Saltire Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 From my own experience I would say the amount of DAB channels you can receive really depends on how good your general TV and radio reception is. I live in a poor TV & radio reception area. The DAB stations can vary quite alot! P.S I should point out I live in the UK and not the IOM, so it may differ "over there" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slim Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 From my own experience I would say the amount of DAB channels you can receive really depends on how good your general TV and radio reception is. I live in a poor TV & radio reception area. The DAB stations can vary quite alot! P.S I should point out I live in the UK and not the IOM, so it may differ "over there" It does, we have nothing but bbc on our dab. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebrof Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Stu, I think there's probably room for DAB and internet. You can't recieve internet (easily) in your car yet for example, or on your phone or mp3 player. Probably wont be long though given the way 3g bandwidth limits are rising. I was thinking of getting an Internet radio, but the ones I'd seen didn't give the same clear reception. You don't get reception from internet radio, so what you relieve is as clear as the broadcast. Generally internet streams higher bitrate than dab, because dab is heavily bandwidth constrained. Using your favourite bbc 7 as an example it's broadcast at a relatively low 80kbps on dab and is mono only, where the internet stream is 96k sterio. The Radio 3 bitrate online is 128k stereo. Not sure what the bitrate is on iplayer actually? If you're using a pc, iplayers the best option, that's using a 128k stereo bitrate for music channels (1, 2, 6 etc), Classical on radio 3 is an impressive 192k and even Radio 4 is 128k stereo. The only exception I think is radio 5, which is 80k mono, which is fine for a speech only station. The best quality available for Radio 7 is via digital TV, either freeview or Astra, that's 160k stereo. If you tried internet radio before June last year, you might have been put off by the quality. The beeb were doing it a bit odd, taking the compressed mp2 satellite stream, and transcoding it for the web to wma or real, doubling the compression and making for a fairly stinky stream. They've stopped this practice recently, so the streams are only encoded once. So DAB Radio 3 is better than Internet Radio 3? Always assuming you have a resonable signal. Sounds to me as though the Beeb is allocating bandwidth intelligently. S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebrof Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 As Stu says we have an internet radio and it is great. Its easy to use and the amount of radio stations available is unbelievable. Tom likes 50's and 60's music and so has a few channels from the USA preset. There is just so much to choose from, its fascinating.Tom has a few Dab radio's but they are limited and a disappointment to Tom due to there only being BBC stations available, though he does love his portable Dab. So I'd think that the Internet Radio is better if its just in the house with broadband. We bought a Roberts 202 Internet radio which is also a Dab and FM radio so that would give you the best of both worlds and it has a great sound. The pocket Pure portable Dab radio also gives over 40 hours before it needs recharging which is good and this is an FM/AM radio as well. Is DAB noticeably better than FM? S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarbaraG Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 As Stu says we have an internet radio and it is great. Its easy to use and the amount of radio stations available is unbelievable. Tom likes 50's and 60's music and so has a few channels from the USA preset. There is just so much to choose from, its fascinating.Tom has a few Dab radio's but they are limited and a disappointment to Tom due to there only being BBC stations available, though he does love his portable Dab. So I'd think that the Internet Radio is better if its just in the house with broadband. We bought a Roberts 202 Internet radio which is also a Dab and FM radio so that would give you the best of both worlds and it has a great sound. The pocket Pure portable Dab radio also gives over 40 hours before it needs recharging which is good and this is an FM/AM radio as well. Is DAB noticeably better than FM? S Yes, providing you live in a DAB area, its infinitely better. Also you must bear in mind that the BBC broadcast more channels in dab than they do in FM, such as Radio 5 Live, BBC6 and 7. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebrof Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 As Stu says we have an internet radio and it is great. Its easy to use and the amount of radio stations available is unbelievable. Tom likes 50's and 60's music and so has a few channels from the USA preset. There is just so much to choose from, its fascinating.Tom has a few Dab radio's but they are limited and a disappointment to Tom due to there only being BBC stations available, though he does love his portable Dab. So I'd think that the Internet Radio is better if its just in the house with broadband. We bought a Roberts 202 Internet radio which is also a Dab and FM radio so that would give you the best of both worlds and it has a great sound. The pocket Pure portable Dab radio also gives over 40 hours before it needs recharging which is good and this is an FM/AM radio as well. Is DAB noticeably better than FM? S Yes, providing you live in a DAB area, its infinitely better. Also you must bear in mind that the BBC broadcast more channels in dab than they do in FM, such as Radio 5 Live, BBC6 and 7. Infinitely better than listening to Radio 3 on a good set with good reception? That's