I have sold my hi-fi separates and buying a Brennan JB7, i also want a radio but can't decide between a DAB or internet radio. I have two DAB radios in the house which are great but wondering if the internet radio is better.

Has anyone got an internet radio, if so is it any good.

We have a couple of DAB radios, and I must say reception is poor for us at home. I think this is due to the wall and ceiling insulation which seems to include a thin layer of metal. I could be wrong, but they work fine in the garden (as long as they're not being moved about!) So IME, I could never recommend a DAB radio that didn't have an exterior aerial.

OTOH, I can imagine that using an internet radio on anything like a regular basis would eat up your ISP download allowance pretty quickly!

Internet radio is a massive bandwidth hog, if your ISP has lowish FUP on your deal then you are going to use it all very quickly. Decent quality Internet radio stations, will it it up at more than 600MB per hour. Most internet radio stations are poor quality though, and operate at 64kbps joint stereo. The majority are 128kbps, but there are some 320kbps ones, which sound ok'ish.

Dont like DAB either, the heavily compressed MP2 audio streams can actually sound worse than internet radio when played through decent speakers. Most DAB stations are now transmitted in 64kbps Mono audio, as they seem to have gone for quantity over quality.

Most DAB stations are now transmitted in 64kbps Mono audio, as they seem to have gone for quantity over quality.

Doubtless down to almost all DAB radios sold looking like...

Hardly hi-fi!

I have a Logitech Squeezebox, Internet radio / MP3 player.

The sound quality is quite good, it has analogue stereo outputs as well as digital Coax and optical connections.

It has an RJ45 network port and wireless built in, so it can be hard wired or run wirelessly. I've run it both ways and it works well providing you have a decent wireless signal strength. It doesn't have any on board storage for MP3s, you need to install the server software onto a PC and store your music on the PCs harddrive, it copes with a variety of formats including flac and AAC (converted on the fly by the server).

To use it as an internet radio you need to register and create a squeezebox account (which is free) and then enter the user id and password into the device. I think you can use it without the server as a radio if you use the account.

http://www.logitech.com/en-gb/70/6432?WT.ac=psE|5570#freeservices

All the BBC content is available, including all the local radio stations and there is built in iplayer support. There is also a good selection of UK commerical stations, XFM, Jazz FM, etc... they are classified by Genre and region. In addition to this you can access stations from other parts of the world and you can search by region or genre.

IMHO much better than SWMBOs Pure Evoke DAB radio.

Internet radio is a massive bandwidth hog, if your ISP has lowish FUP on your deal then you are going to use it all very quickly. Decent quality Internet radio stations, will it it up at more than 600MB per hour. Most internet radio stations are poor quality though, and operate at 64kbps joint stereo. The majority are 128kbps, but there are some 320kbps ones, which sound ok'ish.

Dont like DAB either, the heavily compressed MP2 audio streams can actually sound worse than internet radio when played through decent speakers. Most DAB stations are now transmitted in 64kbps Mono audio, as they seem to have gone for quantity over quality.

Your usage figures are way out.

32Kbps = 4KB/s = 12MB/hour

64Kbps = 8KB/s = 23MB/hour

128Kbps = 16KB/s = 57MB/hour

Do any stations use more than 128kbps?

Edited 26 January, 201115 yr by Fab Estate

57MB/hr is pretty bad if you only have an 8GB limit, like we used to - if you're in the habit of listening to the radio in the evenings, you wouldn't have much allowance left at the end of the month...

57MB/hr is pretty bad if you only have an 8GB limit, like we used to - if you're in the habit of listening to the radio in the evenings, you wouldn't have much allowance left at the end of the month...

You would have about 140 hrs a month or 4.5 hrs a day even on the highest level. If I only had 8gb a month limit I would either pay extra or change ISP.

Thank you for regurgitating my post and suffixing it with a completely spurious opinion, just so you could have the last word...

128kbps maybe the bitrate of the audio, but then you need to factor in the TCPIP overhead, retransmit requests, retransmitted packets, ack packets sent back to the source server and this all adds to the used bandwidth. 128kbps is in reality a poor quality stream, you really need to listen at 320kbps to get anything decent and those stations are few and far between.

BBC Radio3 now has a high bitrate "HD" feed they call it, and the sound quality is amazing. BBC Radio 2 trialled it for a live concert recently, so will also most likely introduce it as well.

You would have about 140 hrs a month or 4.5 hrs a day even on the highest level. If I only had 8gb a month limit I would either pay extra or change ISP.

4.5hr of radio isn't a lot for some people. Plus you're forgetting that some also use their broadband connection for things other than just the radio!

Certainly worthy of consideration, when deciding whether internet radio is right for you.

Manny - this 'HD' radio business - is this just via internet feeds, or over DAB as well?

Steve

My 4.5 hrs a day came from #3 where mannyo said the eternet radio usage was 600 Mb per hr and not the 57 Mbs that it should be.

You sure about that? 4.5 * 57 * 30 = 7695. Near enough 8GB.

FWIW, it's quite clear from here that the 8GB limit I cited is NOT all that unreasonable, compared to the 2GB limit on the Sky package and the 10GB limits on the AOL, BT, PlusNet and Primus packages. So considering the OP is clearly someone who values listening to music, it's a perfectly valid consideration.

Can we move on now, please?

You sure about that? 4.5 * 57 * 30 = 7695. Near enough 8GB.

FWIW, it's quite clear from here that the 8GB limit I cited is NOT all that unreasonable, compared to the 2GB limit on the Sky package and the 10GB limits on the AOL, BT, PlusNet and Primus packages. So considering the OP is clearly someone who values listening to music, it's a perfectly valid consideration.

Can we move on now, please?

FWIW 4.5x600x30=81Gb according to mannyo.

Yes we can move on now.

Yes we can move on now.

err.....yes let's debate how you can receive Test Match Cricket in a Skoda Yeti or any other digital channel for that matter, seeing as we are on a Skoda forum. Skoda in their wisdom (doh!) supply the Columbus unit with HDD and SatNav.....but no option the UK for DAB or even LW radio!!!!! This is riduculous. Discuss!

Edited 27 January, 201115 yr by carl-northwood