Recommend wanted for DAB upgrade

Pilchard

Member
I'm looking for an easy cheap and effective way of getting decent quality reliable DAB on the original radio/cassette player in my car. Someone here must have done it, and I know there are a variety of little kits advertised. I'd rather not climb the learning-curve on my own, so if anyone wants to hold my hand....
Unless all responses advise against the above as a waste of time and money, I don't really want to go to the expense and hassle of replacing the old radio/cassette with a presumably expensive DAB unit.
I might sound like a tight-wad, but it's a 2003 model which I've owned just one year, and with almost 180k on the clock... it could go terminal at any time.
 
Just add a Bluetooth adapter, then stream the radio stations of your choice, music from your phone, etc.
I use AnyCarLink 1080B,but there's lots of others.
Mac.
 
I'm looking for an easy cheap and effective way of getting decent quality reliable DAB on the original radio/cassette player in my car. Someone here must have done it, and I know there are a variety of little kits advertised. I'd rather not climb the learning-curve on my own, so if anyone wants to hold my hand....
Unless all responses advise against the above as a waste of time and money, I don't really want to go to the expense and hassle of replacing the old radio/cassette with a presumably expensive DAB unit.
I might sound like a tight-wad, but it's a 2003 model which I've owned just one year, and with almost 180k on the clock... it could go terminal at any time.
Can’t recommend the Pure go 600 enough.
Though one of my colleagues has sold the car I fitted one for him so might be willing to sell his for less.
 
Wow! Some great recommends there.

Having been born at a time when both the coal-man and rag-&-bone man still travelled by horse and cart, I hope you'll be able to excuse and be patient with this not very tech-savvy old geezer for failing to understand what the acronym laden sales blurbs of these product are intended to inform me of... or even maybe failing to understand their purpose.
Ease of use, convenient, intuitive, reliable, versatile, cheap... are what I'm prioritising, and probably roughly in that order. I don't mind spending if it really is the dog's gonads, but can also see the benefit of beginning my journey of discovery on this little learning curve in the cheap zone.... at least to start with.

The little jobbie that plugs into the cig lighter has a very appealing price, but before I even attempt to try to understand what it does and how it does it, I recognise its major flaw.... the cig lighter in my car is way back behind the handbrake. The prospect of operating it at 85mph on the rain-lashed M6 doesn't fill me with glee. Or is it all voice operated? Siri... play me the Goldberg Variations by JS Bach, or... Siri, play Muddy Waters' Mannish Boy...? Siri... play me an Alan Bennet monologue. That kind of convenience would be amazing... at any price!
I AM thinking of upgrading my phone from the antiquated Galaxy S4, so I dare say with a little patient experimentation....... anything is possible.

But here in the Lake District, you are lucky if you can get a reasonably consistent mobile signal... especially while on the move. Even FM can be challenging... one of the reasons I want DAB access... to supplement it. Sometimes I even have to tune to archaic Long Wave to get BBC Radio 4.
I suppose I should get out of the back of my cave and download entertainment to my phone. But I never have, and doubt I ever will.

I have a little Pure DAB pocket radio that I take out on walks with me to listen to BBC Radio 5 live (although Emma Barnett gets right on my tits) and I can use that in our motorhome because the radio on that has an auxiliary input socket. But the drawback there is not having access to the exterior antenna on the van, so we are occasionally having to hold the thing up in a top corner of a windscreen or dangle it out of a window.
The car stereo has no socket, so I can't use it there.
Something I can swap from one vehicle to the other would be perfect.

So... that's where I'm at. Are any of those recommends still relevant?
 
If you add Bluetooth to the A2 radio, with an adapter (don't worry which, or how for now), and do the same for each radio that's mobile, ie mobile home etc, then use the phone (S4 is fine for now) as the hub.
The poor signal issue, on FM and Phone is unlikely to be much improved by DAB.
The user interface on a phone is as good as any, and better than most, so that makes it a good choice as the hub.
I would suggest you learn how to add music, a radio player app, download monologues etc to the phone, and use that on your walks, when signal is absent, or Emma is on (I'd add that Kuenssberg woman myself).
For now, don't worry about particular brands. Consider what things you want to do, and learn how the phone can do them.
Upgrading the phone is unnecessary, it won't make things much easier, and for what most of us do, an older phone is fine.
So, my recommendation is to make friends with your phone, then evolve from there.
PS: I too remember rag'n bone men with carts. And pig bins, kitchens without a fridge, etc, (how did we manage?).
Mac.
 
