DAB - GROM Vs Dension

[Rufus59]

I'm looking at getting DAB for the Z4 and was wondering if anyone has experience of the above solutions? Once specced, they work out roughly the same price so it would purely come down to how the individual units perform.

Would be particularly keen to hear from the professional nav guys and how that integration works on the screen.

Thanks

 

[krusty]

I would avoid DAB: it is a very low res compressed digital format, so unless you like listening to really low quality music (low of the low streaming mp3), I'd stick with 16 bit 44.1kHz CDs or standard FM: the latter might crackle a little sometimes, but I find it far more pleasing than the excessive lossiness of DAB. Your typical DAB signal throws out about 80% of the digital content of the original CD material ... and leaves it up to your brain to put the signal back together again. This is partly why listening to lossy mp3 can cause early listening fatigue.

 

[Rufus59]

Interesting, I had no idea DAB did that. When I've had it in my previous Fords it has been noticeably better than FM, to my ears anyway. CDs are not an option for me, Spotify killed CD's in my car.

I'm 50/50 with DAB at the moment, if I manage to solve my FM issues then I'll probably scrap it. I listen to a lot of talk radio and those crackles drive me mad

 

[d3matt]

I've got DAB in my Audi A5 and I get very frustrated with signal drops. Its not a step forward. FM works far better.

 

[indeep75]

I installed the Dension 300 unit in may car and connect my iPhone to play stored music and stream from Spotify etc. Quality is very good.

I can't survive without BBC Radio 6 music so for DAB stations I stream from the TuneIn Radio app on my phone set to 'highest quality' in the stream settings. This is not strictly a DAB signal, it's using mobile data to stream over the internet. For me the quality is much better when compared to FM on my car radio and I rarely have signal drops though this issue will vary depending on location.

Don't have NAV so can't comment on screen integration.

 

[goon]

If you have dab at home scroll through the display menus and take a look at the broadcasted bit rates, many are very low quality which is ok for chat and news type channels but many of the music stations aren't even in stereo the bitrates are so low, 64 or 80kb in some cases. Dab started of well in the late 90s but many stations had to reduce their bandwidth quality so other channels could be squeezed in, this was due to the Gov changing the broadcast allocation and selling more off to mobile phones etc.

 

[Rufus59]

Scrapped DAB idea and opted for Grom instead of Dension. I stumbled across Dension's Facebook page and from the reviews it looks like their after sales support isn't great :?