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      02-09-2013, 12:18 PM   #1
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DAB sounds BAD!

I really wish I had not bought this option. It sounds so compressed compared to FM. There is a lack of bass, lack of clarity in treble and mid frequencies and a significant loss of dynamic range. I mainly listen to Classical Music on Radio. My ex also feels the same.

I can improve the sound on DAB to some extent with the Graphic Equaliser but then the FM sound gets screwed.

£300+ down the drain. I could have bought Variable Sports Steering (VSS) instead for £50 less. And to add insult to injury, DAB is free now just a couple of weeks after I got my car!

I am really very hacked off.
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      02-09-2013, 12:45 PM   #2
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Surely it's not free, they just increase the price of the car!
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      02-09-2013, 01:00 PM   #3
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Originally Posted by Captain Cow Pat View Post
Surely it's not free, they just increase the price of the car!
It comes as standard now so my understanding is/was it's free. I don't think the prices were increased in January 2013.
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      02-09-2013, 01:26 PM   #4
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Sorry to hear you're disappointed. I have to say, the industry has been very naughty in misleading consumers on sound quality ever since DAB hit the market.

it was technically (by virtue of bandwidth, and hence, bit rate and bit depth) significantly inferior to FM. There is physically no chance of it sounding anywhere near as good as halfway decent FM.

Suggesting that DAB has something to do with superior sound ought to be illegal.

Anyway, sorry this doesn't help your cause. Maybe just one to put down to experience, unless you could persuade your dealer that you were wrongly led by them to believe that DAB offered better sound quality ... not sure if there's any option to retro-fit standard FM unit though.
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      02-09-2013, 01:43 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Daveyc View Post
Sorry to hear you're disappointed. I have to say, the industry has been very naughty in misleading consumers on sound quality ever since DAB hit the market.

it was technically (by virtue of bandwidth, and hence, bit rate and bit depth) significantly inferior to FM. There is physically no chance of it sounding anywhere near as good as halfway decent FM.

Suggesting that DAB has something to do with superior sound ought to be illegal.

Anyway, sorry this doesn't help your cause. Maybe just one to put down to experience, unless you could persuade your dealer that you were wrongly led by them to believe that DAB offered better sound quality ... not sure if there's any option to retro-fit standard FM unit though.
I should have known better. I was 50/50 about this.

If the sound system in the car is a very basic one, DAB sounds OKish. However, with a higher quality sound system eg HK, the deficiencies of DAB are truly glaring. £300+ for something I don't use really grates. The only small mercy is that there is no interference.

I wonder if I could get a rebate from BMW? They are advertising DAB as the next best thing since sliced bread and are therefore perpetrating an untruth. No wonder it is free now.

Do you have DAB?
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      02-09-2013, 02:11 PM   #6
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While it technically not free for anyone who placed the order from Jan 2013 (forced to pay via the £305 price increase of the car), I definitely would have gone for another option. Either VSS or M Brakes.

Prefer to listen to audiobooks or music on iPhone to be honest or stream radio. Been a while since I actually listened to the Radio from my car...
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      02-09-2013, 02:35 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by venkata View Post
While it technically not free for anyone who placed the order from Jan 2013 (forced to pay via the £305 price increase of the car), I definitely would have gone for another option. Either VSS or M Brakes.

Prefer to listen to audiobooks or music on iPhone to be honest or stream radio. Been a while since I actually listened to the Radio from my car...
The cheeky devils!
No such thing as a free lunch.

When will FM be switched off?

Read this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012...switch-off-pan
And this:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#axzz2KR6PFzyi
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      02-09-2013, 02:42 PM   #8
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Funny, I have DAB and don't listen to anything else....I would rather have solid reception than scratchy FM. But then again I travel the country where FM is crap.

As for which sounds better, some DAB stations broadcast at low bit rates, others very high. So all depends on which stations you listen to. FM stations also run through a codec, so no different.
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      02-09-2013, 02:47 PM   #9
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Originally Posted by NISFAN View Post
Funny, I have DAB and don't listen to anything else....I would rather have solid reception than scratchy FM. But then again I travel the country where FM is crap.

As for which sounds better, some DAB stations broadcast at low bit rates, others very high. So all depends on which stations you listen to. FM stations also run through a codec, so no different.
Classic FM for example sounds better on FM than DAB. So do all the others.
I can see your need for solid sound due to your travels. I mainly drive in Central London. The FM system in the F30 is pretty near perfect for my needs. I wish I had specc'd VSS instead and saved £50.
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      02-09-2013, 02:53 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by F30AM View Post
Classic FM for example sounds better on FM than DAB. So do all the others.
I can see your need for solid sound due to your travels. I mainly drive in Central London. The FM system in the F30 is pretty near perfect for my needs. I wish I had specc'd VSS instead and saved £50.
There are people that actually listen to ClassicFM????

