an internal rechargeable battery and include FM tuner and Bluetooth too. That'll come in handy when you have to move away from a power socket to get reception or you have to resort to using your phone's internet connection as a signal source.
I've ordered one of these (not from the bay, but same price). Missus has been wanting a radio for the kitchen....can give a review soon!
yes the station they listen to is listed on there and works. wondering if i can make a internet radio player, i got raspberry pi pico, arduino, and esp32 and some other junk lying around.
Dab bandwidth is really small .
I think some stations aren't even in stereo
Even DAB+ (the better version of DAB) is lower quality than FM. Just because something is digital, it doesn't automatically follow that it's better quality.
There are pros and cons to DAB/DAB+
Pros:
- reception - when it works it just works. With FM the signal reception will gradually fall off the further out of range you get, and as it does, you'll get some hiss, then the loss of stereo, and eventually no reception. With digital, if you et a signal then that'll be as good as it gets until you reach an abrupt cut-off point. After that, nothing. We call this the digital cliff, because it's exactly like stepping off the edge of a cliff
- channel choice - digital uses something called multiplexing. This means one frequency that might have carried a single FM station can hold a dozen DAB or DAB+ channels. More channels, more choice
- reception - you'll lose the signal an areas where there are a lot of buildings. The obvious one is driving through a city with a lot of tall office buildings, but reception could also be tricky in your home
- channel choice affects quality - there's a finite amount of space in each DAB/DAB+ mux. The choice then is fewer stations at better quality (a higher bitrate) or more stations but at a lower quality (a lower bit rate). Guess which way the UK's DAB radio broadcasters went
- low bit rate 'gurgling' - you'll hear this mostly with the talk stations such as Radio 4 ad Talk Sport. 'Voice-only' or 'mainly-voice' stations tend to use the bare minimum bandwidth and so you hear artefacts from that in the background that sound like gurgling
- Mono via DAB is common - broadcasters get charged based on how much data their channel uses. The UK's DAB system is approaching 30 years old (yes, really. The first broadcasts were in 1995) and the system is based on MP2 encoding. As you've probably guessed, this came before MP3. Encoding a stereo signal uses up more bits, so a lot of the music stations on DAB void this by transmitting in mono. Yup, it's like going back to Radio 1 on AM. The CODEC for DAB+ is 3 times more efficient, but rather than using it to boost quality many chose instead to race to the bottom. They broadcast in something that makes DAB+ sound like DAB. More on this here: https://www.coolsmartphone.com/2019...te-audio-is-more-common-than-you-might-think/
The above lists aren't exhaustive but they cover the main points.
I was very pro the idea of DAB when I first found out about it. More choice and a digital service seemed like a great idea. The reality is very different though. The reason the Government wants everyone off analogue and on to DAB is simply money. They want to sell of the country's silver to the phone and data transmission industries. The space taken up by FM radio would provide a nice little payday for the Government. They'd have succeeded too if it wasn't for those pesky kids.... (No, that's not right. This isn't Scooby Doo. My apologies.) Had they not got greedy wanting lots stations at low quality. There was a huge uproar about the bad sound on DAB. This has resulted in multiple delays for the date to switch off FM. The Government has tried a few different tactics to get FM closed down. One of these was reaching a cut-off point where enough people were using DAB. Have you ever wondered why your new car now comes with a DAB radio fitted? They're trying to get the numbers up via the back door.
@lucid thanks for that info. looks like dab is not for me then. parents only want 1 radio station and dont shuffle about, the radio station used to be AM/MW band only but now its got FM its a lot better than MW is. the station sounds a lot better on that internet radio site that you linked to so im wondering if i can get or make an internet radio player that when turned on will just go straight to playing that one channel. should be simple to use with just an on/off button and volume control.?
Majority Little Shelford arrived. Stuck it on the windowsill in the kitchen.
For £25, can't knock it really. Sound is better than I was expecting, although it's not going to win any awards. It'll only get used for BBC6 which is decent quality and as a bluetooth speaker.
For £25, can't knock it really. Sound is better than I was expecting, although it's not going to win any awards. It'll only get used for BBC6 which is decent quality and as a bluetooth speaker.
Soldato
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I have a cheapish DAB+ radio alarm. Not great sound from it but I started to put it through my sound bar which makes it sound really good, obviously because the radio is just the digital source.