Next Tuesday, the culture minister Ed Vaizey will make one of the most unpopular decisions anyone in the alleged Ministry of Culture could make - implementing the unwanted migration radio from FM to DAB.  He claims that "the listener (or "consumer" as he refers to them) is at the heart of this process and a date cannot be set until the vast majority of listeners have adopted digital radio".  He then goes to suggest that the migration cannot take place until 50%of listeners (aka the "vast majority") are listening to digital radio.

 

I have a number of radios in the house, in fact two of them are DAB and very convenient they are for listening to chat shows and contemporary noize.  However, I like to listen to Radio 3 and tend only to do this on one of a number of FM radios.

 

Both of my cars only have FM - and AM for sport.  I am curious to know how many people don't have DAB radios in their cars?  Are you one of the 50%?

I don't know anyone with one.

 

I have no plans to change to a car which comes with one and can't be bothered with changing the head unit for one that has DAB.

Nope.

 

Got one in the office but that's all.

 

Don't fancy the idea of a new headunit or the local transmitter thingys that give you DAB through your FM receiver.

 

http://www.dabonwheels.co.uk/Acoustic_Solutions_DAB-ICS100_DAB_car_radio.html

 

I was disappointed when I had a Jag for a few days and the tv didn't work since it was analogue.

Got DAB at home but not in the car. I've heard a few stories where the signal is just useless. Unlike FM or AM etc where you could always get something, digital just cuts out, same with digital TV I've found.

 

Any chance you can add a poll to this, see how many of us have a DAB receiver in the car? Will it be 50/50 yes-no?

 

Just had a look here and two out of the three stations I listen to most only get 'Fair' reception. BBC Radio 2 gets 'Good' reception which is fine, until 2pm when that to55er Steve Wrong comes on.

If they turn off the FM transmission then I will simply stop listening to the radio, no problem.

I dont, and tbh i wont go out of my way to get one, unless my current headunit breaks

One of my cars has the other hasn't.

I have one at home, but its never used on DAB only FM. Don't have one in the car, been there done that and reception was terrible so got rid of it.

 

Switching off FM will be great for pirate radio stations, they'll have loads of space to setup shop and a large audience as well.

The bitrate of the digital radio signal is also carp in the UK so a good FM signal sounds better than a DAB one.

 

Coverage is improving slowly but the signal still cuts out too easily. Personally I'd rather hear a hissy, crackly traffic report for the M25 than no report at all!

I don't have it in the car at the mo, but it was a "must have" feature when I was looking for a new vehicle.

Amazingly, you can still spend £25k on a recently released car and not get DAB - Mazda I'm looking at you.

The bitrate of the digital radio signal is also carp in the UK so a good FM signal sounds better than a DAB one.

 

Coverage is improving slowly but the signal still cuts out too easily. Personally I'd rather hear a hissy, crackly traffic report for the M25 than no report at all!

 

I agree with the bitrate, that's why the home DAB set I have is never used on DAB, only FM. Some stations are 64K mono audio, which is created using the same codecs created in the 1980's. The current system needs to be upgraded to AAC+ like it has been already in most of Europe, better sound quality and more space.

Nah, Nah, Nah, Nah, Nah, Nah, Naaaah.

 

Not in a 10 year old Fab saloon, duckie.

 

Mine hasn't even got a USB socket or Bluetooth.

 

At the moment I'm using one of those aftermarket "Influence"  devices to play back  my MP3s from Flash.

 

Due to  the actions of another of Dave's minister's, I got to keep my eye on finances, for at least the next six years, until my State Pension comes in. One new DAB radio = 1 quarters utility bill,

 

So sorry, Dave's boy, haven't got the dosh to play HMG assisted Keynesian revival economics for the car radio industry.

 

No doubt some aftermarket provider will come in (As above) to bridge the gap.

 

 

Nick

Edited 12 December, 201312 yr by Clunkclick

Nah, Nah, Nah, Nah, Nah, Nah, Naaaah.

 

Not in a 10 year old Fab saloon, duckie.

 

Mine hasn't even got a USB socket or Bluetooth.

 

At the moment I'm using one of those aftermarket "Influence"  devices to play back  my MP3s from Flash.

 

Due to  the actions of another of Dave's minister's, I got to keep my eye on finances, for at least the next six years, until my State Pension comes in. One new DAB radio = 1 quarters utility bill,

 

So sorry, Dave's boy, haven't got the dosh to play HMG assisted Keynesian revival economics for the car radio industry.If you're short of a few bob,why don't you go and tax some of those wastes of space who are intent on turning their noses into sherbet fountains.

 

No doubt some aftermarket provider will come in (As above) to bridge the gap at an eighth of the price

 

 

Nick

Edited 12 December, 201312 yr by Clunkclick

Double post - twice the message. Heh, heh, heh !

 

 

Nick

Nick, I was just thinking, you might not have DAB, but you can still post in stereo...

My wife bought me a DAB radio some years ago as a Christmas present and I'm far from impressed with it. Like Mannyo, if I do use it, I use it on the FM setting.

Would I want one in the car? No thank you.

DAB in the house and DAB in both cars, wouldn't be without it. All this cobblers about compression and bitrate, I'm surprised if anybody can really tell the difference at 70mph with 60dB of background noise to compete with.

I've found coverage to be excellent, certainly better than Radio 4 in FM us these days, which seems to be getting harder to receive. Far greater choice of listening too which for me, is far more important than a slight difference in audio quality.

Generally listen to audio books, pod casts and mp3 music. Who needs DAB

Be absolutely wasted on me so no. I don't even bother with FM in my car, MDI for ipod 99.2% of the time, DVD 0.3% of time (don't sit still in car much), HDD/SD 0.5% (when I forget I used ipod for something else). 

 

There are lots of other EU countries which do not have DAB at all and no intention, do DAB radios still have a normal FM tuner for these places? 

No signal, therefore no point.

I have Dab but no signal in most of the places I go. Can say i notice any difference in the sound quality when I do use it.

 

Still, I quite like the hiss and crackle of gramophone needles...........

Edited 12 December, 201312 yr by slider

http://www.amazon.co.uk/In-Phase-Universal-Transmitter-Charging/dp/B008VS8BFE/ref=sr_1_206?ie=UTF8&qid=1386876723&sr=8-206&keywords=dab+radios

 

 

A re-transmit job, but a bit expensive.

 

No problems with signal in this part of London - in fact local BBC TV news  announced this evening that  another repeater/transmitter has just opened up today in Epsom.

 

 

Nick

 

 

I have a Swing radio in the Fabia, don't know, or care what type it is, it plays my songs through the Aux socket and that's all I want it to do.

all blacklines have them in, waste of time very patchy signals. 

Don't have it, don't know anyone with it and don't see why I should start ripping out factory spec radio units from my cars to suit someone in the government. The DAB I have at home are great when they work but the handheld one just cuts dead at times and heaven forfend you move it even centimeters from its preferred location. No signal at all.