DAB Digital Radio Discussion

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Is Digital Radio a good thing or a bad thing? Has it improved the quality of UK radio?

Hopefully this can become an on-going weekly discussion on various topics, and add some real depth to the forum. This week’s topic, DAB Radio. What's your opinion on it? Do you own a DAB radio? Do you use it? Is it worth it? Can you receive it? Discuss.


I personally have just brought a small DAB radio adapter, rather like the original PACE DTVA freeview one, mine cost £34.99 from Curry’s and simply plugs into the auxiliary input on a hi-fi etc. It was very easy to set up and get going which I was pleased with, infact it’s playing the Steve Wright top of the hour jingle now. According to the stations listed I get the following: (which match the BBC’s postcode checker exactly.)


Now I think this is quite impressive, all the BBC stations I receive crystal clear and with no errors, some of the others and the local stations break up occasional but a quick reposition of the aerial (or wire, as it is) soon fixes that. Now I received a pretty good FM signal but I think personally it does sound better, there is no high pitched hiss that you get on FM. But that said I have now lost a few stations that are don’t broadcast digitally.

Do any of “The Local Radio Companies” stations broadcast on DAB? I’m within the area of 4 of them, none are on DAB which is a shame. That said my station of choice is Radio 2 so I doubt I’ll miss it.

The other “advantage” of DAB is the ability to send information to the receiver, in the time I’ve used it, it’s been quite useful, showing text numbers, show details and on some stations what’s currently playing which I think is fantastic.

So what do you guys think of it? Are the “extras” like no hiss, display information worth the sometimes iffy signal and “gurgling” it can produce? Are some of the higher end radios with live pausing etc worth it, do people use the radio that much? Is it worth the cost compared to falling price of FM radios?

I'm still undecided if it was worth buying, I'll see how much I will use it over the coming weeks...

The wire aerial on these receivers isn't brilliant (I have one myself along with a couple of other DAB tuners).

BUT you can improve the signal immensely by baring a little of the wire at the end, and connecting it to your main TV aerial (via a booster or similar).

Having done this I get all stations crystal clear with signal error rates under 10 at all times.

Stations broadcasting in MP2, at 128kbps Stereo & 64kbps Mono? Considering the low bitrates, poor compression and the fact that several stations are in Mono in the 21st Century- no, it's not better. Maybe it sounds fine on the tinny kitchen portables, but I've heard DAB on decent Hi-Fi systems, and it sounds awful. The only stations that sound better are Five Live & Virgin, and that's only because they are on AM. The music based stations are terrible, especially the ones in Mono. From what I've seen & heard, I have no plans to buy a DAB Radio in the forseeable future. I can bet better digital qulity through Internet streaming & Digital TV, even FM is better.

Sadly, none of TLRC's stations such as Win FM and The Quay are avaliable on DAB.

I've had a DAB radio for a few years now (back then I could only get nationals, the locals launched later) and I have to say it is good and on some stations I get better reception than FM. The only problem is the 128kbps MP2 audio, it needs changing to MP3 or even better, AAC.

Put simply, if you want "choice" and can stomach low quality audio which is worse than your average MP3, then I'd say go for it.

I tried out a DAB radio in the shop a while back - the one with a weedy mono speaker with faux wood casing (Evoke something or another?) and the quality of the sound was horrible. It was nothing but compressed mush - Radio 2 sounded harsh and compressed. If I listened carefully I could hear the slurring of speech on 5 Live. The fact that it had a mono speaker didn't help matters. Based upon this, it confirmed the fact that DAB was completely crap - if a portable with a weedy mono speaker sounded bad. What hope would it have on a hi fi separates system with decent speakers?

I have used digital radio (on a TV if you could all it that) and whilst it offered so called choice, some of the commercial stations sounded horrible. Smash Hits sounded underwater, and whilst the BBC ones sounded reasonably OK (they are 192kbps MP2 on DTT), the sound quality varied from day to day. Steve Wright sounded OK, whilst others, he sounded horrible.

One day I decided to wire up my FM radio card and plugged in the aerial from my TV. I was amazed at how good Radio 2 sounded on it - even with a bit of light hiss which was to be expected since I did not have a proper aerial, it sounded rich and full of bass, compared to the flatness of receiving it on a digital platform. All other stations sounded great, albeit with a tiny bit of hiss, and much better than on digital.

