better radio technicka or phillips ?

[john zeiss]

Would anyone have an opinion on the *better* of two DAB small 'pocket sized'
radios that have recently come on to the market, please?

One is Tesco's Direct; Technicka dab 108p at £34 and the other is Phillips
DA1103 at £29. Thanks.

[john zeiss]

Post by john zeiss
Would anyone have an opinion on the *better* of two DAB small 'pocket sized'
radios that have recently come on to the market, please?
One is Tesco's Direct; Technicka dab 108p at £34 and the other is Phillips
DA1103 at £29. Thanks.

Oops ! Sorry that should have been the Phillips at £39 !

[Stefan]

Post by john zeiss

Post by john zeiss
Would anyone have an opinion on the *better* of two DAB small 'pocket sized'
radios that have recently come on to the market, please?
One is Tesco's Direct; Technicka dab 108p at £34 and the other is Phillips
DA1103 at £29. Thanks.

Oops ! Sorry that should have been the Phillips at £39 !

If you want sound quality you are better off looking around at car boot
sales for a 25 year old FM radio such as an old Grundig or Roberts. Sounds
better than any of the new stuff on offer and probably costing less than a
fiver !!
I'm afraid that you will still have to put up with excessive compression
used in broadcasting these days.

[Richard Evans]

Post by Stefan
If you want sound quality you are better off looking around at car boot
sales for a 25 year old FM radio such as an old Grundig or Roberts. Sounds
better than any of the new stuff on offer and probably costing less than a
fiver !!
I'm afraid that you will still have to put up with excessive compression
used in broadcasting these days.

I was tempted to say the same thing, except that from reading John's
post, I'm not sure whether it was sound quality that he was asking about.

Richard E.

[john zeiss]

Post by Stefan
If you want sound quality you are better off looking around at car boot
sales for a 25 year old FM radio such as an old Grundig or Roberts.
Sounds better than any of the new stuff on offer and probably costing
less than a fiver !!
I'm afraid that you will still have to put up with excessive compression
used in broadcasting these days.

I was tempted to say the same thing, except that from reading John's post,
I'm not sure whether it was sound quality that he was asking about.
Richard E.

Many thanks. I do have a small pocket Sanyo fm/am radio which is very good.
I dont know if it's the specific area I live in, in north London,
Finchley/Mill Hill; but when I walk around with it, the reception quality
keeps changing almost at every corner I turn. So much so that I just don't
use it as a pocket radio anymore.

Which is why I thought buying a small pocket DAB might overcome that
changing direction reception problem?

[Richard Evans]

Post by john zeiss
Many thanks. I do have a small pocket Sanyo fm/am radio which is very good.
I dont know if it's the specific area I live in, in north London,
Finchley/Mill Hill; but when I walk around with it, the reception quality
keeps changing almost at every corner I turn. So much so that I just don't
use it as a pocket radio anymore.
Which is why I thought buying a small pocket DAB might overcome that
changing direction reception problem?

That will probably depend upon whether you are near a DAB transmitter.

I used to use a DAB personal stereo, a Perstel DR101, and reception
quality often very poor compared to FM. However if you are in North
London, you might be near the Brookams Park TX, which might provide a
good signal, compared to FM, which doesn't have an additional TX in the
area.

Sound quality however is another matter. I stopped listening to DAB
because the poor sound quality was getting on my nerves. However these
days I often don't like the sound of FM either, due to most stations
using dynamic compression.

The problem with sound quality on DAB is the very old mp2 codec and the
bit rates being too low. The mp2 codec was designed to be used at about
256k, but 98% of DAB broadcasts use it at only 128k, which is only half
rate it was designed for. Modern encoders help slightly, but at 128k,
the sound quality is still very poor.

[f***@live.co.uk]

Post by Richard Evans
I used to use a DAB personal stereo, a Perstel DR101, and reception
quality often very poor compared to FM. However if you are in North
London, you might be near the Brookams Park TX, which might provide a
good signal, compared to FM, which doesn't have an additional TX in the
area.

The Perstel DR101 is a first-generation pocket radio. It's shit. More
recent models are much better and, in my experience, vastly preferable
to pocket-based FM reception.

Finchley/Mill Hill is not particularly near Brookmans Park. It's not too
far from Alexandra Palace, though.

[Silk]

Post by Stefan

Post by john zeiss

Post by john zeiss
Would anyone have an opinion on the *better* of two DAB small 'pocket sized'
radios that have recently come on to the market, please?
One is Tesco's Direct; Technicka dab 108p at £34 and the other is Phillips
DA1103 at £29. Thanks.

