Why isn't DAB the future?

Stoke

Until the last week or so, I've never really been torn either way on DAB. I have a fairly old DAB radio at home that I got from ASDA years ago and has performed really well, but for many, the issue seems to be that on the move, DAB performs pitifully.

Well, having bought my banger (that I spoke about in the bangernomics thread) for 200 quid, I wasn't much for the old radio, just a bog standard CD Player, so I bought a second hand Kenwood DAB+ Radio for £40. Not being a huge fan of the magnetic beesting DAB aerials or those horrific stick-on window aerials, I also bought a Kinetic DAA-7001 which converts your OEM car aerial into an amplified aerial supporting DAB.

Considering the anti-DAB rhetoric, I wasn't entirely convinced the experience would be much good, beyond that of a bit of academic fun and a laugh to say I have DAB in my car, but how wrong I could have been. DAB has been absolutely superb so far, regardless of speed and I've not switched back to FM..... speaking of which, if you do switch to FM and there's a DAB alternative, the radio is smart enough to switch to DAB and back to FM if the signal is poor, not that it ever needs too. I've listened to Planet Rock, Radio X, TalkSport, 5Live, various different channels and none of them have dropped a beat in England..... the real acid test being that I also drove to Wales last weekend. Even in deeper parts of Wales, Planet Rock was working like a dream. Eventually, it did crumble away as I got further into the Welsh valleys, but all of the BBC Radio stations, Radio 1, 2 etc.... were perfect. This is no different to normal FM/MW radio when travelling to Wales. I rarely get good quality 5Live on MW in Wales and FM Radio beyond the local stations is near non existent.

So, if I can do this with a 20 odd year old car and 60 quids worth of equipment, it begs the question.... Why isn't DAB the future? What is specifically so wrong with DAB, that it continues to be the black sheep of the broadcasting family?

DoaM

One reason is (AFAIK) DAB is mono audio whilst FM is (usually) stereo.

Also, I regularly lose DAB signal (e.g. Radio X) in certain parts of Scotland (down in the centre of my town, out in the hills heading south down the M74/A74M, in Peterhead), albeit 5Live seemed to hold the DAB signal in Peterhead last week.

agrinnall

I'm not sure what has made you come to that conclusion. The article you link to is from 3.5 years ago so can hardly be taken as a current state of the technology. I've been using DAB in cars for over 5 years, and while there were some blank spots while I lived in Highland Scotland since moving down south I rarely get more than a couple of seconds drop out.

Stoke

DoaM wrote: »

One reason is (AFAIK) DAB is mono audio whilst FM is (usually) stereo.

Also, I regularly lose DAB signal (e.g. Radio X) in certain parts of Scotland (down in the centre of my town, out in the hills heading south down the M74/A74M, in Peterhead), albeit 5Live seemed to hold the DAB signal in Peterhead last week.

Is this true? I must admit I haven't noticed in my car, but then I haven't been listening for the subtleties of stereo. MW is of course mono as well.

From an infrastructure perspective then, it sounds like Scotland and Wales still have some work to be done, for some stations.

agrinnall wrote: »

I'm not sure what has made you come to that conclusion. The article you link to is from 3.5 years ago so can hardly be taken as a current state of the technology. I've been using DAB in cars for over 5 years, and while there were some blank spots while I lived in Highland Scotland since moving down south I rarely get more than a couple of seconds drop out.

http://www.techradar.com/news/car-tech/why-dab-radio-in-the-uk-is-broken-and-how-to-fix-it-1217586

Another article, albeit 12 months newer.

There's plenty of negative feeling towards DAB though. Poor quality audio for example is a common complaint, as it's about 128K mp3 if I'm thinking right?

Hardly a deal breaker.

stator

DAB isn't all mono, it depends on the station

http://www.wohnort.org/dab/uknat.html

BBC music is all high quality. Commercial is a mixed bag

DoaM

Interesting stuff. I didn't look too closely but I couldn't see what was meant by Joint Stereo (which is what most "stereo" stations are listed as).

Stoke

Planet Rock and Radio X are only Mono.

Surprising really. The quality has been excellent imo.

DoaM

Simplistically ... 128k stereo is 64k per channel; 80k mono is 80k per channel.

That's why I asked what Joint Stereo meant.

molerat

DAB is fine if you live in large urban areas, anywhere else the coverage is sketchy. As for D1 National, they should be prosecuted for false advertising, it is anything but national ! I only use DAB because it is the only way of listening to a particular station but I If I am travelling a long distance I always switch to FM and listen to the BBC as it is the only way to get a reliable(ish going down the A9) consistent reception.

wongataa

DoaM wrote: »

Interesting stuff. I didn't look too closely but I couldn't see what was meant by Joint Stereo (which is what most "stereo" stations are listed as).

Joint Stereo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_(audio_engineering)
http://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Joint_stereo

Yes it means stereo. It is not mono. It just refers to the way the stereo signal is encoded.

Stoke

molerat wrote: »

DAB is fine if you live in large urban areas, anywhere else the coverage is sketchy. As for D1 National, they should be prosecuted for false advertising, it is anything but national ! I only use DAB because it is the only way of listening to a particular station but I If I am travelling a long distance I always switch to FM and listen to the BBC as it is the only way to get a reliable(ish going down the A9) consistent reception.

I don't understand enough about it..... D1 means nothing to me. The radio does state what 'ensemble' it is using though and PR is SDL.

The thing is, I don't live in a large urban area. I live in a small town. We don't even get good mobile phone signal.............yet.....