DAB Radio

s_purs

Guest
Hey guys,

I am looking to change my CD player HU very soon and I have read some threads about good CD player units, etc, but I haven't found anything about DAB radio?

Has anybody fitted DAB to their car? Do you get good reception?

I know DAB has been very slow to take off in cars due to reception issues, that's why I really want to read up on it properly and find people who have tried it. The other thing is that I currently do bot live in a big city, so I would assume my signal would be even worse around my area, but I do go on the M25 (unfortunately) a fair bit so would assume signal would be good around the Heathrow area of that?

Cheers
 

EddC

Active Member
Jun 11, 2010
64
0
I got the sonichi fitted from halfords. Has a little external ariel that if you put next the the original aerial stops it from being noticeable. I've had it about a month now and I love it. The Bluetooth phone function is fantastic too, I've had no issues with people not being able to hear me :).
Hope this helps,

Edd

Edit:

Oh and the reception is fantastic. I've had no issues with it. But you deffo need an external aerial. The sonichi comes with one in the box.
 
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s_purs

Guest
Sounds good, I heard the new DABs for cars are much better now. You said you have to put the aerial by your original one, can you not just replace the original one with the new one? How much did the whole thing cost? How much was the fitting?

Cheers
 

EddC

Active Member
Jun 11, 2010
64
0
Well you don't have to put it by the old one, just looks a bit better. I'm not sure you can change the original one as the aerials are cut to length to work at certain frequencies. I think i paid £160 with the unit, the facia adaptor plate and fitting. I paid them to fit it as I couldn't be bothered messing about running cables through the head lining lol.

Edd

Edit: that's the one. Sb50. I've had no issues with the aerial scratching my roof and the magnet is string enough, however it did blow over at 125 mph. So I just figured that when I go on the drag strip or track day I would just pop it back in the boot. How often do you do 120 on the road?? Lol
 
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Sparks69

Guest
I've got a Blaupunkt DAB54 Woodstock radio in my FR with a Blaupunkt Autofun internal aerial in the windscreen. Overall it is pretty good, however on my commute to work the reception is patchy so the signal does drop out.
I've also fitted a Pure Highway in my wife's 320d but the internal aerial is not very good and
really needs a strong signal to get the best out of it, I use the Highway's FM transmitter to send the signal to the BMW stereo.
 

EddC

Active Member
Jun 11, 2010
64
0
I used to have the highway dab in my old truck. It came with the windscreen aerial. It was ok, didn't drop signal that much. But always did in the same areas (m18, m1, a1 etc) and bear in mind that my windscreen aerial was about 10 foot off the floor. Anyway a subby used my truck and smashed the windscreen :rolleyes: so I bought a roof mount from fleabay. The difference was fantastic. It didn't drop signal anywhere anymore :D

Anyway...

Aerial on the roof

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Headunit installed

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Edd
 

s_purs

Guest
Its good to hear that the reception seems to be much better now. Its just a shame you dont seem to be able to replace your current aeriel with the DAB one- I have hating one long aeriel on my car let alone 2 :(
 
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