This is not about the sound quality or its dubious issues, I just want to listen to 6 music without having to run it through the TV – mostly because the satellite dish is battered by the wind giving broken signal.

Got a rather modest hifi setup, I just want to turn on and listen. What are other people using?

Separates? Aux from a portable? Internet/network separate instead?

Separate would be first choice, but new is circa £200 and there isn’t a lot of choice of reviews – probably due to dwindling broadcast quality and streaming uptake.

I used to use a first generation pure dab tuner. Standard hifi separates footprint, I think the model was drx701. It did the job, but I sold it in the end to free up cash and space and now use the TV through freeview. Reason I mention it is I imagine they are pretty cheap on eBay now, I certainly didn’t get much back for mine. It worked well as a tuner, build quality was respectable, and sq was as good as you’ll get from the low bit rate DAB broadcast. can’t think what else you’d need to know from a review.

I use either Sonos or a Chromecast Audio. Chromecast Audio for £30 will stream 6Music to a HiFi over WiFi.

bog standard portable dab/cd player via headphone socket to aux connection on my amp, good enough for my untrained ears

i’ve got quite a nice denon dab on my workshop hifi, bought very cheap out the local paper as it had no leads. its good but maybe not amazing soundwise. not sure i would pay full whack for one.

reading this thread i may well bring it in and try it on my better system just to see how it sounds.

anyhow before i had it i just streamed through my iphone via wifi and was perfectly happy.

also just realised, in my office i do as above but via my pc. i have a behringer uca202 dac (google it, cheap and excellent) into an old yamaha amp (now sadly got to be replaced as a channel is out, annoying as i’m missing my music, wheres a cheap old nad when you need one) and i think the sound from all that is pretty good.

we’ve got the pure drx702es, it’s very good but don’t use it much as the denon amp has all web based radio functionality you could ever need.

As above, just get a cheap Pure one dab radio and plug into hifi aux input via its headphone out socket. The jack plug to rca leads are really cheap on ebay.

Did look at chromecast audio, but was ultimately looking to streamline the process to about 3 button presses.

Looks like ebay/Gumtree will have the answer.

Having DAB through the main stereo removes the need for Sonos as can play it loud enough to hear anywhere in the house 🙂
Monitor Audio Internet radio in the bedroom isn’t too bad at that, but doesn’t quite make it to the kitchen.

As you imply, DAB in the UK is broadcast at some shitty low bitrate isn’t it (and Mpeg2, which itself is shit) ?

I listen through my pc but pretty much anything you use will be doing the DAB justice

ps – avoid 6 music in the mornings until 10am, and Sunday afternoons: Shaun Keaveney, Guy Garvey, Jarvis Cocker… urghhhhhh

Internet radio. I have an old Squeezebox hooked up to the amp, although my latest amp does have built in Internet radio but the interface is a bit rubbish. Have a Squeezebox server (or Logitech Media Server as it’s called now) on my NAS but I think you can use them without the local server. I just use that for streaming my own music collection.

I wouldn’t touch DAB myself. I’d still go with FM if there was no Internet option, though I’d need an aerial. Long since did away with such things, apart from the Sky dish (which also has radio).

May go back down the Internet route with something simple and compact like the Q2 Cube then as I always liked the look.

ive got a squeezebox touch for sale if you decide to go down that route?

Look at internet radio through a network streamer. I’ve got a demon dnp separate which sounds great. It will also AirPlay. No fm or dab option though. Seems to be where the market is heading.

DAB separates have always been rare (and overpriced). I’ve got an old Pure in one room I picked up second hand and a Yamaha AV amp with built in DAB and AirPlay in the kitchen.

Having faffed with streaming in the past I really like the “push a physical button and listen” DAB gives.

Get Sky out to fix your dish?

Yamaha CDN301

I never used to like stuff that did more than one job, but I’m glad I bought this. Streams DLNA, Spotify, Net radio (including 6 music (if you must)) and has a pretty decent sounding CD player too. It’s 200 quid, but does a fair bit for the money.

Tibo DAB separate available for £100 on Amazon. Looks like a properly made bit of kit with a solid metal front panel. A load of bad reviews due to a batch that were incompatible with earthed amps but identified and fixed now from the looks of things.

It used to be that nearly all DAB radios were based around the same Frontier Silicon chipset. I think there are a few more options now but it’s not going to make any difference to sound quality.

