We've been cleaning out the storage areas of the house, & have found a Technics AM/FM analogue tuner (hi-fi component) from the late 1990s, which we subsequently replaced with a DAB component.
Before I take it apart to play with it, throw it out, or both --- is the analogue tuner ever likely to be of any use again?
A hifi FM radio with a decent aerial still works significantly *better* than DAB radio if you actually enjoy listening to music as opposed to a rough approximation performed underwater.
The bitrate on DAB is too low for adequate quality music reproduction except for in-car entertainment. No RDS data completes its failure.
Doesn't that vary by station?
Yes, from already too low downwards.
MBQ
To some extent yes. But none are high enough for hifi. They start at barely adequate and go down to piss poor.
The only thing DAB does better is dead air gaps between programmes.
None of the DAB radio tuners I have is up to the job and it isn't like were are in a borderline reception area. The pops and burbles when it rains in mid summer render it unlistenable even on voice channels.
I guess in a retro sort of way if you enjoy the presenters of the Today Program sounding like the Subterraneans on Stingray then it is OK. My most recent DAB radio is *so* bad it only gets used on the internet!
I can live with a little background hiss around speakers and a decent stereo image much more easily than a burbling hotchpotch of noise.
Only by people who care about sound quality ;-)
If it's quality gear, there's a very active vintage hi-fi market on eBay.
DAB is screwed for anything other than portable listening...
" snipped-for-privacy@gglz.com" wrote in news:97f399dc-fcf7-42f8-ac29- snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:
Interesting how some brand names that we used to admire have disappeared. I could only lust after Technics, Pioneer, etc Ended up with Sanuisi and Rotel
Where slightly more accurately? I have a DAB radio in the car and reception is very good round and about London. But it does have a decent aerial.
And even then you need a power supply.
The highest DAB bitrate is normally on Radio 3, and that gives the equivalent to a good quality cassette deck, assuming you have a good signal. The local stations are at a bitrate that is equivalent to an early Philips cassette recorder such as the EL3301, and are normally mono to boot. For the commercial stations, it's as low as the accountants could get it without the "engineering staff" actually walking out, then they put it through an optimod just to make sure the sound quality matches the programming standards.
For home listening, throw away the DAB tuner, and buy an internet radio, if your broadband connection is good enough to cope. You'll get more stations and usually better quality.
Or put a decent aerial on your AM/ FM tuner, and the FM will sound as good as a decent open reel tape, and even the AM will often sound better than DAB.
My new car has a DAB radio - and it's pretty pathetic tbh.
I can get BBC stations, and a load of absolute radio stations (which are pretty poor). Planet Rock (can be ok), talksport (not interested) and a couple of christian radio stations (I'm beyond saving by even the most dedicated radio preacher :-)).
Radio5/fivelive is handy (but mono), as AM reception is crap. I tend to listen to R2 on dab but I'm surprised at how often it drops from R2 DAB to R2 FM. On my drive from Folkestone to Canterbury it can sometimes do it a couple of times (at the Canterbury end of the journey).
If I come home via Dover it loses all DAB signal from the top of the hill all the way down into Dover and then intermittently along the sea front until you hit the bottom of the A20 heading up out of Dover.
All in all, pretty crap.
It did let me listen to the olympics on radio 5 while I was driving around dorset though - that was handy :)
Darren
Not neccesarily.
I've a sony portable DAB radio, which I normally run off AA batteries. Sure the battery life is stupidly short compared a similar AM/FM receiver. But it's ok, and I have plenty of rechargable batteries nowdays
Some of the Rotel stuff was actually pretty good budget HiFi. My wifes old Rotel amp from ~1980 still powers our village hall.
Why should it not be?
Brian
Well it does vary, but its potential is far better. the problem will be that in the future indeed for some stations now, the dab resolution signal is relayed over fm amaking it just as bed. Smooth are you listening?
Brian
"Brian Gaff" wrote in news:k5tmoq$qkc$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:
You will see some beautiful stuff inside and some neat construction. Screening, separation, etc are interesting to see.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.