Have any UK drivers on here got the DAB Digital Radio option?

I'd love to know how you find it, particularly sound quality versus FM and signal stability when driving.

Thanks

 

We got this in the X5. I was fully planning on getting it for my new E60, until I experienced it in the X5...!

We have used it twice, once to check it worked, once to see how good it was, and never again. Quality of sound, couldn't tell the difference between FM and DAB (and I am really in to my stereos and music, got Logic 7 on X5 and Individual Audio on E60). I found that whilst driving, with FM when you start to lose signal, it might "hiss" a little, but you can still here it. With DAB, it cuts out completely on and off, like constantly muting and unmuting.

I expect if you live in the middle of London and don't do motorway driving, it would be fine, but we don't get wonderful reception round here, and also found it useless on a motorway drive. Also, the menu for using DAB is rubbish - it's not like FM where you can just "list all stations" and have it automatically update. With DAB, the stations are grouped in to transmission "pods" (whatever the correct term is, I forget). But you can't just find a station ... you have to search through each "pod" until you find the station you want. And they aren't labelled in any easy to find format.

It was a big let down, I was expecting a lot more from it. Waste of money on the X5, glad I didn't get it on the E60, and won't order it again even if they improve the user interface. My feeling is that DAB is great for home stereo, but not a moving vehicle.

 

Hi,
I find the DAB great. Quality is the same as FM I guess, but there are stations available on DAB not on FM (five live extra/sport etc.).

I have been round Cambridge, Manchester, Cheltenham, Oxford, South Coast and only had it glitch a couple of times. It flips over to FM if needs be and back to DAB when the signal returns. So far 3500 miles in 7 weeks, so given it a good test.

The downside, to me, is the traffic info obtained by RDS on FM doesn't seem to work the same on DAB - it only seems to flip over to one channel (Classic FM). But as the SatNav gets TMC anyway it isn't a real problem.

I'm glad I added it, and would probably do so again on any car where it were an option.

This is on a new E60 LCI, do don't know if things have improved with the LCI version or newer software.

 

That's what other people have said in the past ... if you want to listen to obscure (sorry rjc!!) channels that you can't get on FM, it's probably worth it. But if you just listen to Radio 1 and other main stream channels, save your money.

I doubt there is much difference between the X5 (it's the new E70 model, running latest software - updated just before Christmas) and the LCI E60.

 

I was interested in this till I realised how few used 5's there are with DAB.
Did hear that someone has managed streaming internet radio in his e60. Now that would be useful.

Is there a DAB retrofit option?

 

I have DAB on all the time, a mixture of R4, XFM and more obscure stuff like ArrowRock (for ageing rockers such as myself). Quality is indiscernible from FM but - as others have pointed out - when you lose the signal it goes completely. Driving into London along the West Way there is a dead spot by Paddington Basin (lots of tall buildings) where I always lose the signal, otherwise it's fine. Oh, and I've got presets (LCI car) assigned so that I can get to the stations I want quickly.

Personally I think it's a decent enough option if you have reasonable reception, so worth testing first.

BC