Some DAB transmissions now mono and lower bitrate

[Barkychoc]

Not sure if this has been discussed but I am of a certain age and enjoy listening to absolute 80's and planet rock on dab. Well I did. I use a Pure 2500 pocket DAB radio travelling to work which is great, but now sadly sounds like a ten quid piece of junk due to the abysmal bandwidth and switching to mono.
If this is progress then I'm a luddite!


http://www.a516digital.com/2013/04/ofcom-gives-gre...

Edited by Barkychoc on Wednesday 3rd July 20:27

[TheInternet]

Fixed link: www.a516digital.com/2013/04/ofcom-gives-green-ligh...

[PGM]

That's not good news, I like planet rock.

[Barkychoc]

Absolute 80's now 64k mono, Planet Rock 80k mono.

[PGM]

Borrowed a car with dab last week, 7 series. D1 reception is poor on the move too, worse than I remember when I last had one I think whilst BBC is improved and very good. This and the mono 80k (320 mp3 is passable but not perfect in my book) makes it no longer worth while to me.

[telecat]

You cannot sell DAB to Hi-Fi separates users because the Transmissions are so crap! That means that the "Starter" market isn't there leaving "Gadget" freaks who initially had to have it but find it not as good as it should be. The problem is that the licences and transmission costs are too expensive so they have to "cram" in stations. OFCOm don't stop them from doing it so the expected "digital" quality is not there. DAB+ would solve it by bringing the technology into the 90's but the BBC seem unable to grasp the reality and the government as usual just see pound signs from selling the "old" frequencies.

[JimbobVFR]

While it is won't help while travelling unless you have a decent connection and data allowance this is the reason I much prefer streaming to my Squeezebox over DAB.

Absolute radio even have FLAC experimental streams, but the 160K Ogg stream sounds fine to me.

http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk/listen/on-other-dev...