My DAB experience

[Ikki]

About a year and a half ago I wanted a DAB radio for the kitchen. Looking around, I came across a Roberts DAB/FM radio - the Gemini 3 for £136. Ask most people and they will say that Roberts is a very good make of radio.

I was less than impressed with my purchase.

The sound was muddy, max volume low and the case resonated at certain audio frequencies. I fitted external active speakers to the line out which improved things a lot.

The reception was poor, I put this down to the reception in the area. I fitted an active aerial to get around this problem.

About a week ago, the radio just died. An internal fuse was blowing and since it is all based on a densley populated circuit board repair would be difficult. As the radio was outside the 1 year guarantee, Roberts were happy to repair it (i.e. replace the board) for the sum of £47. Not surprisingly I didn't want to pay that for such a poor radio.

I bought a Pure Evoke-1XT from Comet with a 10% discount for handing in an analogue radio for £80.

It has excellent reception with the standard telescopic aerial and the sound is strong and clear.

So the moral of this story is don't be swayed by a brand name. The Pure Evoke-1XT gets a big thumbs up , the Roberts Gemini 3 (RD3) a big thumbs down.

[ad47uk]

Pure is a good brand name and their radios are good, it is not their equipment that is the problem, it is the DAB system.

As for Roberts, I am shocked that you had problems, maybe their quality have gone down hill, but I have got a Roberts FM/AM radio, which I use outside, it must be around 10 years old now and it is still going fine, great sound, well it is for the size of it.

[Ikki]

It's a kitchen radio. DAB is used because I can can get Planet Rock and some others that just aren't available on FM. The sound quality is fine for this use.

[kbfern]

I have a Pure Bug radio which I bought from currys.They had a range of dab radio's running from around £50-£150 the bug cost £120.I am very pleased with the bug,to me it had the best sound of the 10-15 radio's that currys had on display.

Its fair to say that dab sound quality is not up to the standard of an fm radio but this is due to the stations broadcasting at a lower quality than they are able to(64kb in some cases).

The main reason I decided on the bug apart from the sound quality is the ability with a 512mb sd card (purchased seperately) to record hours and hours of programme's and play them back at my convenience, so its a bit like my tivo but for the bedroom.Also the software is upgradable via usb.

[Ikki]

Yes, the software on the Evoke-1XT is also upgradeable by software.

[Nick_UK]

I bought a Goodmans DAB portable for my bathroom from Focus DIY. An apt purchase, because (although the DAB website says I should receive DAB), the sound "quality" is like listening to the radio in an aquarium, with attendent bubbling noises. On top of that, the expensive D-cell batteries only last 8 weeks, even using Duracells. Nowhere to plug in a better aerial. It now sits there tuned to FM, where the quality is better, and the batteries last marginally longer.

DAB ? Pahhhh

[ad47uk]

I think using DAB as a portable radio, have got a long way to go. As people have found out, the life of batteries is not that great, signal is a major problem and I know it do not matter in some cases, sound can be a bit dodgy.
It is a shame really as DAB could be a good thing, I like listening to Radio 7, and I either got to use sky or my freeview box to listen to it and I can not take them out in the garden.

I can not see DAB ever getting any better, in fact it will get worse, just like Digital Tv, because more and more staions will be squeezed into the same space. Typacle of this country, we never get anything right. It amazes me that we want to take on hosting the Olympics, we will be a laughing stock.

[Dr Diversity]

Originally Posted by kbfern

The main reason I decided on the bug apart from the sound quality is the ability with a 512mb sd card (purchased seperately) to record hours and hours of programme's and play them back at my convenience.

Can you transfer the files for listening to on, say, a PC or CDROM?

[kbfern]

I belive you can transfer to a pc but the files are stored as mp2's not mp3.

[KillerOfThreads]

Didn't What HI-FI (not their biggest fan) say some years ago that DAB looked doomed to failure and that good quality FM would always better it? I was seriously looking into getting one but after reading various threads have already decided to just stick with my receiver and Sky box as it looks like DAB is going to end up being pushed into lower quality.

[kbfern]

If you accept the slight downgraded quality (as opposed to fm) and want the extra digital only channels and the easy record/pause and rewind that the bug dab can do and don't want to have the tv on to use the digital radio the bug is a good product.

It's obviously not that great for music but I mainly listen to local radio,BBC radio 4&5,talksport and radio7 which are mainly speech based and for this its ideal.

[DEANO-B]

After reading these posts why does anyone buy DAB? Are there any good points??

[Ikki]

Deano-B, don't be put off, the sound is perfectly acceptable for general listening. I for one, don't sit down and listen to the radio in the lounge and examine every tiny aspect of it's sound quality expecting extreme high fidelity. There is too much made of the supposed poor sound quality.

From the kitchen radio, which is where I use DAB, there is no noticeable difference in sound quality, it's perfectly acceptable on either. What it does give me is a much wider range of stations that I can't get on FM. The only way for me to get stations like Planet Rock would be to stream Internet radio to something like a Roku Soundbridge in the kitchen, and it's not worth the hassle and cost, and I wouldn't even contemplate getting SKY.

As for signal being a major problem, it depends on where you are (like Freeview) and the radio that you have, some are obviously much better than others (in my house the Pure Evoke-XT works extremely well from the telescopic, the Roberts Gemini 3 was very poor and needed an active aerial).

I would thoroughly recommend DAB for this use.

[mobily]

I think some people on here are being very harsh to DAB radio. I listen to a lot of radio and if you have a decent reception the sound quality is more than acceptable. I much prefer listening to the radio rather than having to switch my freeview box on, even though channels are streamed in a higher bit rate on freeview (apparently)

I haven't got a bug and I am sorely tempted to get one in the future as there is a definite shortage of DAB's where you can record programmes. I guess if you have a freeview box you can record to the hard disk at the touch of a button but maybe someone can confirm that? However, remember you cannot receive your local stations on freeview.

[KillerOfThreads]

But Ikki I thought the whole point about digital radio was meant to be it's HI-FI sound quality. If people believe the adds for it, Planet Rocks are quite typical, it's being marketed and sold as a high quality sound source, not "it's better than mw or lw".