Best DAB Tuner (Hi-fi Separate)?

[Tejstar]

I want to buy my dad a DAB/FM tuner for xmas as his trusted radio for many years finally died. Can anyone recommend a good one for <£500?

[Tejstar]

Didn't realise we had a dedicated DAB forum. Maybe the mods can move it there please?

[andy malcolm]

i picked up an Audio Solutions SP111 off ebay for £50 and its fine. seems to do the trick nicely.

[Tejstar]

Ok cheers will have a look! I assume that does fm too!

[BenW]

Don't know if they're available at that price with DAB but tag maclaren seem to be well respected.

[Crustyloafer]

I would also consider auditioning the new Arcam DT91 which does FM and DAB for £450, very nice sound, much smoother than most for DAB reception.

[andy malcolm]

Originally Posted by Tejstar

Ok cheers will have a look! I assume that does fm too!

yes it does. though i haven't tried that part.

its cheap and cheerful, and sounds pretty good to me. i don't really know enough about DAB to know what you'd get for a few extra £££ though!

[Tejstar]

Thanks for the comments guys!

Crusty - The Arcam sounds good but probably will creep outside my revised price range (now that I've decided to buy a X360). I'm probably looking at around £250 and therefore the Sony STB900 or Denon TU 1800DAB. Any comments on these two?

[nicku]

I have had the Sony ST STB900 for about eight months, nice warm sound and easy-peasy tuning. Excellent signal strength from the included wire aerials, I just taped them to my shelves and thats enough. Playing the tuner through a Cambridge Azur 540A and Quad 12Ls, very satisfied.

[Tejstar]

Cheers for the comment nicku, i'll probably try and give them a demo as they have both got fantastic reviews!

[ptogscot]

Got the Sony tuner 6 months ago and it aint too bad although think you are right in giving it and the denon an audition. The Sony's sound is fairly warm although the bass seems a bit rich in my opinion (when compared to my Cyrus CD player anyway). In some ways I was dissapointed with the level of compression which can be heard on DAB stations but since I mainly listen to Virgin and Classic FM which have ok bitrates I can cope!

One slight problem I had with the Sony was the presets seemed to get lost and even scanning through the stations these didn't come back until i retuned the tuner from intial settings (I have a decent outdoor aerial as well living atop a hill so signal strength shouldn't be an issue)!

You might also want to consider the Pure Digital DRX-702ES which is about the same price if I recall, has good reviews although is a couple of years old now (which may mean it will be discounted). I believe Cambridge Audio also have a reasonable tuner out for £200. Happy listening!

[Londondecca]

It is well worth investing in a decent aerial, if you do not already have one

[andy malcolm]

any recommendations for an aerial? i can only tune to the bbc stations (though those are the only ones i really want to listen to for the most part).

[ptogscot]

I use an aerial kit I got from Maplins mounted on the roof of my house but I'm sure there are much better quality ones available - it just depends how much you want to pay and what quality of signal you want. This site gives the names of a couple of aerial manufacturers :

http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/aerials.htm

as well as a link to the aerials on offer at Maplins. I think mine was a six element one and I bought some bog standard coax cable and the relevant connector for my radio. I get 100 % quality and strength on all stations, so it may allow you to recieve some additional stations you aint picking up just now. If not then it could just be your location and you may be restricted to the stations from the BBC transmitter.

[andy malcolm]

thanks, will check that out.

i get 33 stations listed, but the non-bbc ones mostly only make sounds similar to a sinclair zx spectrum loading a game.