In article , Wally
writes
Jim H wrote:

How good, or not, is DAB through the external DAC?

The limiting factor is usually bitrate, not the DAC, so still worse
than FM.

Audibly, what differences are there between DAB and FM? I'm not a critical
FM listener (mainly because my tuner isn't exciting), so I'm wondering how
DAB would fare for background stuff.



Well on DAB the broadcasters have the opportunity to alter the
transmitted bit rates. "Quality" supposedly indistinguishable from CD
was reckoned to come in at 256 kilobits, but for most stations they have
now settled on 128 K/Bits (sometimes less and mono!) in order to pack
more channels in. Radio 3 is an exception at 192 K/bits. Most of the
128 K stations sound quite dire especially when "audio processing" is
applied in order to make them sound louder.

FM whilst not perfect uses a higher bit rate feed, NICAM 728 or a
version of it to feed the FM modulator which gives a higher quality of
audio assuming a good tuner and FM signal.


www.digitalradiotech.co.uk

has a lot of info of what's wrong with DAB in the UK:-((
--
Tony Sayer