DAB
I've ranted on about this before, but a few years ago I believed the 'digital' hype and bought a DAB tuner for my hi-fi.

Talk about disappointment. Despite living in a good signal area and getting 100% signal quality, DAB sounded noticeably worse than FM, even allowing for the very slight hiss of the latter.

I'll not bother going into the technical details (codecs, MP2, bitrates, etc etc) but suffice to say DAB is crap. It's not as good as FM (although a good DAB signal will sound better than a poor FM signal on a portable radio) and the whole thing's a waste of public and private money.

I hardly used the tuner and sold it three years later to some mug a willing buyer on ebay who bid a very good price.

Don't believe the digital radio hype. It'll disappoint you if your ears work.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Wed 2 Jul 2008, 12:47, 11 replies)

An opportunity lost
I remember when the first DAB radio my company built hit the shelves, there were about 15 stations all with a healthy bitrate and not stacked on top of each other. Whilst it wasn't as good as a good FM tuner (my old Audiolab still stomps DAB tuners), there was some promise there. Fast forward to 2008 and its unlistenable shite- my phone ringtone is a higher bitrate.

Still on the plus side, I was given a technology demonstration of the AAC based DAB+ a few months ago. Given this can technically broadcast and receive in AAC lossless, there is potentially some hope for the future.
(Leonard Hatred briefly did some work on, Wed 2 Jul 2008, 12:57, closed)

Digital
There is nothing wrong with digital television or radio as technology, the problem is that they're both run by the kind of people who think "the public won't notice if we squeeze another channel in and drop the bitrate", "the public won't remember which channel they're watching unless we stick a fuck-off big DOG in the corner of the screen", "nobody really notices sound quality" etc. etc. Cunting mingeweasels.
(Vice Admiral Sir Charles Cockbrush KCB MBE DSO, who is finding it increasingly difficult to log into b3ta.com wants to duck your aunt and kick your puppy, Wed 2 Jul 2008, 13:27, closed)

@Cockbrush
Exactly. Although the MP2 codec is outdated, it's still possible to get good audio quality at 256kpbs. Unfortunately you're lucky to get half of that.

Some digital television is pretty awful too.

@ Leonard, I see the launch of the second DAB multiplex has been postponed, hopefully to allow it to be rethought and launched in future using AAC, or even AAC+.

I'm not holding my breath though.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Wed 2 Jul 2008, 13:31, closed)

Too true
I'm addicted to 6 music - the only half-decent music channel I can get in the West Midlands - but am constantly bemoaning the sound quality. It could be a great station, but for the DAB transmission. Time and again I've heard one of my favorite tracks play and barely noticed it. I suspect one reason why I'm not into much new music (and I'm a music obsessive) is simply because nothing particularly stands out, even on my fancy Roberts that cost fecking £130.
(lost, Wed 2 Jul 2008, 14:52, closed)

@lost
Think how the poor sods who blew £800 on the orignal Arcam Alpha 10 DAB probably feel right now.

Best method of listening to 6 music is through a well specced Freeview box stange to relate.
(Leonard Hatred briefly did some work on, Wed 2 Jul 2008, 14:59, closed)

@lost
The best DAB radio in the world will still sound crap, because the data simply isn't there in the transmission to reconstruct a good quality audio signal.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Wed 2 Jul 2008, 15:00, closed)

@k2k6
There does seem to be noticeably better quality when I listen online through bbc.co.uk. Is this still inferior to FM? Never really listen to FM except for the shipping forecast.

Maybe what I need is a new stereo so I can hook my laptop up.
(lost, Wed 2 Jul 2008, 15:22, closed)

The BBC
is now using much higher bitrates (up to 128kbps) and more modern audio codecs, so it's on a par with, or even superior to FM in some cases.

So long as you can receive that bitrate. For some reason I can't get any more than 45kbps.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Wed 2 Jul 2008, 16:35, closed)

128?
Shite- a decent FM lock is getting on for CD bandwidth which is 1411kbps. Even 256 (pretty much limited to radio 3 these days) is awful.
(Leonard Hatred briefly did some work on, Wed 2 Jul 2008, 17:01, closed)

@Leonard
I was meaning AAC compression over the net rather than DAB. CD audio is uncompressed at 1411kbps, but modern codecs can apply lossy compression with little if any drop in perceived quality.

Radio 3 on DAB is only 192kbps.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Wed 2 Jul 2008, 19:32, closed)

DAB
One of the places I work at got a DAB radio a few years back, for range of choice and ease of use in a compact package it worked well and sounded acceptable. The last year or so the channels seem to be dropping off at a steady pace such that now there is only a few more than FM and a great steaming pile of commercial sub-chart and lowest common denominator talk-radio cack that has me turning it off for the rest of the day more often than not.
(Benzyl, Wed 2 Jul 2008, 20:32, closed)