Simply use streaming data over the internet and dump DAB.

Of course, you may argue that none of this matters. But as stations were added, bitrates fell off and quality went south. Some stations were broadcast at 256kbps back when it was essentially a test technology for the BBC. It's supposed to offer better quality and more stations, but the more it does the latter, the less it can deliver the former.Įarly DAB adopters may even remember how good the technology was at launch. Immediately, you realise DAB is fundamentally at conflict with itself. Nice.īut every time you add a station, something somewhere has to give. With, say, four stations, you have a healthy 256kbps per channel. All your radio stations have to fit inside that 1Mbps budget. And the single data stream has a fixed data rate.įor the sake of argument, imagine that data rate in 1Mbps. The best way to think about DAB is as a single data stream carrying all available stations.

How, then, have we found ourselves in this position? Wasn't DAB meant to enable both far superior sound quality and many more stations? Bandwidth brainache While screen technology races into a bold new 4K ultra HD age, DAB radio is plumbing the depths and pushing the limits of audio awfulness.

DAB bitrates in the UK have actually been falling. Even Radio 3 is scraping the barrel for tolerable sound quality. And remember, those are all MP2 bitrates. But stations that broadcast at 64kbps - at least from some transmitters - include Absolute Radio 80s, Amazing Radio, BBC Radio 5 Live, Jazz FM, Rainbow Radio and many more.Īll the rest broadcast at 80kbps to 128kbps with a single, solitary exception, namely BBC Radio 3 which is 160kbps to 190kbps.

In other words, far, far more than many current DAB stations.Īctual bitrates will vary depending on where you are in the country. Even BBC Radio 3 is scraping the barrel for tolerable sound quality.'Īnyway, the tolerable minimum for most people who remotely care about sound quality tends to be in the 128 to 192kbps range for the MP3 codec. 'And remember, those are all MP2 bitrates. Pure's 300Di is a great way to add DAB - if only the system sounded better The sound of music

Something Bad by Dab10