How difficult/costly would it be to switch to DAB in a superb se, is just a head unit swap or much more involved? Sorry if this is a bit of a dumb question, but I don't have a clue about any of this, but I do like to listen to Talk Sport when I'm driving.

You could get either an Amundsen+ or a Columbus with DAB, but neither are what you'd call plentiful.

The other option is a Seat or VW RNS315 with DAB or an RCD510DAB which will both fit and work, but the buttons will be the wrong colour.

RCD units start around £220 used, RNS315 can be had from as little as £300, a DAB Columbus could set you back as much as a grand for a used model.

Ok I've looked into two options, replacing the whole unit and this after market tuner, has anyone had any experience with this bit of kit?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00745FF2M/ref=mp_s_a_1_22?qid=1387018324&sr=8-22π=AC_SX110_SY165

A second hand £5 CD player in my Felicia with no radio even... 

 

... but I have driven several cars with DAB and thought it was really good. The only problem I found was scrolling through all the stations available whilst driving. I live in a relatively remote corner of West Wales where some cars even struggle to get FM signal. I've had a Focus which got digital signal almost to my door but the Nissan I had lost it about 40 miles away. 

 

Whenever I do get round to having enough money for a new car, DAB would be a must. 

Ok I've looked into two options, replacing the whole unit and this after market tuner, has anyone had any experience with this bit of kit?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00745FF2M/ref=mp_s_a_1_22?qid=1387018324&sr=8-22π=AC_SX110_SY165

£300/500/900 for the whole unit, or aftermarket £149, £230 fitted, no one on here had this done or done it themselves?  

No DAB in the house or the car, since they state that it is extremely unlikely we will ever get adequate reception here.

 

DAB radio at work because FM doesn't work due to some strange electronic quirk that blocks lots of the frequency.

Got DAB in the new Leon. Only signal issue I had here in the south Wales valleys is as you driving over the bridge in abergavenny.came part of the tech pack which was free. So overall quite happy with it and I spec DAB again on my next car. Currently listening to absolute 80s/90s and planet rock

DAB in car and house  To be honest I haven't listened to non DAB for some time

   KISS and MAGIC when I have the signal strength    The better half prefers SMOOTH

I've been in hire cars for the last few months and quite frankly DAB in a car is a joke.

 

In the Octy, the FM is a bit weak in places (Somerset/Wiltshire area) and gets poor, but you can always get some stations well and the rest are a bit noisy in really poor signal areas, but you can listen.

The other cars with DAB, you basically lose all radio for miles at a time, where FM is very good.

 

The other area are either complete dead spots or cut in and out so frequently that it's a joke.

 

I actually would listen to the radio for the first 5 miles of the journey, then turn on a CD, because every time I tried the radio it would cut in and out (silent/not) every few seconds.

 

Completely unusable in a moving vehicle as it stands today.

No DAB in my Fabia or my Octavia II. Two DAB radios in the house, the more expensive of which has lost its digital display. :(

Still got my original radio in the car Mike: no real need to get an adaptor i think until they switch the signal off :/

No DAB in car but I have a nice shiny DAB+ Denon tuner/hifi at home!

 

If getting a DAB unit only get a DAB+ unit as DAB is old format and other countries are going straight from FM to DAB+ ..................also they are still trying to turn the FM signal off by the end of 2015! There are moves to postpone it until 2017 but not certain!

 

I have an old dipole FM aerial in the loft which I turned from horizontal to vertical alignment & I pick up FM & DAB no problems (local transmitter chucks out both vertical & horizontal)...........and in DAB I can pick up JAZZ FM at max signal strength, & this station is supposed to be very weak up here!!!

If getting a DAB unit only get a DAB+ unit as DAB is old format and other countries are going straight from FM to DAB+

Whilst most future Digital radio switchovers outside the UK will almost certainly be to DAB+, I'm not sure that there are many DAB+ radios available on the market in the UK?

According to the BBC, Ed Vaizey has announced today that FM will NOT be switched off in 2015

 

He still maintains that the eventual inevitable switchover will be as a result of "consumer demand".  He claims that 35% to 36% of radios are now DAB (personally I don't believe his figures) and that the switchover will not take place until the 50% figure (aka vast majority) has been reached.  Hopefully before the go-ahead, the Government will realise that DAB is not the answer.  Internet WiFi radio will become the norm in the home and DAB+ may be appropriate in cars.

According to the BBC, Ed Vaizey has announced today that FM will NOT be switched off in 2015

 

He still maintains that the eventual inevitable switchover will be as a result of "consumer demand".  He claims that 35% to 36% of radios are now DAB (personally I don't believe his figures) and that the switchover will not take place until the 50% figure (aka vast majority) has been reached.  Hopefully before the go-ahead, the Government will realise that DAB is not the answer.  Internet WiFi radio will become the norm in the home and DAB+ may be appropriate in cars.

 

Apparently even the now proposed 2018 date is looking doubtful.

Talk of internet radio taking over is utter cr@p!. Home wifi routers have very poor range and penetration. Too high a frequency 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz. Mine won't work 20 meters away from the router with line of site- utterly useless. You need a constant good two way signal to stream. As for internet radio in a car what a joke, there's hardly any 3G outside large or medium sized town let alone 4G  which is virtually non existant. Phone companies are shutting down sites all the time, to save money I don't even get a 1G signal here 50 miles from London.

 

The trouble with internet radio is in not a broadcast to a dumb receiver like FM or DAB, it requires a connection that talks both ways and whilst that is a requirement it'll never work in a moving car with the technology as it stands. There's nothing in the near future that's going to change that.

Got DAB all over the house & Superb has TV hence DAB but for sound FM is far better.

My '06 Fabia has a DAB radio and it's pretty good. Having 5 Live without the crackle is better, and it's nice to have XFM and TeamRock as an alternative to Real Radio, Capital, etc. I had the aerial changed at the same time to a combined FM/AM/DAB aerial and it looks the same as the factory aerial it replaced. It also seems better than the windscreen stick-on one I tried before.

 

If you change the head unit it's probably worth making sure it has DAB+ (the UK could get it when the second national set of stations start), and USB, bluetooth streaming, etc... I think JVC has a couple of DAB radios with USB, aux in, etc for under £100 now. There will be a tick-mark soon (like there was for Freeview boxes), and this can only be used if the radio will do DAB+.

 

Hundreds of stations still don't have a way of getting on to DAB so FM probably won't be switched off altogether soon... Something like one in twenty cars has a DAB radio today - although the DVLA will soon include info about DAB in car tax reminders! 

 

The interface is pretty poor on the car DAB sets I've used. I don't think people really think of stations in terms of ensembles or multiplexes - at least A to Z would be easier to scan through whilst driving. On long journeys it's a bit annoying too. With FM at least you can seek up and down to find something to listen to, but with my DAB set you have to press different buttons for different lengths of time to find new stations. 

 

As has been said there's a lot of cars that still don't come with DAB. The Rapid Spaceback SE is £15,480 and to get DAB (with navigation) is an extra £550.

Edited 17 December, 201312 yr by NauticalBlue

Friend of mine had a Jaguar with DAB and he said it was nothing to write home about. My little set indoors is hit and miss, signal is poor and it pops and crackles. I live with it so I can listen to Planet Rock 

No dab in the car. But a onkyo receiver in the kitchen with my Hifi set up that's on most evenings. And I don't think I could live without teamrock on my makita site radio. I had one off the first pure evoke dabs maybe 8 years ago and never gone back to FM, planetrock all the way for years until teamrock started up 6 months ago.