State of DAB play ?

[Rochester]

I was offered a very decent all singing all dancing whistles and bells double DIN with touch screen car radio CD DVD you name it thingy by a trustworthy mate this week at a decent price. V tempted except....

Not quite all singing and dancing; AM / FM reception only, no DAB option.

So I thought I'd have a quick look to see what other DAB options there are in my economic bracket (poverty stricken) (Oh all right then, downright mean....)

Hardly nary a one !

Then I bethought myself of my aged but still kickass stereo system, and the Receiver thereof. Quick scan through the usual suspects and (as always) Richer Sounds and found... almost no DAB products.

Then a quick bit of googling and found this article http://www.techradar.com/news/car-te...fix-it-1217586

All of which perplexes me a bit and makes me wonder where we are at right now ?

Is DAB, trumpeted as the great leap forward half a dozen years ago, about to sweep away AM / FM and LW and replace the lot of them, or is it now just quietly fizzling out as a dead duck ???

Seriously, if I do buy in car or home stereo stuff I like to buy decent quality, treat it properly and expect it to last (my Pioneer PDM6 multiplay CD player is now coming up to 35 years without missing a beat) so don't wish to buy without DAB if it is genuinely going to be needed in a foreseeable rather than distant future.

Anyone ?

[R3K1355]

It's slowly being dropped by the wayside, the quality is good but it's not good enough.
Kerrang radio and TeamRock both left this year, although Kisstory launched and thats pretty ace.

Internet radio is the way forward now tho, tons more stations to choose from.

[Evilchap]

My car has DAB as standard. Which is nice.

I live in the sticks, so it doesn't actually work. This is less nice.

I'd get the nice HU and not worry about the DAB thing too much, as long as it has an Aux you can always send any signal you like into it from any source you choose to put in the car.

[-ghost-]

same as evil chap car has it standard fit but I very rarely use it.

Its got internet radio too well did have I think you have to pay a fee a year or something as it no longer works :S

[Paul C]

To be honest I've got an Alpine IDE-178BT which is awesome, I just stream internet radio to it via bluetooth without having to get a new aerial or being limited to certain DAB headunits.

If I was gonna splash out on an all singing all dancing double DIN I'd go for the Alpine iLX-007 which has Apple CarPlay

http://www.alpine.co.uk/p/Products/a...on3807/ilx-700

[Random Tim]

^^^ While that seems to be an excellent unit in the way that it is integrated with all things Apple, your only other source is an FM radio (ok it has MW and LW too but honestly, who listens to them anymore)

I would instead go for this http://www.alpine.co.uk/p/Products/dab3842/ine-w925r Connection to iPod/early iPhone, Android, windows media player, Bluetooth streaming, usb sticks, DAB, DVD and good old CD. Also has proper Navigation instead of using the maps on your phone.

Forget to take your phone with you or break it, and you've basically got a £500 radio with the top unit. At least with the other one you still get a good choice of what to listen to

My A3 has DAB as standard too, love it. Only place I haven't had a reliable signal so far is the North Devon coast, although it has got better over the 3 times I've been in the car

[Random Tim]

It's slowly being dropped by the wayside, the quality is good but it's not good enough.
Kerrang radio and TeamRock both left this year, although Kisstory launched and thats pretty ace.

Internet radio is the way forward now tho, tons more stations to choose from.

Quality is low on some stations as DAB is coded in mp2, a relic of its development in the 80's. DAB+ is available in some countries with a better quality coding but not in the UK

[skyshack]

I would instead go for this http://www.alpine.co.uk/p/Products/dab3842/ine-w925r Connection to iPod/early iPhone, Android, windows media player, Bluetooth streaming, usb sticks, DAB, DVD and good old CD. Also has proper Navigation instead of using the maps on your phone.

£736, on a £1500 car that would need a separate insurance policy.

[Random Tim]

A fair point. But no different to having £1800 worth of TE37's sat on the corners

[karlf]

How much data does this internet radio stuff use? I'm looking at swapping out the works van radio.

[R3K1355]

Not much really, YouTube uses a shit-load tho.

[Jezz_S13]

I use DAB all the time in 2 cars, the garage and in the house it's the only radio I listen to, Radio6, 5 Live and 5 LiveXtra.

[Daniel H]

I like DAB. Listen to radio 6 all the time.