DAB car stereos & aerials
Moderators: jifflemon, coyote1980, Rachel
DAB car stereos & aerials
Hi,
I understand dab radios work on a different sort of areal or antenna to fm/lw radios (more modern cars have those little shark fin areal's I think). So my question is, if replacing my old areal for much needed re-spray is it a good idea to upgrade my areal to a dab type & my car stereo at the same time?
I understand dab radios work on a different sort of areal or antenna to fm/lw radios (more modern cars have those little shark fin areal's I think). So my question is, if replacing my old areal for much needed re-spray is it a good idea to upgrade my areal to a dab type & my car stereo at the same time?
Re: DAB car stereos & aerials
I have dab radio in, and just used a converter, the £19.99 one from dab on wheels.
http://www.dabonwheels.co.uk/DAB_car_aerials.html
It works brilliantly, the key is to hook it up at the rear near the aerial, you will need to get an extension for the dab wire thing I got this one;
http://www.dabonwheels.co.uk/DAB_aerial ... w_loss.asp
Only problem is I tapped into the near side dlr lights at the back for power and it has made them dim so will need to sort that, you could run another accessory 12V from behind the din along with the extension. I drive from Leeds to the countryside of east Yorkshire where they are still waiting for channel 5 and it never looses signal so could be worth a try before forking out on a new one.
http://www.dabonwheels.co.uk/DAB_car_aerials.html
It works brilliantly, the key is to hook it up at the rear near the aerial, you will need to get an extension for the dab wire thing I got this one;
http://www.dabonwheels.co.uk/DAB_aerial ... w_loss.asp
Only problem is I tapped into the near side dlr lights at the back for power and it has made them dim so will need to sort that, you could run another accessory 12V from behind the din along with the extension. I drive from Leeds to the countryside of east Yorkshire where they are still waiting for channel 5 and it never looses signal so could be worth a try before forking out on a new one.
Had a Turbo, then got a celebration, then had to go back to Turbo!!!
Re: DAB car stereos & aerials
Great, thanks for this, very helpful!
- jamesy12345
- 480 Veteran
- Posts: 753
- Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2012 5:49 am
- Location: Durham, England
Re: DAB car stereos & aerials
hello gents....a thought just occurred to me...i can use my mobile phone to get digital radio via the internet, and have a head unit that will take aux input. Tried it and its not bad. I've also used a cassette tape with aux lead attached to get DAB through the older volvo tape players.
Its never going to feature on Pimp My Ride but does the job! The Orange Blossom Special recently completed a Peterborough to Durham run to the sounds of Bobs Ska Radio from Seattle check it out...
Its never going to feature on Pimp My Ride but does the job! The Orange Blossom Special recently completed a Peterborough to Durham run to the sounds of Bobs Ska Radio from Seattle check it out...
Current:
Volvo S60 '04
Renault 21 '91
Subaru Legacy '05
Mazda RX-7 '93
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Previous:
440 2 litre, 440 Turbo, 460 Turbo, 480 Turbo x2, 854 T-5R, S40 T4, V40 T4, S70 T5 & R, V70 R x2, S60 R
Volvo S60 '04
Renault 21 '91
Subaru Legacy '05
Mazda RX-7 '93
Renault 5 '84
Previous:
440 2 litre, 440 Turbo, 460 Turbo, 480 Turbo x2, 854 T-5R, S40 T4, V40 T4, S70 T5 & R, V70 R x2, S60 R
Re: DAB car stereos & aerials
Yep that does work nicely, but relies on you having a good 3g connection also be aware (for those that want to do it) that it could get through your download limit if you have one, and ultimately cost money.
I have a rear aux that I run a wire from, under the centre console and up through the arm rest which is quite neat for putting your phone into (or ipod). I found it really hard to get a DAB radio with a rear aux (got a JVC KD-DB52 DAB in the end), everything else seems to have them on the front these days, therefore an old cassette player will do just as well, if you don't mind wires everywhere, or getting a clever little micro-sd card cassette converter thing which are quite cool they can even skip files using the fast forward buttons on the head unit.
Tom
I have a rear aux that I run a wire from, under the centre console and up through the arm rest which is quite neat for putting your phone into (or ipod). I found it really hard to get a DAB radio with a rear aux (got a JVC KD-DB52 DAB in the end), everything else seems to have them on the front these days, therefore an old cassette player will do just as well, if you don't mind wires everywhere, or getting a clever little micro-sd card cassette converter thing which are quite cool they can even skip files using the fast forward buttons on the head unit.
