On Thu, 31 Jul 2003 15:45:49 +0100, "DAB sounds worse than FM"
wrote:

Phil Striplin wrote:

I believe, the first set not to require a second dedicated antenna for
DAB.


How have they managed this, or is it as complex as just using the FM aerial
and hoping for the best?

I don't know, and neither did the technical help guy at Goodmans. The
roof aerial I am using is, as it happens, about a quarter-wave for the
top end of Band III, so maybe I'm lucky. However, it seems to work.




It plays CD's, although the access to the CD player is gained by
flipping down the front panel. The hinge feels rather flimsy, and I'm
not sure how long it will stand up to regular use. It doesn't
recognise MP3.


This might sound dumb, but do all CD players recognise CD-R/RW in WAV
format?

Um...wouldn't have thought so. Doesn't an audio CD have some sort of
indexing, so a simple WAV file wouldn't be picked up?



I have two gripes with the DAB interface.

The set scans for DAB stations then places them in the order you have
selected (Alphabetical or Most Favoured (the ones you select most
often go to the top of the list)). This will usually result in a list
of between 20 and 40 stations. To select stations, you need to press
the up or down buttons. The set takes between 1 and 2 seconds to
react to the change. This is, to say the least, annoying.


1 to 2 seconds to change stations! That is crap.

Given the size of some DAB local multiplexes, you've probably driven
through it and out the other side by the time you've got round to the
station you want...


Say I'm in Birmingham. The set recognises that BRMB is transmitted,
and adds it to the list, (in between BBC R4 and Classic FM, say).
Assume I'm listening to Radio 4, driving down the M5.

Somewhere, the BRMB signal will drop out, but BBC R4 continues. If
after that point I want to move from Radio 4 to Classic FM, I should
be able to press the "up" button to get there. What in fact happens
is that the receiver:

(a) tries to get BRMB and fails;
(b) reports "no sig"
(c) tries to get the other local Birmingham stations on the same
multiplex and fails (well, it would!)
(d) concludes that there is no DAB service (even though it is only the
one multiplex that has disappeared);
(e) retunes the set to the last FM or AM station I was listening to.
(f) if you then force it back to DAB, it will try to get BRMB. You
can force it onto a preset station, but that only works if you've got
an appropriate preset set up.

There seems to be no way of skipping past the "dud" BRMB listing. You
*can* clean up the list to eliminate unreceivable stations by pressing
a couple of buttons, but this seems a clumsy way of getting around the
problem.


What a joke. I'm not sure they could get this worse than they've got it by
the sounds of it.

Plus the buttons are TINY. I'd like to see the correlation between
rear end incidents and people driving cars equipped with Goodmans DAB
near the borders of multiplex service areas ("which button do I
press..." WHAM)



The set does not have the capacity to recognise the corresponding FM
signal (as the Blaupunkt Woodstock does).


Yet another joke.


DAB sound quality is intrinsically not brilliant, but I found it quite
acceptable for incar listening.


You say below that you listen to a lot of speech stations. My experience of
listening to the speech stations is that the audio quality is tolerable, but
IMO the music stations' audio quality is intolerable, so could you enlarge
on what you think of the audio quality of the music stations?

You're right, in car I mostly listen to speech.

There is inevitably a high level of background noise when listening in
a car compared with the home. There are also lots of compromises with
speaker placement and general acoustics, which IMO mean that no in-car
listening can be described as "hi-fi".

Given all that, I don't think that the deficiencies of our current DAB
system materially degrade the sound any further (after engine noise,
road noise, wind noise etc have taken their toll). Or, if they do,
it's not noticeable to my ears in the same way that, say, a good DSat
transmission sounds different to DAB at home.


Conclusion
=========
Is it worth buying?

DAB really doesn't sound better than FM.


No surprise there then. No receiver ever made has been able to improve the
audio quality of a transmission damaged at source.


Or of course, for the £200 you'd get a far better audio quality model that
plays back CDs and mp3s I would imagine.

Absolutely - probably with a multi-changer thrown in, if you like
them. But that wouldn't do DAB.

And that's the point. There is genuinely a lot more choice on DAB,
and some of the stations - particularly the BBC ones - are very good.
If you really want that extra choice, then the Goodmans is worthwhile.
Better sets will doubtless come along, but with the nearest rival
currently costing twice the price of the Goodmans, there's not a lot
of competition.


You can get the Blaupunkt Woodstock for not that much more than this
Goodmans if you're prepared to buy it from Germany.

Really? You wouldn't happen to have a source in mind? The web ones
I've seen (and yes, it's about £220) won't ship to the UK- and don't
seem to include the DAB aerial. The UK suppliers, I think, do.



But could they please sort the damn station selection interface out!


And the bloody audio quality!

....and the coverage...

Phil