DAB Dying?
It might seem strange that an avowed lover of high-tech and music should not have a DAB radio: but so it is with me. In part, it's because DAB in the UK seems to be worse than FM (at least that's what Jack Schofield says, and his argument looks pretty reasonable).
But it's also been from a gut feeling that this is the wrong way to go. It looks like I'm not alone:In a sign of crisis for digital radio, UK commercial radio leader GCap will, as expected, sell its 67 percent stake in the DigitalOne DAB multiplex
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”We believe that broadband is the ideal complementary platform to analogue radio given the interactivity that they both provide, creating social networks and communities on-air and online.”
I suppose what I'm looking towards is a radio with built-in Wifi to pick up radio-over-IP signals sent out by one of my computers. One reason for that is the extremely high quality of music online these days: BBC Radio 3, for example, is broadcast at 64 kps, which is pretty much CD quality in a domestic setting. Who needs DAB?
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2 comments:
I've got two devices at both ends of the price spectrum which do exactly this:
One's a Denon S52DAB, which is good but does have some flaws: see http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R30WYBV705EVI0
It has DAB as well, as it happens, but I mainly use if for listening to my iPod and internet radio (KCRW and WFMU). It was pretty expensive though (£450).
The other is a super cheapo internet radio which I picked up in Currys for about £45 - I assume they weren't selling so they were trying to clear stock. For the price, it's phenomenal. It implements the "listen again" feature from the BBC a lot better than the Denon one, for example.
Both are running off WiFi (although the Denon has an RJ45 socket as well) and both will also stream sound files from a suitably equipped PC.
My 5 year old daughter is using the Currys one to play her favourite music, and she loves it.
Interesting - thanks for that feedback.
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