Advantages of going to DAB

[tjamesbo]

I have analog radios in my cars and Alarm Radio at Home and in my Holiday Home at Poole The Analog reception on site at poole is awful ( unlistenable on Radio4 ) I was wondering is a DAB signal likely to be better or the same ?
What advantage would i get changing my car radios to DAB ?
My hearings not Brilliant so any "Hifi type " improvement would be lost on my ageing drums
Boyd

 

[markjay]

My W204 has analogue radio, and Mrs MJ's car has DAB.

I can't hear a difference in sound quality (but that could be just me), and in London at least we have no coverage issue with either.

For this reason I didn't see much point in retrofitting DAB to the W204.

 

[Jockcl500]

The dab signal is variable across the country, I have a Pure alarm clock radio and find that in the home it is great.
In a car moving, dab is unreliable so I would not bother upgrading just for dab, streaming music playlists, podcasts or downloaded content is a better option.

 

[whitenemesis]

I found DAB has a much greater dynamic range than FM, more like listening to CDs
Driving all around the southwest and home counties, I've never experienced any drop-out or signal loss.

 

[flowrider]

On DAB there are lots of channels for specialist listening i.e 70's music etc. My Audi DAB radio is excellent and very rarely has any reception issues.

 

[Jockcl500]

On DAB there are lots of channels for specialist listening i.e 70's music etc. My Audi DAB radio is excellent and very rarely has any reception issues.

I listen to 6Music in the wifes car and it is great but driving in some areas the signal can be unreliable or lost but I would still pay for it on the options spec.

 

[DSM10000]

Or just listen to Radio 4 et al on line

 

[richard]

Having installed/retrofitted loads of DAB radio into Mercs and others - the main reason people buy it is for the extra channels - Normally Radio-5-Live and TalkSport - but other more specialist channels such as Planet Rock too.

Some stations sound better than FM (in my opinion) and some sound worse - and different stations transmit at different bit-rates (effectively quality ..)

Richard

 

[markjay]

My W204 has analogue radio, and Mrs MJ's car has DAB.

I can't hear a difference in sound quality (but that could be just me), and in London at least we have no coverage issue with either.

For this reason I didn't see much point in retrofitting DAB to the W204.

I forgot to mention that I listen to my radio channels of choice on the Internet Radio app (Richard's guys retrofitted COMAND NTG4.7 to my W204), the bitrate ranges from 64k to 128k and the quality of sound is very decent.

 

[Larkone]

Most non BBC DAB stations have been in a race to the bottom with bit rates and the UK has not embraced DAB+ which would have improved sound quality. Check this list for the stations you want to listen UK Digital Radio Bitrates – Astra 2

Also DAB signals can vary greatly from area to area. I fitted a DAB unit to my car so I could get BBR R6 but living in a rural area (N Essex) there are lots of areas where the signal is very poor and reception is affected by trees and wet trees are worse. For those stations (even BBC) that are still on FM I switch back to listening on FM because the sound quality is still better than DAB with less dropouts.

 

[CJD]

Obviously there is a massive choice of listening on DAB, with much improved varied musical tastes, genres and choices - that is the big advantage of digital radio over FM.
But don't believe all of the hype - FM radio will sound better than DAB, especially if the bitrate of whichever digital channel you are listening to is quite low.
DAB has its place, and I use it a lot - but it does have its disadvantages too, especially if you live in a poor reception area.

 

[Tramper]

As been said better choice, but the drop out rate is bad where I am rural Essex. Although having an aerial in the rear screen isn't brilliant.

 

[markjay]

I forgot to mention that I listen to my radio channels of choice on the Internet Radio app (Richard's guys retrofitted COMAND NTG4.7 to my W204), the bitrate ranges from 64k to 128k and the quality of sound is very decent.

Does anyone know if the Internet Radio app carried-over to newer versions of COMAND (and Audio20?), e.g. NTG5.x and NTG6/MBUX?

 

[KennyN]

DAB reception is intermittent around here (Glasgow) , the one in the BM drops out regularly normally when I am in mid song at which point I realise how bad a singer I am . The DAB in the wifes Nissan does exactly the same thing , although she is a better chanter than I am.

So at the moment around here then there are no advantages.

K

 

[Neiltodd]

Extra channels mainly, I cant really tell the difference between DAB and FM

 

[steveskeggy]

Forget the sound quality, its only going to sound as good as the rest of the system in the car.
Anyway, if you are more bothered about hearing every nuance of David Gilmour`s guitar playing on Wot`s uh the deal, than driving the car, then maybe you should have a word with yourself.
The biggest bugbear I have found is the signal quality, the dropout varies from annoying to Dalek voice like.
The variation of channels is great, you may find a lot more local stations than FM.
One piece of advice, get yourself a decent combined FM/DAB antenna that you will need to drill a hole in the roof/boot for.
Its not nice to have one on your pristene panel, but those that stick to the back window are crap, and you wont get any reception if you use one on the windscreen (Believe me, I`ve tried them all).

The cars built in antenna wont be of any use if its amplified, because FM operates between 88-108MHz, and the amplified antenna`s are designed to work in that band.
DAB operates between 174-240MHz.
If you have an unamplified antenna, then you may get away with a splitter, but you would get a better reception with a dedicated DAB antenna, because splitters average a 3Db loss in signal.
This is what I have ended up with on my S55:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0739XWBN7/?tag=amazon0e9db-21

The reception is Good most of the time, but drops out in some built up areas, however considering I live in Skegness, and the BBC thinks we still run around in steam cars in this neck of the woods, its remarkable that we get a signal at all!