Rather than hijack the Beer and Boomboxes thread I thought I would start one for Digital Radio. Despite not being a huge fan I have half a dozen of them here, while my 2013 VW came fitted with one at its trim level. Unlike HD radio DAB is on an entirely different band. In the U.K. they never broadcast Colour TV on Band 3, so part of that ended up being used for DAB. At first the aspirations were for "CD quality sound" using equipment like this https://www.spatialonline.co.uk/products/rotel-t11-fm-dab-stereo-tuner Somehow those aspirations got diluted along the way with the emphasis on choice and we ended up with equipment like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sharp-DR-P...d=1677619340&sprefix=dab+radio,aps,80&sr=8-14 I wonder how that sounds with what looks to be a 2" speaker. There again, in real terms it costs about the same as a basic pocket calculator in the 1980s As for choice I just had a look at a slightly better radio and I can believe that over 60 stations are available. These are just the H es How do they fit the stations in ? At least this station is DAB+ using an HE-AAC codec. Many stations still broadcast using DAB which uses an MP2 Codec as having encouraged people to buy DAB radios when they cost well over £100 they daren't tell people they are now obsolete. Here is what I believe was Sony's first attempt at a DAB radio back in 2005 and a review https://www.cnet.com/reviews/sony-xdr-s1-review/ The little Sharp is probably far more usable as the Sony is mains power only and forgets all its stations if unplugged for longer than three minutes necessitating a rescan taking minutes. Of course Sony have moved on a lot since. They even make something they are calling a Boombox Please continue the thread with any interesting Digital Receivers you have.
No. In fact there were proposals to turn off FM (as has happened in Norway) although I think the intention was to free up space for even more local stations. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ountry-to-end-national-radio-broadcasts-on-fm Like the article says the big problem is cars. My wife's 2014 car has heated seats and a factory fitted CD player but no DAB. In contrast to Norway, I was surprised to recently find that Ireland have turned off DAB due to poor take up. https://radiotoday.ie/2021/03/dab-digital-radio-broadcasting-ends-in-ireland/ It really depends on how much demand there is for 101 niche stations as to whether DAB has been a success. If I want more than that I have an internet radio here with thousands of stations but it is a little used novelty.