Tom
Had a Turbo, then got a celebration, then had to go back to Turbo!!!
- jamesy12345
- 480 Veteran
- Posts: 753
- Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2012 5:49 am
- Location: Durham, England
Re: DAB car stereos & aerials
aye true enough those megabytes aren't cheap unless you have all-u-can-eat plan on yr phone or whatever. And yeah lots of wire everywhere. I won't give up the day job and start selling my ideas just yet then
Current:
Volvo S60 '04
Renault 21 '91
Subaru Legacy '05
Mazda RX-7 '93
Renault 5 '84
Previous:
440 2 litre, 440 Turbo, 460 Turbo, 480 Turbo x2, 854 T-5R, S40 T4, V40 T4, S70 T5 & R, V70 R x2, S60 R
Volvo S60 '04
Renault 21 '91
Subaru Legacy '05
Mazda RX-7 '93
Renault 5 '84
Previous:
440 2 litre, 440 Turbo, 460 Turbo, 480 Turbo x2, 854 T-5R, S40 T4, V40 T4, S70 T5 & R, V70 R x2, S60 R
Re: DAB car stereos & aerials
Well don't stop just yet, I should imagine everything will tend to head towards streaming and cloud storage in the end; cassettes - CD's - MP3's on your own storage (iPod etc) - cloud storage music (still MP3's or the like), get ahead of the game!!
Had a Turbo, then got a celebration, then had to go back to Turbo!!!
-
- 480 Newbie
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- Joined: Fri Oct 04, 2013 8:34 am
Re: DAB car stereos & aerials
If you dont want to convert to DAB just yet, then there is always the FM mechless headunit route. iv got an alpine XDA-100 at the moment and plan to pop in an XDA-305, with bluetooth option.
you just run a cable from your radio to your ipod - no more CD's or anything like that ancient tech the egyptians called Cassettes or you can use USB interfaces. if you hook the unit up to a USB hub you can have 3 usb sticks + 1 ipod, or if you are fancy, a USB output DAB radio
best of both worlds!!
or if you prefer the way james does it, with your mobile, theres an android headunit that takes your sim or links up to your phone and you can play the internet radio then!
another option is to strap a Site radio to your backseats. and keep the old HU in place im getting silly now lol![Rolling Eyes :roll:](./images/smilies/rolleyes.gif)
you just run a cable from your radio to your ipod - no more CD's or anything like that ancient tech the egyptians called Cassettes or you can use USB interfaces. if you hook the unit up to a USB hub you can have 3 usb sticks + 1 ipod, or if you are fancy, a USB output DAB radio
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
or if you prefer the way james does it, with your mobile, theres an android headunit that takes your sim or links up to your phone and you can play the internet radio then!
another option is to strap a Site radio to your backseats. and keep the old HU in place im getting silly now lol
![Rolling Eyes :roll:](./images/smilies/rolleyes.gif)
What good music needs is full deep bass to give it warmth
Re: DAB car stereos & aerials
Thanks for this- I keep holding off buying a dab as I agree with most of you it kind of seems like yesterdays tec already, I would o for James route but I still own a moto razor and don't plan to upgrade until it falls apart - sI'll look into this sexy Alpine thing ![Smile :-)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
![Smile :-)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
- spree
- Can tell where the 480 was built
- Posts: 324
- Joined: Wed Jun 09, 2010 11:57 pm
- Location: West London
Re: DAB car stereos & aerials
You can get an 8GB Moto G from tesco direct for £89.99 with the £10 discount code for a new sign up. They sell out quick but you can call them and they will tell you exactly when they are coming back in. It is a fantastic little phone as long as the camera is not vitally important. It's quad core, it's getting the latest android 'kitkat' this month and has a better screen then the iphone 5s.timrosser wrote:Thanks for this- I keep holding off buying a dab as I agree with most of you it kind of seems like yesterdays tec already, I would o for James route but I still own a moto razor and don't plan to upgrade until it falls apart - sI'll look into this sexy Alpine thing
![Wink ;-)](./images/smilies/wink.gif)
The latest android kitkat also has much improved audio eq with compression and it is also much easier to use the navigation app as you don't need to manually switch on GPS any any more. Plus google have finally sorted out the voice on it. Basically android now works very well in the car as a combined navigation and music system.