Fair enough, but you live right under an FM antenna, so..........
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      02-09-2013, 03:00 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NISFAN View Post
There are people that actually listen to ClassicFM????

Fair enough, but you live right under an FM antenna, so..........
I'm not a Young Turk like you! I'm a true Culture Vulture in the most refined sense.
I only listen to Hip Hop, Pop, Euro Pop, Clubby Music etc when I'm high on Glue Sniffing followed by some Alcopops and especially when there is some Snow around!!!!
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      02-09-2013, 03:24 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by F30AM View Post
I should have known better. I was 50/50 about this.

If the sound system in the car is a very basic one, DAB sounds OKish. However, with a higher quality sound system eg HK, the deficiencies of DAB are truly glaring. £300+ for something I don't use really grates. The only small mercy is that there is no interference.

I wonder if I could get a rebate from BMW? They are advertising DAB as the next best thing since sliced bread and are therefore perpetrating an untruth. No wonder it is free now.

Do you have DAB?
I think you're quite right in feeling like this. To position DAB as offering good or improved sound is a puffed up con with bells on. There are benefits with DAB, the main one being that you can access more stations. The matter of noise is down to perception - I'd rather have some faint background hiss than listen to the slightly flattened, thin sound of DAB, but each to their own.

One thing to remember: if you have the DAB setup in your car, you have two receivers in one: DAB and FM. Good in some ways, but it means that much less money has gone into the FM side of the unit, so sensitivity and sound quality will suffer. So comparing DAB sound to FM sound on a DAB system will give a poor account of FM. As others said, most FM stations should sound significantly better than DAB counterparts, even on a the HK in-car system, but the gap does vary by station.

If you can bear classical music for a few minutes, it's worth tuning in to Radio 3 FM. That station has the biggest bandwidth allocation of any of the UK stations and you can really hear it. Listening to Radio 3 FM on a big home rig, you can come close to matching the sound of today's top end CD players, even with a relatively modest tuner. In this situation, FM is simply leagues ahead of DAB.

Classic FM is OK on FM, but they put a lot of EQ on the sound, so bass is over heavy and DJ voices rumble (even female ones ...). Radio one suffers same, but much worse, as does Kiss FM. Just too much bass waffle and rumble on the HK system.
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      02-09-2013, 03:32 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Daveyc View Post
I think you're quite right in feeling like this. To position DAB as offering good or improved sound is a puffed up con with bells on. There are benefits with DAB, the main one being that you can access more stations. The matter of noise is down to perception - I'd rather have some faint background hiss than listen to the slightly flattened, thin sound of DAB, but each to their own.

One thing to remember: if you have the DAB setup in your car, you have two receivers in one: DAB and FM. Good in some ways, but it means that much less money has gone into the FM side of the unit, so sensitivity and sound quality will suffer. So comparing DAB sound to FM sound on a DAB system will give a poor account of FM. As others said, most FM stations should sound significantly better than DAB counterparts, even on a the HK in-car system, but the gap does vary by station.

If you can bear classical music for a few minutes, it's worth tuning in to Radio 3 FM. That station has the biggest bandwidth allocation of any of the UK stations and you can really hear it. Listening to Radio 3 FM on a big home rig, you can come close to matching the sound of today's top end CD players, even with a relatively modest tuner. In this situation, FM is simply leagues ahead of DAB.

Classic FM is OK on FM, but they put a lot of EQ on the sound, so bass is over heavy and DJ voices rumble (even female ones ...). Radio one suffers same, but much worse, as does Kiss FM. Just too much bass waffle and rumble on the HK system.
Are you sure? On NBT cars i think DAB/DAB+ is just an enabling code, so not DAB cars have the hardware in the head unit/NBT already. Not too sure about the antenna though.

DAB is definitely worse sounding than FM, but DAB+ can sound quite decent, at least here in NZ.
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      02-09-2013, 03:41 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Daveyc View Post
I think you're quite right in feeling like this. To position DAB as offering good or improved sound is a puffed up con with bells on. There are benefits with DAB, the main one being that you can access more stations. The matter of noise is down to perception - I'd rather have some faint background hiss than listen to the slightly flattened, thin sound of DAB, but each to their own.

One thing to remember: if you have the DAB setup in your car, you have two receivers in one: DAB and FM. Good in some ways, but it means that much less money has gone into the FM side of the unit, so sensitivity and sound quality will suffer. So comparing DAB sound to FM sound on a DAB system will give a poor account of FM. As others said, most FM stations should sound significantly better than DAB counterparts, even on a the HK in-car system, but the gap does vary by station.