impressive. Thanks. S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slim Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 No, didn't you read my post? The bitrate of radio 3 on dab and iplayer is the same, 192kbps stereo. Is DAB noticeably better than FM? S Depends on your view on compression vs noise. In perfect circumstances FM should sound better every time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slim Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Yes, providing you live in a DAB area, its infinitely better. Also you must bear in mind that the BBC broadcast more channels in dab than they do in FM, such as Radio 5 Live, BBC6 and 7. DAB isn't infinitely better, no. It's a lot more convenient, and it's better than a crap FM signal win interference on rubbish gear. But a perfect FM signal on good gear is better quality than DAB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebrof Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 No, didn't you read my post? The bitrate of radio 3 on dab and iplayer is the same, 192kbps stereo. Sorry, missed it. Old age. Depends on your view on compression vs noise. In perfect circumstances FM should sound better every time. Why? More bandwidth on FM? If this is true, and I don't doubt you for a moment, then it seems that DAB is a bit of a con. No better, just cheaper (presumably). S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebrof Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Sounds as though I need to retain my nice old Quad FM4 tuner as long as possible. S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Declan Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 If this is true, and I don't doubt you for a moment, then it seems that DAB is a bit of a con. No better, just cheaper (presumably). Depends on the quality of your FM reception. Stu, I think there's probably room for DAB and internet. You can't recieve internet (easily) in your car yet for example, or on your phone or mp3 player. Probably wont be long though given the way 3g bandwidth limits are rising. There's a restriction on BBC iPlayer access through 3g at the moment. I've used Listen Again using 3g on my iPhone, but I've had to access the stream using wireless, it then continues to work if I move into a 3g zone. Not tried with a live stream though. It can't be long before this becomes more functional. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slim Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Why? More bandwidth on FM?If this is true, and I don't doubt you for a moment, then it seems that DAB is a bit of a con. No better, just cheaper (presumably). It's not that clear cut really, because they're a bit apples and oranges. The selling point of dab is that you can divvy up the spectrum a lot more effectively, giving talk radio small amounts of bandwidth and classical loads, so you can fit more channels on. You also get the benefits of digital, error correction and reproduction as broadcast and no effects of interference provided your signals good enough to receive dab, you'll get the station as intended. The problem though is that the bandwidth is constrained, partly because FM exists and will continue to for ages, so the bitrates on dab stations is low compared to fm. For me, the quality's fine. I'm not listening to it on audophile gear, just reasonably good kit. The convenience of dab and internet radio far outweigh the gains in quality I might get from using a perfect FM setup. Most of the stuff I listen to simple isn't on FM anyway, Radio Paradise is an amazing station not on DAB or FM, BBC 6 music I also love, and it's best via t'internet or sky too, but listenable on dab. I also do quite a lot of my radio via podcast, most of the good stuff from radio 4 suits me better via podcast and that's at either 64k or 128k but fine for speech radio on the ipod. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Peters Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Sounds as though I need to retain my nice old Quad FM4 tuner as long as possible. S Halleluja - I thought I was the only Luddite clinging to old hi-fi. FM4/45/405 with a Michell Syncro deck and Tannoy Monitor Golds here. Bought secondhand in the early 1980's and still sounding sweet. Developed a crackle on the power amp a few years ago, but got it fixed locally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slim Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Halleluja - I thought I was the only Luddite clinging to old hi-fi. FM4/45/405 with a Michell Syncro deck and Tannoy Monitor Golds here. Bought secondhand in the early 1980's and still sounding sweet. Developed a crackle on the power amp a few years ago, but got it fixed locally. It's because of luddites clinging onto fm that dab sucks How goes the pressure to increase teh MR bandwidth Stu? Wouldn't take much, even upping it to 64 stereo would make it useful rather than dire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebrof Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 Sounds as though I need to retain my nice old Quad FM4 tuner as long as possible. S Halleluja - I thought I was the only Luddite clinging to old hi-fi. FM4/45/405 with a Michell Syncro deck and Tannoy Monitor Golds here. Bought secondhand in the early 1980's and still sounding sweet. Developed a crackle on the power amp a few years ago, but got it fixed locally. My power amp, like its owner, is rather older - a 303 bought in 1976. 34 pre-amp bought secondhand in 2000 to replace stolen 33. FM4 bought new in 1988 and 66 CD player bought can't remember when. 303 capacitors replaced by Quad a while ago; still going strong. The Electrostatics and the Transcriptors turntable went a while ago. If I had a bigger sitting room, I'd buy Electrostatics again. S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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