Having a DABble....

[sarg]

I can't understand why ALL new cars do not now come with DAB radios, given that analogue radio is due to be switched off 4-5 years along the line.

It's a 'must have' box ticked in my search

[tonupkid]

I have DAB and agree with all Ian has said.
Funny how the static DAB radio in the house drops in and out of stations, whereas the one in the car which is belting all over the place, barely misses a beat (sorry now I'm punning)

With al those stations you can select something that fits what you want to listen to.

I hardly ever listen to the DAB in my car. Cos there's something better. 18Gb and growing of my choice of music on the HDD. No yacking presenters, ever

[Architex_mA8tey]

Yup Ive got DAB in the A7 with 5.1 surround sound and the sound is just amazing on some tracks
Audi seems to have got over the signal issues generally when you are mobile and if the unit loses DAB signal then it switches to FM if it can find a signal for the same channel. if not then it goes silent!

[graynada]

Originally Posted by tonupkid

Funny how the static DAB radio in the house drops in and out of stations, whereas the one in the car which is belting all over the place, barely misses a beat (sorry now I'm punning)

I suspect that because they know the set is going to be mobile they have a better signal amplifier. Its like the old portable TV sets would always give a better picture than a 'static' set on a poor signal because they were designed to work with the coat hanger aerial, anything better was a bouns

[PsYcHe]

Suppose that's the difference between hundreds of quid for the DAB in the car vs. tens for a home unit.

[mannyo]

I believe analogue switch off has been delayed until at least 2019. This is mostly because analogue radio sales are still outnumbering digital ones. Another one is sound quality, the system in use in the UK is based on 1980's MP2 encoding technology and for the same bitrate as an MP3 file gives lesser sound quality. The system developed and being rolled out in the rest of europe is based on technology developed in this century and offers superior sound quality for the same bitrates. Where I live we have no freeview yet, or DAB radio reception, so even DAB/Analogue radios used here are in FM mode. My TV with builtin tuner receives just 4 analogue channels, so for the rest I have sky.

DAB in the UK is not new, its been around since the 1990's, and its taken the best part of 20 years to get to where it is now, and thats still got a long way to go.

[christhompson]

and how will we cope with the arrival of Digital Radio Mondiale which may allow tuning to your favourite radio station Europe wide broadcast by cells using the old MW frequencies?
http://www.drm.org/

[notorious]

Listened to DAB today on the way to work. Sound quality is amazing and no interruptions like I thought.

Lots of music stations available. But some of my favourite local radio stations, i.e. "BBC Radio Berkshire" are not available on DAB (yet...)