I think since then I've ditched the receiving digital radio on TV and now use the FM radio for my listening needs. I'm also getting an extra aerial put in which will enable me to listen to FM without needing swap aerials between the digibox and computer - since I currently have one aerial at the moment.

I think I've found a new love for FM radio. I think DAB is CRAP compared to FM. The latter might be old technology and been around for at least a few decades, but I feel it offers the best audio quality compared to a CD or an MP3. I don't care much for the scrolling text, since I never sit there reading the text on a radio. I listen to it. And for me, audio quality is what matters, rather than gimmicks. Given this, I hope FM is around for a good few decades yet, until something decent comes along to replace it that offers both choice and high audio quality. DAB in its current form falls far short of expectations, and is not a suitable replacement for FM.

On FM in SW London I can get the following: -

BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 4
Capital FM
BBC London 94.9
Heart 106.2
Virgin
Choice
Kiss 100
Smooth FM
Magic
LBC
Radio Jackie
Classic FM
XFM
96.4 The Eagle
BBC Southern Counties Radio
Star something or another
Mercury something or another
One or two pirates

I'm sure there's a few more I've missed off - these are all the ones preset into my radio software and on my radio. As far as I'm concerned, that's more than enough choice for me. I tend to listen mainly to the BBC Radio 1 and 2, occasionaly flicking between the others.

A CD shouldn't be worse than FM as it's uncompressed audio.

I'm wondering if Trent FM are routing their DAB feed through to FM, as recently it's been starting to sound like the overcompressed muck on DAB, especially on the music- the gargling noise you get from over-compression is very obvious. It's also possible some wise idiot has loaded the songs onto the server at some rediculous bit rate. It's certinally not my radio that's at fault as I don't have it on any other stations.

The thing with MP2 is it's an old, inneficient codec, and really isn't up to the job of DAB anyway. You need to get to around 224kbps before you get something that's approaching decent quality. Use a better codec like AAC, you could get virtually perfect sound quality as 192kbps, and high sound qulity at 128kbps. And the sooner DAB stations stop broadcasting in mono, the better- it's 2006, not 1936. Obviously, we have the visual equivalent on Digital TV- so many channels crammed in, some are as low as 2 or 3 mbps (you need at least 5 to get decent quality). Many channels looks horrible and blocky- the visual equivalent of the "Gargling" on DAB. Just like with radio, Digital TV offers more choice, but a poorer quality than analogue.

I like the hiss on FM, It makes it seem lke radio and not like a clinical CD.

Until DAB is converted to MP4 or higher it's useless. I accidently left the settings in winamp on AAC 64k once and didn't actually realise for a good few days. If I'd done tht with MP3 I'd have noticed in an instant.

You can't run a Radio nor TV platform on such ancient compression methods. It's just not workable.

I think I prefer FM fading away as you lose the signal rather than DAB's burbling and cutting out.

Here in the foothills of the Pennines DAB coverage isn't great...

I'm just north of Walsall & have an Acoustic Solutions Portal 1.

I originally bought a DAB because I was being affected by a pirate on near to a certain local BBC station I listen to.

I can get CE Brum, NOW Wolves, BBC National, Digital 1 & MXR West Mids stations.

I'd give you a list but they're too numerous to mention, but I'm intrigued to know whether the likes of 'The Wolf' on FM only have suffered RAJAR wise by not being available on DAB as well?

Noting BBC Radio Shropshire is available on DAB in my area, are there any plans for BBC Hereford & Worcester to go DAB too & would it be available from either CE Brum or NOW Wolves transmitters?

Ps anyone know if the Wyre can be picked up in the Walsall area, as 102.2fm comes up with Galaxy & I cannot stand that type of music?

I think for me DAB is fantastic! I live in Aberdeen and my only complaint is the strength of the signal..........it is very poor and the choice of stations is not the greatest!

DAB was brilliant when I got reception from Turner's Hill, plenty of BBC local stations and tons more besides. Now all I get is Belmont, a terrible pastiche of Turner's with no local stations at all, and dodgy reception. All it's good for now is late night talk shows on Talksport!