Question:
My wife bought me one for christmas - first impressions are not good. My 30 year old Roberts sounds much much better and picks up FM stations that the new one won't touch. Yes there are a load of new stations, but nothing I want to listen to. Out of the two stations I want to listen to, it picks up one, but can't find the other. Battery life is appaling - it stopped working after 4 hours on a set of rechargables that last about 50 hours in my Roberts. It does come with a mains adaptor, but my main use is in the bathroom.
Does anyone have any recommendations / advice.
Answers:
Take it back for a refund!
I was given a personal DAB radio (Pure) as a gift and I'm disappointed with the reception. My Grundig (DAB) picks up 50% more stations than the Pure.
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DAB radios are power hungry, seems to be the current state of the technology. I run mine off the mains adaptor, unless I'm in the bath.
Which one were you given italiastar?
I've got an Evoke 1, and an Elan both by Pure.The Elan will run for about 8 hours on battery if the display backlight in turned off.
I do find that the number of stations they will pick up is position dependent, but I can always get 5 Live and BBC 7 so i'm happy.
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I bought a Hitachi DAB radio with nxt (flat) speakers for my mum. The sound was TERRIBLE!!! It sounded more muffled than my £5 pocket radio, yet cost £90! Thank goodness I kept the receipt!
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Hi
Bought this one for a colleague whose in hospital, he loves it. winner of the prestigious "What Hi-Fi" best handheld radio award
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The low quality sound is down to the bit rate. They have crammed too many stations into the available bandwidth, the consequence is that many have to be encoded with a low bit rate, and therefore sound like they are under water.. That's progress for you!
There are some more details here:
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Hi everyone - not sure if this relates to the threads as above but I got bought a DAB radio for christmas. I have tried relentlessly to tune it in. The FM radio works on it but when it comes to tuning in the DAB - it's just not happening. Is it something i'm doing wrong? I live on the outskirts of the M25 and signal can be poor which why I thought a DAB would have no problems at all.
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Hi everyone - not sure if this relates to the threads as above but I got bought a DAB radio for christmas. I have tried relentlessly to tune it in. The FM radio works on it but when it comes to tuning in the DAB - it's just not happening. Is it something i'm doing wrong? I live on the outskirts of the M25 and signal can be poor which why I thought a DAB would have no problems at all.
When they are flogging these DAB digital radios, they don't tell you the following, you take the set all round the room till you find a spot where it receives. It's like the indoor aerials with the old black and white tv sets all over again.
With an analogue radio you just turn the knob till you hit the station, with one of these digital b*****ds, the station you are tuning into comes up on a little screen, and if you wear glasses for reading, you have to be wearing your specs to see it. You can't get any foreign stations on these things either.
You can get extra stations on these things but most of these extra stations are not worth the carrier wave it comes in on. The one exception is the BBC World Service, which you can get without the waxing and waning that you get on analogue.
I wasn't born a cynic but I am wondering if they are pushing these things so that we all have them and can't tune into foreign stations to find out what is REALLY going on in Rip-off Britain.
You can't get your local FM stations on them either.
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The problem here actually seems to be with people using poor equipment as opposed to the technology.
Surely things like screen size, battery life, aerial/tuner sensitivity is down to the manufactorer to sort out and not the broadcaster?
Some of the better sets...
Roberts Gemini 8 - large display
Freeplay Devo - wind-up DAB/FM radio
Pure Evoke 1xt - good all round (non battery) set
I think people's expectations are high because the retailers don't put the same emphasis on DAB postcode checking that they do with Freeview. Also many DAB transmitters are still being built, and will do for the forseeable future. In 2006 Ofcom, the broadcast regulator will be rolling out further local digital services and possibly an extra national ensemble of stations.
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You can't get your local FM stations on them either.
Either get a DAB radio with an FM tuner too or sugegst to your local FM station to purchase a licence to broadcast via DAB
*whacks Betamax tape into VHS video*
*moans about lack of picture*
*kicks dog*
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I wasn't born a cynic but I am wondering if they are pushing these things so that we all have them and can't tune into foreign stations to find out what is REALLY going on in Rip-off Britain.
Aparently they're not popular outside the UK - not even sure if they use them.
