DAB is "useless in a car"

Until recently, I had a glass-mount aerial, and a Blaupunkt receiver, in my car. Rock solid reception, from London to Merseyside, Yorkshire to East Anglia.

My new car has FM only and hasn’t got an AUX in, which is frustrating; so it looks as though I need to bite the bullet and get one of the (nicer) Pure adaptors. However, I’m astounded at the poor quality of FM: the hiss, the poor stereo separation, the interference and the lack of choice.

By the way: what is this ‘digitalspy’ you speak of, and why might I be interested in it?

Not really James – I generally use it for the comedy, but as I was semi-interested in DAB I wanted to discuss the comment – nice topic name change by the way!

I feel the same about FM as well… I take on board what people say about bitrates and, for example, Kerrang on digital does sound awful, but DAB sounds to my ears miles better than FM.

Here’s the £15 aerial by the way… well worth it, and comes with adaptors for normal DAB radios, and the weird socket the Pure addon box uses.

I think it’s just bad design on the manufacturer of these radios.
I don’t want an antenna stuck to my windscreen, it just looks horrible!!!

I want it to work off the antenna already attached to my car on the roof and DAB is only half the wavelength of FM so it should work theoretically.

If I want a DAB radio I would get a proper DIN sized unit that actually replaces the radio that I already have in my car. I don’t want to get out my DAB radio every time I get into the car!!!

end of rant

If anyone is interested in the Pure Highway 300Di, I reviewed mine on YouTube HERE&

Should say though that I had a faulty unit however, but Pure were helpful in replacing it (at their expense).

I have it on good authority Alpine are launching a double DIN DAB headunit soon… might be worth a look. Otherwise, I’d recommend the JVC DAB head unit range. They have a mix of single and double DIN headunits that have MP3/SD/CD/Aux/Bluetooth that have steering wheel control compatibility.

Another vote for the JVC range – though I use the DAB1000 addon box (it’s just a box off the JPORT behind the unit and hidden). This gives greater freedom to switch head units without losing DAB.

I have to admit I’d be lost without it in car!

Does anyone know how well the OEM Sony DAB head units work in the 05-11 focuses?

Yes, well Mark…. it looks as though you have fallen victim to a load of bull from yet another anonymous forum poster on that other little forum, where so many with so little knowledge talk so much about nothing of value and do so with a false name, whilst (trying) to make out that they are either extremely important within the radio industry or have a stratospheric wealth of experience.

I once had person on that forum tell me that DAB was useless in the car and doesn’t work in tunnels, which was the opposite of my daily experience as an in-car DAB user. When I fronted him out and asked him what set-up he had to come to that conclusion, he later admitted that he doesn’t drive, doesn’t own a car and had never heard DAB in the car ….. so, like almost half-a-million other wasters on that forum, he was talking complete and utter bollox – but I suppose it helps to pass his time.

Like a lot of people I have got a sat nav and every so often it falls off the screen. I’ve tried the airvent mounts but they are very very fiddly to remove. Having to deal with that twice is more than off putting if I got a screen mounted dab receiver. But I will have a look at the alpine unit when it comes out. Might be a better option for myself.

I’ve got it built into my car and I find that it rarely drops out. There is the odd bad street or turning (including the Real Radio Yorkshire car park amusingly) but generally it’s great.

Except for the UI, which is rubbish. The idea of tuning to the multiplex you want, followed by the station you want, is pants. How are you to know if the station you want is on the local, regional or national multiplex? One of “Manchester’s Number 1 Hit Music Station“s is on the MXR NW, the other is on the Manchester plex. Crazy that anyone should have to remember that.

Er. Rant over.

Ash – great review. Very nice.

Arthur… I’ve not fallen victim to anything – I’ve simply copied a known-wrong statement and passed it to mediauk users for their thoughts. Thanks for giving us your thoughts though – I have my own, but they’re best not said at present.

Chris… I actually like that style of UI. The inclusion of the L Band is annoying (its blank, obviously), but feels more like turning a dial than having to update a station list etc. It could also be because I’m a bit of a pro at remembering where stuff is. I do realise I’m probably in a minority but I prefer this method to my Pure at home.