DAB Radios now available at Argos (in store) for under £20, but be quick!

frmarcus

codger wrote: »

I don't remember the actual lyrics to the song in question, but in Pink Floyd's "The Wall" there's a song about a musician stuck in a hotel room with 40 channels of s*i*e to watch on the TV. Considering that "The Wall" came out when we had only three channels (of quality) to watch in the UK, the song was definitely prescient.

It's also apt where DAB is concerned: our experience has been that our DAB radio picks up far more channels than our analogue ever did. . .

But produces far worse sound quality than our analogue ever did.

Not only that: portability, intended to be the key selling feature of this type of equipment, is a joke -- the radio works (i.e., it gets the channels) in the signal area where we live, the radio doesn't work when we take it on holiday to a cottage we rent in the Yorkshire Dales where the signal is less strong.

Whether a DAB radio is ten quid or a hundred quid, we'd never recommend buying one: a lot more choice, with a lot less sound quality (when compared to FM stereo) is no better than the situation lamented by Pink Floyd all those years ago.

* In our experience, however, there is a way of obtaining superior sound quality from digital audio broadcasting: we're not audio engineers, so have no idea why it works, but. . .

1) Connect your Freeview TV to a little home hi-fi system (because the hi-fi speakers will be better than the telly's)

2) Use the Freeview radio stations.

Compared to the unacceptable sound quality of the DAB radio, digital radio via Freeview is excellent.

But of course, manufacturers of DAB radios are never going to tell you that.

But 'listening' to DAB on tv costs rather more in terms of electricity: it's hardly 'green'. There are some very good DAB sets around - just look for best buys, not cheapest buys...

Infidel

Just a quick question.

What's the point in having 40+ channels if you can't listen to them all at once?

steve_green_3

L.S.D. wrote: »

Steve Green you answered to a post I made, to this comment

Therefore I was assuming you agreed with the above statement.

Copying what NMarshall said:

"the sound is like something coming out of a bucket, with the higher frequencies non existent."

and you replied:

"Here we go again. GET YOUR EARS TESTED. I'm sick of people running down DAB radio."

I think NMarshall is absolutely 100% correct about the high frequencies being pretty much non-existent (they're not completely non-existent, obviously), because that's one of the main criticisms of DAB's sound quality: that is sounds dull, muffled and has a poor top-end.

I'm not too sure about what he meant about it sounding like something coming out of a bucket, although that may be a reference to the bubbling mud sound you hear when you've got poor DAB reception.

I doubt if you or NMarshall told Panasonic, Sony, Pure, Teak & many others that their systems sounded like '"something coming out of a bucket, with the higher frequencies non existent" that they would find it hard to believe that was the truth.

I wouldn't ever have a go at any of the DAB receiver manufacturers for the problems with the audio quality, because it's not their fault. The people to blame are the broadcasters and Ofcom.

But if a receiver manufacturer asked me if DAB stations typically have a terrible top end, I'd tell them straight that it does. but they'd already know this.

I have no wish to throw darts at you or anybody, I just disagree with the running down of a very good portable sound system.

The issue, as I'm sure you're aware, is that DAB was meant to replace FM. The way sales are going it's looking more and more like it won't replace FM at all, or at least not for 15 or more years. But that was the original intention, so replacing a system that provides high quailty with one that provides significantly lower quality isn't acceptable, and that's why there are discussions like this.

If we were talking AM here I'd agree but around my area I can only get radio 5, Talk sport 3 local radio stations & numerous other stations on DAB with a hi quality sound. I have traveled around with the Pure & again the DAB out performed any other portable radio system in that it was the best one with station choice, sound quality & ease of use & manoverability combined.

I don't really have a problem with DAB on portable radios, it's just DAB on all the other (more capable) types of radio receiver that I have a problem with. Portable radios are the TV equivalent of the Casio handheld TV - they're THE least capable kind of radio receiver in terms of their ability to reproduce hi-fi sound. You can't listen to a DAB portable radio and then say "DAB sounds great", because that would be like assessing the picture quality of a TV channel by watching it on a Casio handheld TV.