The cigarette lighter thing is not actually a DAB radio receiver (its a Bluetooth to FM transceiver) - it connects to your phone via Bluetooth (low power radio signal) then broadcasts a standard FM radio signal so you can tune into it and listen on your car radio. You can then use your phones data connection to listen to any online streaming services such as BBC Sounds (all BBC radio output), Spotify (music streaming service) etc or anything else thats stored on your phone. Once its connected you dont need to touch it - its all done via the phone.
For an actual stand alone DAB radio receiver, the Pure 600 looks great - but you don't actually need it if you're happy to use mobile data instead!
 
The cigarette lighter thing is not actually a DAB radio receiver (its a Bluetooth to FM transceiver) - it connects to your phone via Bluetooth (low power radio signal) then broadcasts a standard FM radio signal so you can tune into it and listen on your car radio. You can then use your phones data connection to listen to any online streaming services such as BBC Sounds (all BBC radio output), Spotify (music streaming service) etc or anything else thats stored on your phone. Once its connected you dont need to touch it - its all done via the phone.
For an actual stand alone DAB radio receiver, the Pure 600 looks great - but you don't actually need it if you're happy to use mobile data instead!
These FM adapters (like the ciggy socket gizmo) use a quiet part of the FM band. Trouble is, that band is pretty crowded, and finding an unused frequency is not easy. Not unknown to pull alongside another car, and find yourself on there choice of music!
Used one in our caravan, in France a few years back, and found that half a dozen of our neighbours were listening to the Today Programme, we were getting via Freesat, each morning via our "relay"
Mac.
 
If you add Bluetooth to the A2 radio, with an adapter (don't worry which, or how for now), and do the same for each radio that's mobile, ie mobile home etc, then use the phone (S4 is fine for now) as the hub.
The poor signal issue, on FM and Phone is unlikely to be much improved by DAB.
The user interface on a phone is as good as any, and better than most, so that makes it a good choice as the hub.
I would suggest you learn how to add music, a radio player app, download monologues etc to the phone, and use that on your walks, when signal is absent, or Emma is on (I'd add that Kuenssberg woman myself).
For now, don't worry about particular brands. Consider what things you want to do, and learn how the phone can do them.
Upgrading the phone is unnecessary, it won't make things much easier, and for what most of us do, an older phone is fine.
So, my recommendation is to make friends with your phone, then evolve from there.
PS: I too remember rag'n bone men with carts. And pig bins, kitchens without a fridge, etc, (how did we manage?).
Mac.
Wise advise Mac. I will attempt to crawl out of the back of my cave blinking in the harsh light of this brave new word that has such tech in't.
We'll be staying with our son over the hols... screw Boris and his bunch of paranoid androids... and he is a bit more tech savvy than me, especially with entertainment tech... so I think I'll get one of the little jobbies that DS287 mentioned and give it a try.
 
The cigarette lighter thing is not actually a DAB radio receiver (its a Bluetooth to FM transceiver) - it connects to your phone via Bluetooth (low power radio signal) then broadcasts a standard FM radio signal so you can tune into it and listen on your car radio. You can then use your phones data connection to listen to any online streaming services such as BBC Sounds (all BBC radio output), Spotify (music streaming service) etc or anything else thats stored on your phone. Once its connected you dont need to touch it - its all done via the phone.
For an actual stand alone DAB radio receiver, the Pure 600 looks great - but you don't actually need it if you're happy to use mobile data instead!
All good advice and, despite PlasticMac's warning about crowded FM, I think I'll give the little jobbie a go. The one your link takes me to, has just below it a "newer version of this item" and scrolling down, there is something that comes with a cable and lighter plug allowing the control part to be dash mounted... rather than out of sight next to the handbrake. Would you recommend either of those?
 
Back
Top