DAB Radio in the car?

Zola.

I have a pioneer head unit which I quite like, was a gift from a couple of years ago.... but I would like to add a DAB extension or adapter kit into the car. I think this was achievable a year or two ago. Has the kit improved?

Is there a good addon which I can get without having to change the headunit?

As it was a gift I would rather not part with it too soon.

TadleyBaggie

I've got a Pure Highway 300Di that connects via the AUX input. Works well for me.

droopsnoot

I bought a portable DAB radio when Comet were closing down, which works very well plugged into the Aux input on my garage hi-fi. As I've got an Aux in on my car stereo I keep meaning to try it in there, also you can get adapters that slot into your cassette desk (if the head unit has one) and have a suitable jack plug connection.

philbostavros

Hi

Biggest issue seems to be getting a suitable reception. I had a hire car (2014 CLK Mercedes) earlier this year, whilst my own C_class was in for accident repair.

It had DAB radio, which after 2 days, I reverted back to FM, due to it always seeming to loose reception. I live in East Kent (not rural) so it may be less of a problem in other locations?

Phil

redux

The older Pure Highway I bought came with a small aerial you can stick to the windscreen, which has been not too bad for me so far even in the glovebox, but reception for any DAB set would be better with a replacement of the car's standard aerial, or there are converters/splitters to run both radios from the existing AM/FM aerial.

TadleyBaggie

I use a small magnetic aerial on the roof.

Gloomendoom

I use an external "through-the-glass" aerial mounted on the rear window with the cable routed forwards above the headliner.

droopsnoot

Yes, I must get around to trying mine - it uses the headphone cable (or when connected to the hi-fi, the aux cable) as an antenna, and it can crackle a bit at some times. This might be poor connection in the socket though as rotating the plug can help.

Slowly_does_it..

Anybody got one of these a long way up north? - Aberdeenshire and up, Fort William, Inverness, Thurso sort of areas? - Looking for reviews of signal strength before I splash out!

Paully232000

Slowly_does_it.. wrote: »

Anybody got one of these a long way up north? - Aberdeenshire and up, Fort William, Inverness, Thurso sort of areas? - Looking for reviews of signal strength before I splash out!

Don't live there but visit the in-laws regularly in Inverness, and to be honest I struggled to get any DAB signal at some points along the journey to inverness, past Perth. It is fine near the city, probably once you get past aviemore (but saying that, it comes and goes as does the FM radio signal to be fair). I would imagine that once you get past inverness, on the way to thurso it would disappear again.

roonaldo

I have Dabmotion installed in my car and its a fiddly piece of junk.