DAB Digital Radio

DAB is quite pointless at the moment, the compression is so high that its worse than MP3 quality. FM is by far the best sounding music broadcase medium.

I won;t be investing in DAB until they reduce the channels and improve the sound quality.

Reply 2

The Albatross

OP

12

i got it for the extra stations: bbc7 the storm, etc and it is worth it to listen to some of their programmes when its just speech. if i wan't to listen to music properly, i use fm

Reply 3

Fluffy

15

scarlet ibis

has anyone else got a digital radio? i got one few weeks ago and the only way of getting a halfway decent signal (it still sounds 'bubbly') for the bbc stations is to put it on top of a pile of books an an upsatirs window. we have such bad reception down here! its unfair - us country bumpkins want to listen to good music as well! :rolleyes:

Nope, but get all the dig radio stations through freeview - the quality is very good. Especially for free!

Reply 4

Fluffy

Nope, but get all the dig radio stations through freeview - the quality is very good. Especially for free!

Its still not as good as FM but probably as good as DAB, my freebox is going through a £100 DAC (digital to analogue convertor) it sounds pretty good though. Some of the stations use frequency compression (different to data compression) which makes it sound very flat though and these are only designed to be played via a TV and not via a £1000+ HIFI seperates system like I have.

Reply 5

Fluffy

15

amazingtrade

Its still not as good as FM but probably as good as DAB, my freebox is going through a £100 DAC (digital to analogue convertor) it sounds pretty good though. Some of the stations use frequency compression (different to data compression) which makes it sound very flat though and these are only designed to be played via a TV and not via a £1000+ HIFI seperates system like I have.

we have a very poor FM reception where we live, so digital really does rock!

Reply 6

me!

8

I've got DAB intergrated TV which is ok hahaha channels for free! We've also got a PURE digital radio the reception is better on it than on the analogue radio (well it is in the kitchen, not my bedroom)

Reply 7

I assume nobody here as a purpose built FM anthena?

Reply 8

me!

8

amazingtrade

I assume nobody here as a purpose built FM anthena?

well my hi-fi has an antena thing and a cabley thing as well, I think one's for FM and one's for AM...

I didn't build it by accident though, nor on purpose :biggrin:

Reply 9

amazingtrade

Its still not as good as FM but probably as good as DAB, my freebox is going through a £100 DAC (digital to analogue convertor) it sounds pretty good though. Some of the stations use frequency compression (different to data compression) which makes it sound very flat though and these are only designed to be played via a TV and not via a £1000+ HIFI seperates system like I have.

My digital radio sounds excellent, thanks. Far better than FM reception, even on my stereo.

Reply 10

MC Hawking

Dr. Blazed

My digital radio sounds excellent, thanks. Far better than FM reception, even on my stereo.

Mine too.

Reply 11

Don't confuse reception with sound quality, they are too different things.

Reply 12

MC Hawking

amazingtrade

Don't confuse reception with sound quality, they are too different things.

You're kidding me?

Reply 13

amazingtrade

Don't confuse reception with sound quality, they are too different things.

I never would, and I never have.

Reply 14

Reception is how strong the signal is, however I could transmit a signal coming from a £30 ALBA CD player on a 89.3Mhz using very high quality transmitters and it would sound awful no matter how strong the signal is even it was 90db.

This is kind of how digital works, the reception appears clean as its digital so you don't get the anologue noise. However the data rate (bits per second) of DAB is very poor, this makes the sound quite compressed compared to FM, and FM is in no means perfect.

Reply 15

amazingtrade

Reception is how strong the signal is, however I could transmit a signal coming from a £30 ALBA CD player on a 89.3Mhz using very high quality transmitters and it would sound awful no matter how strong the signal is even it was 90db.

This is kind of how digital works, the reception appears clean as its digital so you don't get the anologue noise. However the data rate (bits per second) of DAB is very poor, this makes the sound quite compressed compared to FM, and FM is in no means perfect.

You know, I actually don't care. The point is that digital radio sounds better than analogue, and it isn't because of the quality of the equipment.

Reply 16

Only because its cleaner, digital just sounds too rolled off for me, CD is ok but even that dosn't quite match up with vinyl. I am talking about frequency response, ambience etc, not a few crackles.

Reply 17