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Ryannn
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,421
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My friend had it in his mini, there's hardly any signal round here for radios in houses so in a car it was constantly re-tuning. Whats the reception like where you live?
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squonk
Part of things
Posts: 864
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It depends hugely on where you live. If you believe the government statistics they claim that something like 95% of the population can receive DAB broadcasts. That's 95% of the people in the UK, not 95% of the land in the UK.
So if you do the majority of your motoring in city areas it will probably work fine. If you drive a lot away from towns and cities it will not be so good.
There is a reason as to why the analogue radio signals haven't been turned off so that the government can sell their frequencies at a huge profit. That reason is that if they were to do that the majority of car drivers would loose the ability to listen to the radio, either because 99% of the cars on the road don't have DAB or because it simply doesn't work very well when on the move.
By all means get a DAB radio for the car, but make sure it also has an analogue tuner as well or you will often be left without a working radio.
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2004 Chevrolet Avalanche Z71 2005 Mercedes CLK320 Cabriolet 1996 Mercedes C180 Elegance Auto Saloon 1996 Rover 620Ti (Dead fuel pump) 1992 Toyota HiLux Surf 1987 Range Rover Vogue (Rusty) 1992 Range Rover Vogue SE (More Rusty) 2006 Chrysler Grand Voyager 2008 Corsa 1.4 Design
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I have had a Bluapunkt Woodstock DAB stereo in all my cars for about 7 years now. The reception mostly comes down the the quality of the aeriel. I started with a stick on the windscreen type which was ok but not brillaint and I've also used an adaptpr to take the DAB signal from the FM aeriel which was patchy and buggered up the FM signal. Now I'm using a proper DAB/FM combined aeriel with a built in signal booster which works really well. It wasn't cheap but almost never drops the signal. I will add I live in the south east and I beleive the DAB signal is pretty good down here. I hardly ever listen to FM
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Cheers for the advice, I live in Bedfordshire so not in a big city or anything so I might just avoid DAB for now. In fairness I mainly chuck 5 Live or something on if I'm listening to the footy or on the way to work & can't decide on what music I want to listen to.
I would def make sure it has AM/FM, which doesn't work on my current 'tape player' so when I get a stereo sorted I'll need to make sure the current aerial still works!!
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Copey
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,845
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i have a Pure Highway in my saph and its fantastic! Planet Rock/Real XS and Absolute Classic Rock on the go...what more could you want?? haha, signal is good most the time, does drop out when you go into the country, but its early days for digital in comparison to FM and i am only using the standard little glass mount antenna, dare say if i swaped to a big mag mount it would be much better
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1990 Ford Sierra Sapphire GLSi with 2.0 Zetec 1985 Ford Capri 3.0 (was a 2.0 Laser originally)
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CIH
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,466
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I'm also in Beds and unless you told me a given radio was DAB I honestly wouldn't have known. Actually, no, when DAB signal drops it sounds like the DJ or whatever is doing his best zombie voice but whatever.
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I've had a Pure Highway for about 4 years, using the standard stick on aerial. Other than isolated rural areas I have had no issue with the quality of reception, it also allows me to swap it between cars rather than having to put a DAB head unit in all of them!
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1968 Volvo 142S 1969 Volvo 164 1987 Volvo 240 Estate (Sold) 1971 Triumph 2500 Estate
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Joe T
Part of things
Posts: 711
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I have DAB in my new Vauxhalls every time (I even pay £5 a month for it), and I like it a lot. Crisper sound, and the choice of channels includes planet rock! I don't tend to get many signal drops.
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Was thinking of doing this in the car myself as i love radio6 but cant get a signal on our pure dab radio indoors down here. We are out in the sticks a bit tho..
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stevek
Yorkshire and The Humber
Posts: 728
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I have 2011 Focus with factory DAB. Its excellent and very rarely drops out. I drive around Yorkshire mostly but get on quite a few long runs out too.
