DAB tuner question.

[Fermit The Krog and Sarah Sexy]

A little help if anyone has the know. I've recently acquired a Tag Mclaren T20 DAB tuner, a very high end device, it's been suggested they were around £1600 new. What is the best aerial option for this? Do I need to be looking for a decent external item, or is there anything that's internal that would do a good job? Also, whichever is the best route does anyone have any pointers to specific models etc?

Thanks in advance.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

Isn't this another "HDMI cable" type argument. It's digital, so if a crappy plastic strip aerial picks up a clear signal, then a wonder aerial on your roof won't improve it. If the crappy plastic strip doesn't get a signal, then you may need something better.

I think.

[Fermit The Krog and Sarah Sexy]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

Isn't this another "HDMI cable" type argument. It's digital, so if a crappy plastic strip aerial picks up a clear signal, then a wonder aerial on your roof won't improve it. If the crappy plastic strip doesn't get a signal, then you may need something better.

I think.

I did wonder as much, is my first DAB. Presuming DAB unlike analogue is either 'on' or 'off'. Thanks, £5 ebay one ordered, shall see if it succeeds!

[megaphone]

Ideally a proper outdoor DAB omnidirectional aerial is beast as it will get a better signal but possibly more choice from a wider range of transmitters.

Is there a TV aerial connection nearby the receiver? If so you could try plugging into that, not ideal but it's worked for me in the past.

[Tony1963]

The sound quality of dab isn't all that good anyway, so a Ron Smith Galaxy as used for high end FM tuners would be overkill. As suggested, buy cheap, learn, spend more if necessary. Does the tuner have a decent signal strength indicator?

[Fermit The Krog and Sarah Sexy]

No TV aerial nearby, and yes, has signal strength 1-9 on the LCD.

[MikeyC]

as already mentioned, DAB is not of great quality - well it's really down to the specific sations really !
however, the tuner *does* receive FM so if you're going this route, then a good aerial may help
Might be an idea to check what signal strength you're currently getting so as to judge whether it's worth it or not

[telecat]

To Clarify. DAB can be good quality but suffers from overcrowding. The CODEC used to digitise the signals is an 80's creation and is worse than MP3 for music reproduction. Allied to which stations are crowded on to the Multiplex. The more of them the less bandwidth and the worse it sounds. However as stated it does have FM and with a good aerial it is one of the best. I'd concentrate on that for the moment. DAB despite the cost of portables seems to be aimed at Kitchen radios at the moment. DAB+ would help enormously but I think even the TAG would require a software upgrade.

[Fermit The Krog and Sarah Sexy]

telecat said:

To Clarify. DAB can be good quality but suffers from overcrowding. The CODEC used to digitise the signals is an 80's creation and is worse than MP3 for music reproduction. Allied to which stations are crowded on to the Multiplex. The more of them the less bandwidth and the worse it sounds. However as stated it does have FM and with a good aerial it is one of the best. I'd concentrate on that for the moment. DAB despite the cost of portables seems to be aimed at Kitchen radios at the moment. DAB+ would help enormously but I think even the TAG would require a software upgrade.

I'm not familiar with DAB+, I'll Google it. It's at least 10 years old, so guess it would need an upgrade, one to look in to, see if available?

[MikeyC]

Not sure why DAB+ is being suggested as this is not currently used in UK other than for a handfull of stations (2) according to this

If you're wanting to go digital, then I would have thought an internet-streamer type device would be better suited due to the huge number of stations available

[clived]

megaphone said:

Ideally a proper outdoor DAB omnidirectional aerial is beast as it will get a better signal but possibly more choice from a wider range of transmitters.

So long as you mean a vertical half-wave dipole and not one of those awful dount shaped things, I agree entirely.

If the OP goes for an indoor aerial I'm sure he'll be able to receive some stations ok, but probably some not at all. A decent external aerial will indeed give the widest range of stations.

Give this a read: http://aerialsandtv.com/fmanddabradio.html As you'll see a FM dipole should do a pretty good job for DAB in most areas and will feed both the FM and DAB sides of your tuner (if it has one, or you want to try FM later). I bought one of these http://aerialsandtv.com/onlineaerials.html#FM_Half... from them and am getting very low error rates on DAB and good clear FM from three different transmitters.

[Monty Python]

Do you know how strong your DAB signal is, as this will have a massive impact on the aerial.

If you have a reasonable signal then something like this should suffice:

http://www.beststuff.co.uk/store/slx-indoor-dab-ae...

Edited by Monty Python on Tuesday 31st May 14:25