Citroen DAB Offer

[AandR]

Has anyone had a Citroen AUTODAB or EZI-DAB fitted to their car by a Citroen dealer? Citroen are offering a "deal" on these accessories at the moment.

[lakeside]

Has anyone had a Citroen AUTODAB or EZI-DAB fitted to their car by a Citroen dealer? Citroen are offering a "deal" on these accessories at the moment.

Need to be a good deal to make it worthwhile. My 13 reg Multspace had DAB already fitted when I bought it. I do use it a lot and it is clearer. It can get a bit to get used to it and signals can disappear in Scottish Highlands and other places. Once logged onto it don't fiddle with it to much. I fiddled when there was no signal but didn't realise it and wondered why it was not working. Doh

[AandR]

Has anyone had a Citroen AUTODAB or EZI-DAB fitted to their car by a Citroen dealer? Citroen are offering a "deal" on these accessories at the moment.

Need to be a good deal to make it worthwhile. My 13 reg Multspace had DAB already fitted when I bought it. I do use it a lot and it is clearer. It can get a bit to get used to it and signals can disappear in Scottish Highlands and other places. Once logged onto it don't fiddle with it to much. I fiddled when there was no signal but didn't realise it and wondered why it was not working. Doh

Thanks for the advice Lakeside

[AandR]

I believe that these add-on DAB devices work by re-transmitting the received station into the built-in stereo via the aerial cable using FM.  So it's not possible for DAB to sound better than FM with a decent signal strength, as it is FM.  Your stereo is playing an FM station that's transmitted by the adaptor, and the text is transmitted using RDS - the same means used to display the station name when listening to an FM station.

Also the level of compression used by the broadcasters for DAB in the UK means that it usually will be lower quality than the same station on FM, even without re-transmitting it on FM.

I'd say that a DAB add-on is only worth using if you want to listen to a station that's only on DAB, not FM.  Otherwise I'll wait until FM is switched off, and judging by the way it's going that will be after the currently nearly new Berlingo's in a scrapyard.

Thanks for the advice Doofer. There are a couple of stations I would like to get on DAB. I had a hire car recently and that had a DAB radio - it was very clear and a huge amount of stations to choose from. Hence I've started to think about my own car .....

[nicebiscuit]

Worth looking at how cheap aftermarket DAB head units are. I have put a Pioneer in mine for not a lot of money, with a magnetic aerial routed out of the sliding door. Works great and well under £100

[Cims1]

Worth looking at how cheap aftermarket DAB head units are.  I have put a Pioneer in mine for not a lot of money, with a magnetic aerial routed out of the sliding door.  Works great and well under £100

I just got a Sonichi S100 Digital Radio Adaptor from Halfords for £50 plus external aerial fro another £15. Easy to fit - no wring required - and very impressed with quality of both the unit and the sound.

[nicebiscuit]

Yes, I've got one of those - not in the Citroen, but in my other car. It is very good.

[tezzerh]

I had a DAB fitted by the Citroen dealer when I bought my new Berlingo a year ago. It never worked properly, and even with it (allegedly) turned off, you could hardly hear FM. The dealer was unable to sort it out, eventually admitting they had only ever fitted one before. I got so cheesed off with it, I went to an independent car radio specialist, who took the cheap unit out and replaced it with a better one. It cost about £150 and works surperbly now. I don't think the Citroen dealer, with whom I have normally been very pleased, was familiar with these DAB units. I like DAB because I particularly enjoy BBC 4 Extra, which is only on DAB. When I get another Berlingo I'll take it straight to the independent radio specialist for them to fit a DAB unit, unless DAB is then part of a proper DAB/FM radio.