If you can bear classical music for a few minutes, it's worth tuning in to Radio 3 FM. That station has the biggest bandwidth allocation of any of the UK stations and you can really hear it. Listening to Radio 3 FM on a big home rig, you can come close to matching the sound of today's top end CD players, even with a relatively modest tuner. In this situation, FM is simply leagues ahead of DAB.

Classic FM is OK on FM, but they put a lot of EQ on the sound, so bass is over heavy and DJ voices rumble (even female ones ...). Radio one suffers same, but much worse, as does Kiss FM. Just too much bass waffle and rumble on the HK system.
Radio 3 is superb but some of the music is really not to my liking.
I totally agree with all you say about Classic FM and other the Channels you mention.

I listen to quite a few top quality Classical CDs and they do sound superb on the HK. The Lord is merciful!
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      02-09-2013, 03:50 PM   #15
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Originally Posted by F30AM View Post
When will FM be switched off?
I read somewhere that FM was due to be switched off around 2015, however the adoption rate for DAB has been slow, so the switch off has been delayed to around 2020. Not a concern for most of us.

Interesting point about DAB being worse than FM, I always thought DAB was suppose to be way better than FM purely because it's digital!
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      02-09-2013, 03:54 PM   #16
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I always thought DAB was suppose to be way better than FM purely because it's digital!
Oh God, you've done it now...
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      02-09-2013, 03:58 PM   #17
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I'm a salesman's dream customer....give me some flashy lights and I'm sold.
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      02-09-2013, 04:11 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kitster View Post
I read somewhere that FM was due to be switched off around 2015, however the adoption rate for DAB has been slow, so the switch off has been delayed to around 2020. Not a concern for most of us.

Interesting point about DAB being worse than FM, I always thought DAB was suppose to be way better than FM purely because it's digital!
Digital generally does terrible things to sound. It took the best audio engineers 25 years to produce a high-end CD player that could finally give a performance as rich, full-bodied and emotionally satisfying as a mid-range record player. The best CD players will now make your hair stand on end, make you smile or weep as convincingly as a top-notch record player.

That's wonderful news if you love music and, better still, many mid-priced CD players will now do the same. But don't forget that there is nothing natural about digital. Quite the opposite. Sound is created in the analogue world and our ears and brains interpret it in the same analogue world. To digitise sound is to bugger it up almost irretrievably. And if you drop the bandwidth too low in the process, then no amount of engineering genius will ever get the tears or smiles back. Gone forever.

And FM will be turned off at some point, although I can't really see it happening in 2015, as DAB uptake is still too low. It'll be sad when it happens.
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      02-09-2013, 04:12 PM   #19
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For me, analogue rules especially with Classical Music. I've got a highend Hi Fi system which costs more than my car. I love my turntable and vinyl. My CD Player very closely mimics my vinyl sound. They both sound superb. But I am of a different generation to all you Flashy Young Turks!

BTW, LEDs affect sound quality in a negative way. A highend system has no lights. Or if it does, they are switched off when one is seriously listening to music
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      02-09-2013, 04:27 PM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Daveyc View Post
Digital generally does terrible things to sound. It took the best audio engineers 25 years to produce a high-end CD player that could finally give a performance as rich, full-bodied and emotionally satisfying as a mid-range record player. The best CD players will now make your hair stand on end, make you smile or weep as convincingly as a top-notch record player.

That's wonderful news if you love music and, better still, many mid-priced CD players will now do the same. But don't forget that there is nothing natural about digital. Quite the opposite. Sound is created in the analogue world and our ears and brains interpret it in the same analogue world. To digitise sound is to bugger it up almost irretrievably. And if you drop the bandwidth too low in the process, then no amount of engineering genius will ever get the tears or smiles back. Gone forever.

And FM will be turned off at some point, although I can't really see it happening in 2015, as DAB uptake is still too low. It'll be sad when it happens.
You are 100% my man! Digital sound can never reproduce the emotion one gets from vinyl. Very close with a very, very expensive CD player, but never quite there. Great dynamics and no clicks and pops.

It will be a very sad day when they switch off FM. My tears will cause the Thames Barrier to activate.
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      02-09-2013, 05:22 PM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by F30AM View Post
Classic FM for example sounds better on FM than DAB. So do all the others.
I can see your need for solid sound due to your travels. I mainly drive in Central London. The FM system in the F30 is pretty near perfect for my needs. I wish I had specc'd VSS instead and saved £50.
Next you'll be saying you wished you had ordered M Sport brakes too.
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      02-09-2013, 05:30 PM   #22
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Originally Posted by dopper99 View Post
Next you'll be saying you wished you had ordered M Sport brakes too.
No, that would be a brake too far.
But I did think about it when I first put the orders in and it was just for the colour.
Just VSS instead of DAB.
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