The great DAB rip off

In my opinion there has only been one reason to listen to a DAB radio and that certainly is not, the much hyped, Hi-Fi quality.

Most radio stations play content at quite a low bit rate comparable to low quality downloads. The only reason that stations get away with playing such lo-Fi is that most listeners tune in on a glorified tranny radio and you cannot hear the music properly.

No, it’s Planet Rock, a great station that is on most of the time in my house. Now it is up for sale and may well close down - strike one.

Strike two - The DAB standard is changing soon to DAB+ and most radios that have been sold so far will not even be able to decode the new format. Some are supposed to be capable of upgrades via a USB socket but whether the new standard will be supported is dubious.

DAB radio has been a fiasco for radio stations and the whole system is now under threat.

This entry was posted on 13/02/2008 at 02:03 pm and is filed under Rants, General photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.