Oops ! Sorry that should have been the Phillips at £39 !

If you want sound quality you are better off looking around at car boot
sales for a 25 year old FM radio such as an old Grundig or Roberts. Sounds
better than any of the new stuff on offer and probably costing less than a
fiver !!

Oi, moron! That might be ok if there is something you want to listen to
on FM.

[Stefan]

Post by Stefan

Post by john zeiss

Post by john zeiss
Would anyone have an opinion on the *better* of two DAB small 'pocket sized'
radios that have recently come on to the market, please?
One is Tesco's Direct; Technicka dab 108p at £34 and the other is Phillips
DA1103 at £29. Thanks.

Oops ! Sorry that should have been the Phillips at £39 !

If you want sound quality you are better off looking around at car boot
sales for a 25 year old FM radio such as an old Grundig or Roberts.
Sounds better than any of the new stuff on offer and probably costing
less than a fiver !!

Oi, moron! That might be ok if there is something you want to listen to on
FM.

Answer from the 'moron'.
I worked in the tv/hi fi industry for nearly 30 years. Couldn't do it now as
there is very little to sell in my opinion of 'merchantable quality'. Poor
sound and poor picture with lcd & plasma compared to products of years gone
by. Standards have also gone backwards in broadcasting quality of sound and
picture. One has to be a liar or deaf and blind to sell honestly to the
public these days.

As for listening to FM, I mainly listen to speech. Gave up listening to
music some years ago due to too much compression. Although compression is
still annoying when listening to speech, it is a little more bearable. Why
on earth would I want to listen to DAB where sound quality is even worse
than a 25 year old FM radio ?
It's a 'No Brainer' even for a moron !

[Silk]

Post by Stefan
Answer from the 'moron'.
I worked in the tv/hi fi industry for nearly 30 years. Couldn't do it now as
there is very little to sell in my opinion of 'merchantable quality'. Poor
sound and poor picture with lcd & plasma compared to products of years gone
by. Standards have also gone backwards in broadcasting quality of sound and
picture. One has to be a liar or deaf and blind to sell honestly to the
public these days.
As for listening to FM, I mainly listen to speech. Gave up listening to
music some years ago due to too much compression. Although compression is
still annoying when listening to speech, it is a little more bearable. Why
on earth would I want to listen to DAB where sound quality is even worse
than a 25 year old FM radio ?
It's a 'No Brainer' even for a moron !

Again, you missed the point. If the station you want to listen to is
only available on DAB, FM is not a lot of good, is it?

[Richard Evans]

Post by Silk
Again, you missed the point. If the station you want to listen to is
only available on DAB, FM is not a lot of good, is it?

However. If the station you want sounds so bad on DAB that it is
annoying to listen to, then you are back to square 1. DAB is not a lot
of good either.

That's why I ended up using my IPod in the car, as there are very few
broadcast services worth listening to these days. 90% of FM stations get
on my nerves, due to excessive dynamic compression, but with DAB 100% of
stations get on my nerves, due to cr*p sound quality.

However my IPod playing ***@256k, without any form of dynamic
compression sounds great. Shame it's not very practicable. I still
listen to one or two FM stations, that usually sound OK, but when I'm
out of range of these stations, the IPod can be very handy.

Richard E.

[tony sayer]

Post by Stefan

Post by Stefan

Post by john zeiss

Post by john zeiss
Would anyone have an opinion on the *better* of two DAB small 'pocket sized'
radios that have recently come on to the market, please?
One is Tesco's Direct; Technicka dab 108p at £34 and the other is Phillips
DA1103 at £29. Thanks.

Oops ! Sorry that should have been the Phillips at £39 !

If you want sound quality you are better off looking around at car boot
sales for a 25 year old FM radio such as an old Grundig or Roberts.
Sounds better than any of the new stuff on offer and probably costing
less than a fiver !!

Oi, moron! That might be ok if there is something you want to listen to on
FM.

Answer from the 'moron'.
I worked in the tv/hi fi industry for nearly 30 years. Couldn't do it now as
there is very little to sell in my opinion of 'merchantable quality'. Poor
sound and poor picture with lcd & plasma compared to products of years gone
by. Standards have also gone backwards in broadcasting quality of sound and
picture. One has to be a liar or deaf and blind to sell honestly to the
public these days.
As for listening to FM, I mainly listen to speech. Gave up listening to
music some years ago due to too much compression. Although compression is
still annoying when listening to speech, it is a little more bearable. Why
on earth would I want to listen to DAB where sound quality is even worse
than a 25 year old FM radio ?
It's a 'No Brainer' even for a moron !