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Interesting post...I looked into DAB radios as I was buying my mum one for Christmas. After reading about problems on other sites about poor reception/quality I opted for a £25 Sony FM radio that sounds great in my opinion. Think I did the right thing. plus it meant I got to buy mum other pressies.
I'm sure DAB will improve. It's just one of those new things thats not really quite ready for the public but they decide to launch anyway.
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Interesting post...I looked into DAB radios as I was buying my mum one for Christmas. After reading about problems on other sites about poor reception/quality I opted for a £25 Sony FM radio that sounds great in my opinion. Think I did the right thing. plus it meant I got to buy mum other pressies.
I'm sure DAB will improve. It's just one of those new things thats not really quite ready for the public but they decide to launch anyway.
Got to disagree insome ways, to some evidently the quality isn't to what people want or expect but I tend to use our DAb radio in a noisyish environment i.e. kitchen where the quality isn't that much of an issue whereas teh content is, with FM/MW radio I had less choice and in respect of MW much less quality. Now with DAB I have much better choice and quality i.e Radio 5/5 Extra/Talksport is much better. I'm glad they did a public launch before bothering to sort out the mor etechnical aspects which won't affect a fair majority of users
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When they are flogging these DAB digital radios, they don't tell you the following, you take the set all round the room till you find a spot where it receives. It's like the indoor aerials with the old black and white tv sets all over again.
With an analogue radio you just turn the knob till you hit the station, with one of these digital b*****ds, the station you are tuning into comes up on a little screen, and if you wear glasses for reading, you have to be wearing your specs to see it. You can't get any foreign stations on these things either.
You can get extra stations on these things but most of these extra stations are not worth the carrier wave it comes in on. The one exception is the BBC World Service, which you can get without the waxing and waning that you get on analogue.
I wasn't born a cynic but I am wondering if they are pushing these things so that we all have them and can't tune into foreign stations to find out what is REALLY going on in Rip-off Britain.
You can't get your local FM stations on them either.
One word: Presets. Most have 'em, some have more than others but they do the trick for me. You don't try and retune your TV everytime you want to switch channel do you ?
And why would you want, or even expect, foreign stations from your local DAB transmitter ?
Mike.
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One word: Presets. Most have 'em, some have more than others but they do the trick for me. You don't try and retune your TV everytime you want to switch channel do you ?
And why would you want, or even expect, foreign stations from your local DAB transmitter ?
Mike.
Mike
My DAB set does not have presets. I did not spend too much out for it, since we have about 12 radio sets in this house.
To answer your second point, I pick up foreign stations on medium/long/short wave. It could be argued that the Government's idea is to phase out radio sets that pick up foreign stations, and listen to the glorified hospital radio and the politically correct comfort-sugar tipped out by the BBC instead. The ironic thing is that BBC World Service, which is funded from tax and not from licence, is one of the most seditious radio stations I have listened to.
Soap operas on TV; Comfort sugar on the radio. Who needs a brain?
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To each his own, but I have thought for about thirty years that the insult to my ears that is MW AM radio should be shut down.
Music on Planet Rock, BBC world service, a cricket comentary I can understand, and the Goons on BBC Radio 7 easily add up to the 80-odd quid I spent on my Evoke.
However, if I wanted blisteringly high fidelity I would be down at the B&O showrooms buying their kit, not at Argos buying a portable.
SJB
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To answer your second point, I pick up foreign stations on medium/long/short wave. It could be argued that the Government's idea is to phase out radio sets that pick up foreign stations, and listen to the glorified hospital radio and the politically correct comfort-sugar tipped out by the BBC instead. The ironic thing is that BBC World Service, which is funded from tax and not from licence, is one of the most seditious radio stations I have listened to.
When did the Government start selling radios, or more to the point stop selling medium/long wave/shortwave radios? (Also on some of the top end DAB radios you can change stations so have no need to listen to BBC stations if you so choose, innovative really)
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DAB radios tune themselves in by scanning the available channels, you then select by station name.
Reception can be patchy have you checked you can receive in your area?
Of course it may just be faulty, which model is it?
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i didn't realise that you had to check that you are in a compatible area as I'm all very new to it. My partners grandparents can't get Freeview and they live 10 mins down the road from us so maybe it's the same for us with the DAB.
I'll take it back to the shop - what a disappointment!!!!
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There you go.