DAB radio help please!

nomadical

Hi

I want to get a DAB radio for my car, can anyone tell me if I need to by any extras for this or is the radio itself all I need? I tried looking on the Halfords website and it seemed to suggest that if I were to get an adapter for my current radio then I would need an aerial, but it doesn't mention needing this with a complete new radio
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ACArticleDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=17151&categoryId=245160&articleId=817707

Do I need a harness adapter too?

Would the whole lot be easy enough to fit myself or is it worth paying the £29.99 for Halfords to fit it for me? I'm not a complete technophobe by any stretch but I have never done this before!

Thanks for any help!

Gloomendoom

These people are very helpful...

http://www.dabonwheels.co.uk/

rxbren

dab radios in cars arent that good got it our astra was hoping to get some good dance stations but it will only pick up whats broadcasted in your area in mine its all the bbc channels and all the absolute radio channels, some jazz and some christian stations

you will need a different ariel for the radio to work as you oe one wont be compatible
fitting is straight forward depending on car if its a mini with a bose radio forget about

as for the signal quality its pretty good except when the signal becomes poor instead of a gentle hissing/distortion you get loud irritating cracking and fragments of sound

Arfa__

Are companies making DAB radios for cars again? Thought everyone bar JVC abandoned the standard, as it was crap.

I'd imagine if you've found a new radio with DAB, you'll just need a new roof aerial, maybe with built in signal amplifier and the car positioned very carefully in one of the few spots where there is good reception. Remember, as you lose the signal, it won't just got a spot fuzzy for a second, it will cut out for a few seconds.

Then prepare yourself for terrible quality, as all the main stations have reduced their bitrate down to bare minimum (so the can cram more stations into the same frequency range), to give you sub-MP3, sub-FM sound quality. Many are down to 64kbps or 96kbps of MP2 compression.

Also make sure you get a radio than can be upgraded to DAB+, which the rest of the continent use. This is based on AAC compression, and provides much better sound quality. It requires more processing power and memory to decode, so most DAB radios won't handle it, even if they had firmware updates.

If you're after extra radio station, you'll probably get better results from a DVB (i.e. FreeView) receiver or over 3G via phone. Both have better coverage and much better sound quality.

Gloomendoom

I have a DAB radio in my car. It works perfectly.

jase1

DAB worked perfectly with an antenna splitter in my Focus, strong signal everywhere.

In the Mondeo it's useless. I am going to buy a complete replacement bee-sting antenna for this -- thankfully the aerial's mounting point is just above the front courtesy light near the mirror.

With the right aerial there's no reason why it shouldn't work well.

nomadical

Arfa__ wrote: »

Are companies making DAB radios for cars again? Thought everyone bar JVC abandoned the standard, as it was crap.

I'd imagine if you've found a new radio with DAB, you'll just need a new roof aerial, maybe with built in signal amplifier and the car positioned very carefully in one of the few spots where there is good reception. Remember, as you lose the signal, it won't just got a spot fuzzy for a second, it will cut out for a few seconds.

Then prepare yourself for terrible quality, as all the main stations have reduced their bitrate down to bare minimum (so the can cram more stations into the same frequency range), to give you sub-MP3, sub-FM sound quality. Many are down to 64kbps or 96kbps of MP2 compression.

Also make sure you get a radio than can be upgraded to DAB+, which the rest of the continent use. This is based on AAC compression, and provides much better sound quality. It requires more processing power and memory to decode, so most DAB radios won't handle it, even if they had firmware updates.

If you're after extra radio station, you'll probably get better results from a DVB (i.e. FreeView) receiver or over 3G via phone. Both have better coverage and much better sound quality.

I was actually only looking at DAB as I'm going to replace mine anyway (I still have the original with just a tape deck, I want at least a CD player and to be able to plug my iPod in). I'm not bothered about extra radio stations, I mainly listen to Radio 1, but I was hoping the signal on a DAB would be better, although it seems from your post that this isn't the case!

For what I need it for, would you therefore suggest that a 'normal' radio with cd player/aux in would be just as good?

Thanks for everyone's replies, very helpful!

Arfa__

TBH even CD players are starting to be side lined when it comes to after market radios. Many have USB socket (either on front or a lead on the back to route into glove box), which you then hook up an iPod/iPhone, USB flash drive or possible a USB hard drive* Others have SD card sockets and so forth too.

Kind of makes sense, you can't really get many tunes on a CD, MP3 or otherwise, the mech and flip down front all add to the cost and complexities or the radio. CD Laser mechs are usually the first things to die. Going solid state flash memory, you've got no moving parts, far better sense.

Almost all will play MP3's, but do opt for one that also does AAC/MP4 (better sound quality for same file size/smaller file size for same sound quality). Pay attention to what adaptors you need to hook it up to steering wheel controls, changing tracks/albums whilst driving can be a faff, you don't want to be fiddling wit the iPod/iPod (illegal whilst driving), and some radios do have convoluted menus.

I've personally gone for a Kenwood that has a USB lead out of the back, I fed into glove box, to hide my flash drive and save on cable clutter on dash. I know of people who have done stuff like fed an iPod/iPhone lead to a hole in the ash tray/cup holder and fashioned a iPod dock affair. Otherwise get a model with a USB socket on the front. My Kenwood does play CD's, but in the last 3 years I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've used it!

Regarding Aux inputs, these work well, but the radio will have no control on what tracks are being played, so can't skip etc. This is where USB connection is better - so the radio reads the files directly off the devices and it itself chooses which to play.

*USB Hard drives can be finicky as the draw more current than the USB spec stipulates (0.5A), so many radios simply can't power them up. Not all hard drives are the same, some draw more than others. Not all USB sockets are the same, some are over rated and can provide more current. Trial and error is the name of the game. But also bear in mind HD's don't like vibration or condensation - so perhaps best avoided for car. SSD hard discs will be fine though, their solid state flash - but you'll generally find a USB flash drive cheaper.

Sambucus_Nigra

I've got one of these

http://www.dabonwheels.co.uk/Pure_Highway_DAB_car_radio.html

I move it from the car to the camper when we go away.

I love it and when my car was in the hopsital recently, and I had a hire car - I missed it terribly.

It has excellent reception - it has to be retuned about once a fortnight or if I travel to Wales for example and is only poor reception in really really bad weather.