Well if he's a moron .. then I'm a moron too..

..Wanna come outside and say that punk;?..

Go on ... make my day;)...

if you've got the bits for it;!...

[Richard Evans]

Post by Stefan
Answer from the 'moron'.
I worked in the tv/hi fi industry for nearly 30 years. Couldn't do it now as
there is very little to sell in my opinion of 'merchantable quality'. Poor
sound and poor picture with lcd & plasma compared to products of years gone
by.

I'm still using CRT TV sets. Hope they don't break, as I don't want to
have to make do with a Plasma. Perhaps if the technology improves in a
few years then I might consider one.

There is the problem of picture quality on Freeview, but fortunately for
some reason that particular problem doesn't usually bother me too much.

Post by Stefan
Standards have also gone backwards in broadcasting quality of sound and
picture. One has to be a liar or deaf and blind to sell honestly to the
public these days.

And there seem to be a few lias and deaf people on alt.radio.digital.

Post by Stefan
As for listening to FM, I mainly listen to speech. Gave up listening to
music some years ago due to too much compression. Although compression is
still annoying when listening to speech, it is a little more bearable. Why
on earth would I want to listen to DAB where sound quality is even worse
than a 25 year old FM radio ?
It's a 'No Brainer' even for a moron !

I still listen to one or two local FM stations that don't sound too bad.
Some are worse than others. Actually I find these days about 80% of
stations sound too bad to be worth listening to, mostly due to excessive
dynamic compression. There are a few that I listen to in the car when in
range. Otherwise I resort to my IPod connected to my car stereo. Not the
most practicable solution, but at least ***@256k with no dynamic
compression sounds good in the car.

Richard E.

[UnsteadyKen]

Richard Evans wrote...

Post by Richard Evans
There is the problem of picture quality on Freeview, but fortunately for
some reason that particular problem doesn't usually bother me too much.

I think the picture I get on Freeview from a Sony VTX-D800U via RGB to
a Sony 28" set is quite watchable. Perhaps the small screen size covers
up any glitches, I can't do comparisons between analogue and DTTV as
the ideal contrast & brightness for off air and RGB are so different as
to make it meaningless.
Can you describe the picture problems you observe on Freeview? I'd like
to keep an eye out for them. The only thing I've noticed is the odd
attack of the jaggies on some OB's, and the smoothing of textured areas
such as grass and skin etc.

[Rob S]

On Wed, 10 Dec 2008 11:20:15 +0000, Richard Evans
<***@tiscali.co.uk> wrote:

-Otherwise I resort to my IPod connected to my car stereo. Not the
-most practicable solution, but at least ***@256k with no dynamic
-compression sounds good in the car.

As a matter of interest how are you connecting your ipod to the car stereo? Does
it have a jack plug connector, or are you using one of those "personal" FM
transmitters?

[Richard Evans]

Post by Rob S
On Wed, 10 Dec 2008 11:20:15 +0000, Richard Evans
-Otherwise I resort to my IPod connected to my car stereo. Not the
-compression sounds good in the car.
As a matter of interest how are you connecting your ipod to the car stereo? Does
it have a jack plug connector,

Yes. I bought and Auxiliary socket and fitted it. The car stereo already
had an AUX button, but I still have to install the kit.

Post by Rob S
or are you using one of those "personal" FM
transmitters?

I tried to different FM transmitters, thought they were both utter cr*p
and sent them both back. That was when I decided to opt for the AUX socket.

Both transmitter models made the stereo light come on, but the sound
still actually came out in mono. Admittedly one of the two models didn't
actually claim to be stereo, but the other, that I bought in Tesco,
actually had the words "FM stereo transmitter" printed on the packaging.
So there was no excuse for that one to produce only mono.

Richard E.

[Mike Cawood, HND BIT]

Post by Richard Evans

Post by Stefan
Answer from the 'moron'.
I worked in the tv/hi fi industry for nearly 30 years. Couldn't do it now as
there is very little to sell in my opinion of 'merchantable quality'. Poor
sound and poor picture with lcd & plasma compared to products of years gone
by.

I'm still using CRT TV sets. Hope they don't break, as I don't want to
have to make do with a Plasma. Perhaps if the technology improves in a few
years then I might consider one.

Get an LCD TV, they are considerably more common that plasma TVs.
Regards Mike.