But DAB on a hi-fi system sounds shockingly bad the vast majority of the time, I'm afraid.

DNC70

I'm on my 3rd DAB unit now - my first 2 were 'budget' (£40 and £50 which isn't as cheap as the deals here but was cheap for DAB tuners then) Goodmans and Ferguson sets.

Nevermind the sound quality issues both these units emitted an audible hum when not in use. Granted it was a quiet hum, and you probably wouldn't notice during the day or when other things are going on around you, but in the dead of night with the thing humming away a foot from your head it got mighty annoying, to the extent that I bought some of those timed power adapters to switch off 15 mins after I went to bed and switch it back on 15 mins before the alarm was due to go off (this often caused 3AM panics when I had to scramble around making sure it was set up properly so I wouldn't miss early trains etc.)

I just upgraded to a PURE and it has none of that (probably due to better electronics and power circuits inside) and the sound quality is fantastic. I only listen to news and sport so difficult to tell difference too much). It is upgradeable to DAB+ through the USB port (very neatly hidden away underneath) and uses a new powersaving mode that doesn't keep updating station info thereby saving energy compared to older DABs (and the Freeview/TV mode).

danny62

Hi there,

I found this one. I got one and the sound quality is much better than any other budget DAB radio i've heard. The guy selling them is using video..

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2550858404705481498&hl=en

The link to get the radio (on ebay now) is:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=200157501388&ssPageName=STRK:MESO:IT&ih=010

Better be quick..

Danny62:money:

Dustangle

Gawd, what is your problem, everyone?

These are cheap trannies that you can listen to BBC Radio 6 and 7 with, as well as Radio 1 Extra and Five Live Extra. You plug then into the mains because they eat up batteries. I dunno what all these obsessives are doing having !!!!ing contests about audio quality. Its just the radio. You use it to listen to stupid fat DJs like Chris Moyles or to hear the Archers in the bath on a Sunday morning.

I gink some people are saying "ooh, I'd better not buy one because I read somewhere that they may not work after next ten years because Super Blue-Deepio Technology will make them obsolete." Well, it is possible that these cheap trannies won't be able to get new stations in 2020 like Goombay Pentementalist Radio or Jongleurs Standup Comedy Radio, but who cares. If you really want these stations get a new one then.

Meantime, fill yer boots.

dogcat_2

:T We bought two Goodmans DAB radio/CD players. The radio's work fine but the CD players are both broken. My partner threw one away because he was so frustrated with it. I had to stop him throwing the other one out. I've kept it just for the DAB! Planet Rock rules!

Dustangle

Apparently you can't say !!!!ing here, which I think is a shame. It certainly prevents people from using descriptive and idiomatic English when describing inclement weather. Oh well, Daily Mail readers rule here, I suppose.

thsths

codger wrote: »

In our experience, however, there is a way of obtaining superior sound quality from digital audio broadcasting: we're not audio engineers, so have no idea why it works, but. . .

1) Connect your Freeview TV to a little home hi-fi system (because the hi-fi speakers will be better than the telly's)

2) Use the Freeview radio stations.

Compared to the unacceptable sound quality of the DAB radio, digital radio via Freeview is excellent.

I would recommend the same thing. The reason that it works is easy: there is much more frequency spectrum available for Freeview than for radio. And an audio stream can sometimes be sneaked into the free space of an existing digital channel pack (or "multiplex"), without costing anything. The only downside is that you will need an aerial on the roof to receive Freeview in many areas, whereas DAB unusually works with just the antenna in the radio. But the sound quality of Freeview is indeed much better.

Gary_S_3

L.S.D. wrote: »

You really must tell us the name of the Hi Fi Magazine & I for one will avoid buying it like the plague.

He writes for Hi-Fi World.