[Art Man]

I’m thinking about replacing the BMW professional radio in my 320D SE with a DAB radio and I wondered if anyone else has trod this road and if so, what equipment they installed?

[ShereKhan]

Do you have a portable DAB radio?

See if you can get DAB reception whilst on the move in the areas you want to take your car.

When DAB was rolled out in the UK they made a faux pas of installing low power transmitters. when Germany rolled out DAB they did it properly. The bit rate is too low in the UK to justify DAB.

[335d coupe]

Originally Posted by ShereKhan

Do you have a portable DAB radio?

See if you can get DAB reception whilst on the move in the areas you want to take your car.

When DAB was rolled out in the UK they made a faux pas of installing low power transmitters. when Germany rolled out DAB they did it properly. The bit rate is too low in the UK to justify DAB.

Thanks for that I'd been agonising over whether I should have specced DAB in my 335d coupe (which is now built and here in the UK - either at Immingham, between Immingham and Thorne, or at Thorne - and on its way to me oop in North Yorks ). Reading that has put my mind at ease! I had wondered whether or not the DAB would have been of THAT much benefit here in the UK in reality as opposed to in theory.



Mike

[Art Man]

Originally Posted by ShereKhan

Do you have a portable DAB radio?

See if you can get DAB reception whilst on the move in the areas you want to take your car.

When DAB was rolled out in the UK they made a faux pas of installing low power transmitters. when Germany rolled out DAB they did it properly. The bit rate is too low in the UK to justify DAB.

I spend most of my time on the M4, M5, M40 or M1. From what I have been told DAB signal is quite strong around motorways and certainly the DAB radio fitted in 325D I tried was OK. But it does bug me that a number of audio manufacturers (Pioneer, Kenwood for example) have dropped DAB from their line up, which suggest something is wrong.

[ShereKhan]

Artman

Here's a simple test you can do.

Pop down to Argos buy yourself a branded DAB portable radio.
Go and use the radio where you want to use it.

Make use of the 16 day moneyback arrangement.

If you find that it OK, specify DAB for your car. To be honest I would give it a wide berth. I have read many journals a few years before DAB was launched and cannot understand why the BBC took this route.

The situation is getting worse as more DAB stations are launched as the bandwidth is being shared at times (there isn't enough to go round)

BBC R4 sometimes sounds quite odd when they reduce the bandwidth for news programs.

The reason Pioneer et al have dropped DAB, is due to the fact that the DAB standard in the UK is unique - If you buy DAB in europe its different. And they feel that it hasn't been promoted well, as people are now using freeview instead.

I think someone needs to create a car dedicated freeview tuner for radio use.

[red355]

I agree that for home us eteh bitrate could do with raising but its seems Ok fr car use.

On my 45 mile trip to work some of which is on very rural road thru Rutland, there is one drop out stop and that lasts for about 5 seconds.

Planet Rock of course is not available on FM...Breakfast with Alice Cooper rather than Wogan or Moyles

[Victoria_Pollard]

AM stations such as BBC Radio 5 Live that don't broadcast on FM are much improved on DAB despite the low bitrate employed. The less compressed end result is much more relaxing to listen to.