Videologic (Pures name before they changed it) :

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Videologic-DAB-Tuner-Plus-Remote-and-Instructions-/262295378549?hash=item3d1205da75:g:wqcAAOSwPc9WxLrB

I have had some decent SQ out of DAB and listen to it everyday on a Cowon player and Shure SE535 headphones, but I seem to be hearing periods where the shows I record have a fair amount of noise on, which is really annoying as I have an external aerial above the roof line.

Just shows what a pile of junk DAB is, the BBC were originally enthused about it because they reckoned it would be more robust to multipath issues for car reception but hissy FM is better than listening to underwater DAB.

I’ve got one of these in my barn plugged into an old amp and speakers.
£25 and you can take it with you if you want.

This just reminded me I have a perfect condition, barely used technics separates dab tuner in the attic in a box. Not been used in over a decade.

RRP was £500 in Jan 2001. Can’t believe I spent that much actually. Ah, its all coming back to me. I got superfi to price match at about 2/3s of the cost. Still crazy money.

Pure Evoke 2s plugged into a Marantz amp.

Usually listen to FM for music, just switch to DAB for 4Extra, 5 live and non FM stuff.

but I seem to be hearing periods where the shows I record have a fair amount of noise on, which is really annoying as I have an external aerial above the roof line.

Are you in a really marginal reception area or have you failed to actually connect your aerial somehow? With ‘enough’ aerial on a set I never get any interference. On portable sets it does sometimes seem a bit weather dependent (but then usually the aerial’s not fully extended and it does vary by set)

In car ours works amazingly well (with an external aerial). Just after we first installed it we drove from Central London to Skye and it was rock solid until we were over the Scottish Border. Reception fails are rare enough that I can list them (there’s a dead patch on the A303 on the west side of a big hill where the traffic stacks up after Glastonbury)

Cougar – going to take a lot of bracing to stop the dish being blown about, winter has just been rather windy this year.

zzjabzz – interesting to hear your experience, seen that on my browsing and looks good and versatile. Just the mental block of replacing a good functioning CD player I already have.

Have it in the car with an amplified aerial, even get signal in the signal black spots.

Certainly a few more ideas, thanks all.

simons_nicolai-uk – Member
…. Reception fails are rare enough that I can list them (there’s a dead patch on the A303 on the west side of a big hill where the traffic stacks up after Glastonbury)

Since you may be in t’South, please let me know if you’ve ever managed to listen all the way along the M27 from Southampton to Portsmouth, or the A36 south of Salisbury. My external aerial can’t get anywhere near it

Not areas I’ve been to for many years. Maps say it should be ok but that doesn’t mean a lot.

What sort of aerial?

Are you in a really marginal reception area or have you failed to actually connect your aerial somehow?

noise isn’t there now – maybe there were a few extra tall cranes building something in a town between me and the transmitter for a while.

Still a failed project if I can’t keep good reception with a professionally fitted aerial on the chimney, in Surrey and without any major hills I can think of between me and the transmitter (forgot which one I am looking at).

Since you may be in t’South, please let me know if you’ve ever managed to listen all the way along the M27 from Southampton to Portsmouth, or the A36 south of Salisbury. My external aerial can’t get anywhere near it

South Coast is a disaster for DAB. I can get it 100% in the car from Fort William all the way to 10 miles from my house. Driving East from Plymouth it starts cutting out on the M27 proper.

It’s bloody frustrating.

After a lot of not getting anything done about it, just got a Yamaha CD-NT670D. It does everything, internet radio, DAB, networks, several streaming surfaces and CD.
Only thing that bugged me (but not enough to stop me buying it) is that it is narrower than the amp so looks odd stacked.

First impression is it’s doing good, can quickly get the source I want and the switchgear feels lovely.

Just shows what a pile of junk DAB is, the BBC were originally enthused about it because they reckoned it would be more robust to multipath issues for car reception but hissy FM is better than listening to underwater DAB.

Since getting a proper external aerial on the car I don’t get any dropouts at all around Wiltshire/Somerset/Gloucestershire and all the way to London.
I can’t make any comments about the South Coast, I’ve always got the satnav running playing music from the phone, but my little Pure plastic trannie would happily play 6Music tucked away in a valley near Start Point when I stayed down there.
FM is utterly useless in the car, I’d lose signal completely four miles from Chippenham, at Corsham, and not pick it up again until right into Bath, eight or nine miles away!
Crap, absolutely crap.