I used to long for dab in the car, I listen to planet rock which was dab only, then they kicked kerrang off 105.2 and put planet rock on and moved kerrang to dab only, this was good, apart from Mrs roo likes smooth 105.7 which is very close and sometimes we have to listen to that, this is bad.
DAB radios are very reliant on their antennas, and their location. Screen mounts aren't as good as roof mounts (Mercs are known to be crappola across the board for DAB) and amplified is best whatever you buy is s general rule. In order of good to bad: Roof mount bee-sting Roof mount stubby or blister Magnetic roof mount External glass fitted Internal glass fitted Amplified is better than non amplified, but only if the location is good in the first place. If you must fit internal glass mount, the Middle of the windscreen or rear most C panel window is best, it's an unhindered as you can get and near vertical, but nothing is as good as above the body of the vehicle in the first place!
Have dab in the van and the car for a few years and love it what i have learned is that you need a proper aerial not a window one as for a signal very rarely does it lose signal and it a lot less then FM did and you don't get that annoying out of tune noise
Bang on about the antenna - DAB reception is all about the antenna. I've run a lot of different cars with DAB since it first started, and by far the best was the bee-sting I had fitted to my Leon in 2006 which had near faultless reception. Internal screen mounts are useless, external screen mounts better. Funnily enough, the 2 cars we run with factory fit DAB are not as good as my Leon was in the old days with 'worse' DAB coverage. I assume these have what is classed at roof mounted stubby? Anyway, I've not got round to fitting a head unit / speakers in the van and have a Pure DAB that sits quite happily on the dash top. Lacks volume, but reception is good and no fitting required.
6 has maybe got a bit more mainstream in the daytime, but still wins for playing a wide variety of music and not playing the same stuff over and over and over.
I have a DAB in Ted and it's actually quite good. It is a REALLY cheap and nasty Chinese one and I do have to do a Scan occasionally as it forgets the stations but overall it is better than FM. The aerial thing is true, they're all shiite with internal aerials, external for the win. All the OEM I've had, Merc, BMW, VW have been shiite too. As for head units, cheap works but Blaupunkt work better.
@tommygoldy I've got one of these http://www.halfords.com/technology/...ar-stereos/sonichi-s100-digital-radio-adaptor Plust the mag mount aerial , I got it all in the festive sale so 10% off Works well and easy to transfer between vehicles which is good for me, camper, car, even take to work for my truck
As mentioned before, last year I drove from London to Cornwall in the van with "crappy" internal windscreen aerial. No loss of signal. Mid height on the near side of the front windscreen.
Buy one - it is amazing! I've got an Alpine DAB in my van and completely recommend it. Another thread and @Birdy recommended it to me. Mine was a 40th present, I was sad t to replace my cassette deck, but this Alpine DAB is great Check out dabonwheels website it has loads of great info and sells head units and aerials. The Alpine is amazing sound, biggest display font size, remote control to turn on & off without getting out of bed, it is also hands free for phone, you can bluetooth music, stick a usb stick in it or connect to ipod/iphone, it even charges your phone via usb. In the van I use a combined amplified aerial that looks like a normal aerial. - perfect in 95% of places. Loses reception in some massive hills and on the Isle of Mull I also have DAB in my car. Its a JVC with a window mounted aerial. It gives good reception in 95% of places as well. Its much harder to use than the Alpine. Everyone says window aeials are rubbish, but mine works fine, it has to be fitted properly though - Halfords mounted mine upside down! You can't use a window mounted aerial very easily in the van - something to do with how you earth it Lots of DAB units with bluetooth can be quite a drain on the battery. The bluetooth stays on 'standby' even when the stereo is turned off. On the alpine if you disconnect the front of the stereo it is fully off and doesn't drain the batter much. The alpine also draws one of the lowest loads.
It is a con so they can sell more radio spectrum. In Scandinavia they abandoned DAB for DAB+ because DAB does not have enough error correction. It also gets interfered with by ignition systems. Did you know that FM radio has been switched off. It is 2015 and that is what the plan told us. Notice how they have stopped advertising DAB and now.make noises about keeping FM... We make more use of Bluetooth streaming from phones paired with the stereo these days.
new ones in the UK are also DAB+ now same as the rest of Europe i have a DAB in the van and a DAB+ in the car and cant tell the difference i certainly have a better signal than FM or my phone for that matter I understand the FM is now not being switched off until a certain % of people have switched I love the wider selection of radio stations Absolute radio, Absolute 80s , Planet Rock and Radio 6 to name a few
Don't get a Sony...they are quite cheap and once set up do seem to work well, but you try changing anything on the move.....sometimes I like to tweak the equaliser settings and it's a right ball ache. Gone back to a super cheap nasty thing off flea bay with aux input and sd card reader....make me own playlists or plug my phone in to it...job done.
If that's true I must be losing my edge. Always thought 6 music was a bit too generic indie in the past (and with too much repetition), now they seem to play a wider range of more interesting stuff. I don't listen every day. Marc Riley plays the best stuff. Can't stand Shaun Keaveny in the morning - far too full-on for that time of day, although I suppose anything is an improvement on Phil Jupitus. How does it connect to your existing stereo? DAB is not a great system, it was rushed to market and even then was out of date at the time of release, but if you want to listen to music on the radio what's the alternative? There's nothing I'd want to listen to in the car on FM. I like Radio 4 and sometimes Radio 3 at home but it's not what I want to drive to. A DAB+ radio is no different in practice in the UK as we don't broadcast in DAB+. It's more future proof, but there's no guarantee that it will be adopted here. @paulcalf always lusted after an Alpine back in the day - will check out their DAB units. Which have you got? A remote always seemed silly in a car, but in a camper it makes sense - it's a pain climbing over to the cab - especially when there's a bunk there!
Roof top aerials seem pretty expensive - and they're more of a pain to fit, too. Might try one of these to start with - seem to be reasonably well rated. http://www.dabonwheels.co.uk/Kinetic_DAA-7001_aerial_converter_-_splitter.html
So it looks like Alpine do two models with £90 between them - the only notable difference is that the cheaper one is DAB only not DAB+
@tommygoldy I have the 136BT. I thought they only did one. Good value at dabonwheels at moment. I think mine cost more last year, but it was a present
Yep looks really nice, but it's £189.99 compared to just £99.99 for the 173BT... not a lot in it spec wise apart from the DAB+