When I drive from Leeds to our Stafford office it does not drop at all. I don't recall it ever dropping on the way to London either. I did Leeds - Plymouth recently too and can't remember it being a problem at all on that journey either even around the more remote bits near Dart Moor. If I drive to Manchester over the M62 it will drop out about twice for about 10-15sec as you go over the very tops. The only other place I remember it dropping out was going mountain biking at Grisdale in the lakes but FM was useless too. In fact it generally worked OK in the lakes too but did drop in some areas.
BBC 6 Music is great so I don't listen to FM any more.
-Steve-
PS. I wasn't listening to DAB while mountain biking in a Focus I used a bike without DAB for that bit.
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Last Edit: Feb 3, 2013 17:52:38 GMT by stevek
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RobinJI
Posted a lot
"Driven by the irony that only being shackled to the road could ever I be free"
Posts: 2,995
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It's times like this I wish I didn't live in an isolated area in the country side. I'd really quite like DAB in the car, and have been tempted by it, but around here I'm lucky to ever get G3 on my phone, our broadband seems to max out at about 3mb/s regardless of provider and even the FM's constantly searching between frequencies and struggling for signal at all at times. Stupid really because it's not that remote here compared to a lot of places. Also being into mountain-biking and liking the outdoors, I do regularly like to drive out into places that really are the middle of nowhere.
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Last Edit: Feb 3, 2013 18:39:49 GMT by RobinJI
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We run a car audio shop in Kent and have been using and fitting dab units for over five years. You need to have a good aerial first and formost. Glass mounts are ok in a strong signal area. Jvc are about the best out there, value for money wise
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Its not broken, its resting! Max signature image height: 80px
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1900sr
Part of things
I like Mantas me!
Posts: 875
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I've had DAB for years in-car. Currently using a JVC KD-DB52 which is the best I've tried (been through most of the ones Halfords sell). Paid £150 for it and added an external mag mount aerial. It's been spot on and only lost signal on the way to Glasgow going through the lakes, and FM didn't work there either.
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I honestly cant recommend it highly enough I think it's fantastic. Wile my Vauxhall combo didn't have a radio I was chugging up and down the country with a really cheap Asda portable dab that I had on the passenger seat and I found it brilliant (apart from on AA batteries), and the reception almost never dropped out, except the really high bit of the M62. It stood to reason that a properly installed DAB headunit would be perfect as I do a lot of driving and like absolute 80s, planet rock and talk spo much more than re tuning to radio 2 every few miles. I bought a JVC DB52 and one of their HAL dedicated aerials(overpriced I think at £30 from dab on wheels) and the install because I was doing it in the van was a doddle, as I had no headlining to contend with, and it's been the best money I've spent in years, even non car related. I live in Leeds but work everywhere from Glasgow to Southampton and it NEVER drops out for me, even in central London, and other cities for that matter, I can't remember the last time it even fluttered. I think some channels are more 'national' than others but in my experience the absolute channels bnc channels planet rock, XFM kiss etc are perfect. Having said all that the mrs and I had a newish Mini Cooper convertible with DAB with what I believe was a combined dab/fm aerial (there was only one antenna) and that was awful, the only assumption I can make is your dab radio needs a decent, dedicated aerial. I've not tried glass mounts so can't comment. Hope this helps
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I'm not very good with cars
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Oh and I installed an fm aerial as a back up and havnt used it once in over a year. Ad I'm not a spokesman for DAB I just think its ace! Couldn't go back now. Although you can have Alan Brazil back......
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I'm not very good with cars
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When TV went digital I stopped watching it. The same will apply to radio most likely.
That said, don't becker make one of their fancy new-but-looks-old-mercedes-style radios with DAB and MP3 and that? Very expensive but I've always thought they looked nice.
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"A Pierburg carb? It would be more economical to replace it with a funnel..."
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the wife has a DAB in her car and it never even once picked up a single station so she sticks with an 8 gig sd card and doesn't have to put up with hearing the same songs every five minuets like you do on most DAB stations
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As long as you're not driving, it's great!
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