DAB Radio

Post by **Trish** » 04 Feb 2008, 19:28

Thinking of getting new CD/Radio fitted to our van, as the present one has German controls!

Thinking of getting digital radio,with the whole world going digital, has anyone else fitted a DAB radio and would they recommend it?

Post by **VWCamperfan** » 04 Feb 2008, 19:35

I fitted one but the DAB radio section of it is seperate, it plugs into the back of the stereo and then that option on the menu becomes usable.
I will admit that I have just got another aerial for it though as the one that came with the DAB unit is just a sticky thing that fits inside the front windscreen and to be honest isn't much cop but the new one I just got mounts outside and should give much better reception.
Signals are still a bit patchy depending on where you are but the sound quality improvement is huge if you go for it.

Post by **Dan Wood** » 04 Feb 2008, 20:34

VWCamperfan wrote:but the sound quality improvement is huge if you go for it.

It probably is for a radio in a vehicle, but don't ever consider a DAB hi-fi tuner to use at home.

Dull, flat, lifeless....

So bad I gave my tuner away!

Post by **Syncro G** » 06 Feb 2008, 03:16

Got a Blaupunkt Woodstock 54 in my van (now out of production but you can get them on ebay and the modern Nashvile is simular, eather have many other good features presides DAB), its an all in one setup and works really well. You just have 2 arieal plugs in the back, one FM, one DAB.

I've got a seperate roof mounted "bee sting" areal I fitted into an hole in the roof the Yorkshire Water Board (original owners of the van) thortfully provided me. - I think a decent areal is the make or break of any DAB setup (like anything really), get it right and they are fine, get it wrong (stuck to the window type probubly) and you'll wonder why you bothered, DAB isn't really listenable to if reception fails as it cuts in and out abruptly, rather than fades away gently. Often drive some slightly out the way places and it rarely looses signal, so much so I still haven't got round to rigging up the FM side of it yet, haven't felt the need, though I really should.

I was told the other week of a cureous feature of DAB is it won't work if your moving at over about 80MPH apparently, sadly I'll never be able to test this with my 1.6TD.

I've always been pritty happy with DAB and I've been useing them for years, its a shame though many stations use low bitrates so theres not much to be gained in quality, the extra stations are the best resion to go for one.

Post by **BigStu** » 06 Feb 2008, 18:23

Just got a Pure Highway. i've been waiting for years for a DAB radio in the car and reviews have never been that good, or the price of the unit was just too much to justify listening to XFM or radio 5.

Pure Highway came out last month, and as Pure have a very good reputation for quality decoders I bit the bullet and bought it without reading a single review. So far so very good.

It's got an aux in for ipod or in my vans case the DVD player too and aux out for any stereo or just headphones. Takes batteries so you can walk about with it and battery life is pretty good, better than others I've had. You can also transmit accross FM frequency to any radio.

Thing that I like is I can take it in my other car too.
http://www.pure.com/Products/Product.as ... t=VL-60905

Post by **PEET** » 06 Feb 2008, 19:29

DABis to be superseded before it's even taken off. Looking like another betamax, staions have started withdrawing support already and has nowhere near as much usability as FM, well def around here and i'm only 25 miles from London!!

Post by **hembo666** » 06 Feb 2008, 22:21

PEET wrote:DABis to be superseded before it's even taken off. Looking like another betamax, staions have started withdrawing support already and has nowhere near as much usability as FM, well def around here and i'm only 25 miles from London!!

i bought wendy a digital radio for christmas and it only finds 4 stations, all of which are intermittent and cannot be listened to. and we are near as you like in the dead center of england. and we have the same problem with digital tv.

Post by **Syncro G** » 07 Feb 2008, 19:20

hembo666 wrote:
PEET wrote:DABis to be superseded before it's even taken off. Looking like another betamax, staions have started withdrawing support already and has nowhere near as much usability as FM, well def around here and i'm only 25 miles from London!!

i bought wendy a digital radio for christmas and it only finds 4 stations, all of which are intermittent and cannot be listened to. and we are near as you like in the dead center of england. and we have the same problem with digital tv.

GET A BETTER ARIAL!

I've driven my van around Derby alot and it picks up DAB fine, it often doesn't take much for ajustment to make the difference between usefull and useless.

Sadly the main problem with DAB seems to be that it was signed off a very long time ago, long before it came on sale, so the codeing and transmision methods its based on are about 20 years old - not cutting edge for modern use and thats why theres talk about updateing it. Can't see it being swtiched off too soon though as loads of people use it and were told it was the future, if the goverment suddenly changed its mind it would throw consumer confidence in them a fair bit, right when they are trying to flog Digi telly. That said there will become a time when brordcasters don't want to have the expence of brordcasting in multiple formats - probubly have a life not too different to FM, but I don't think there is a set switchoff date for FM yet unlike analogue TV (which of course is already happening/happened in some areas).