[Nohedes]

OK thought I had a bright idea this weekend... in a moment of excited anticipation at the arrival of my new E92 on Tuesday, I thought I would buy a portable DAB Radio to play through the AUX IN connection (I didn't order 6FL).

Went to John Lewis and bought a PURE DAB1500 for £79 (includes Sennheiser headphones - bargain!).

Anyway having got the thing home, it I'm not actually sure it will work - will it be able to get a signal in from the arm rest, are the headphones required as part of the antenna, is this a waste of money etc.

Has anyone successfully played a portable DAB through the AUX IN that can confirm this will work??

Much appreciated,

N

[SDRX]

Firstly mate, congratulations on the car. Hope everything runs smoothly Look forward to any pics you put on here !!! Nice one, and good choice too.

In principle, your idea is sound. An auxillary input, by definition should accept any signal from an audio out. However, that unit must have its own power supply and be self-sufficient (in terms of tuning capability etc). An obvious disadvantage is that you have fiddle with the DAB radio itself, rather than flick buttons on the steering wheel.

[ShereKhan]

I tried this experiement with an early Philips portable DAB radio.

What I found was that it picked up next to nothing when inside the car. A bit like a faraday cage! The unit had to pinned to the window and held at a certain angle.

I have thought about buying a newer DAB unit as the technology may have moved on from the old one I have. I'd be interested to know if your experiment with yours works.

[Ragman]

I tried the same thing with a portable DAB player - I too got next to no signal when in the car, sometimes it would work with the car stationary but as soon as I moved the car it lost the signal. I wondered if it was due to the unit using the headphones as the antenna and the input lead being just a standard audio input lead.

I also have a DAB radio for the office (big steel framed building) that works even where an old tech FM won't work. The portable unit won't get a signal in the office so maybe the portable unit is just crap. It maybe that a better manufacturer would be build a unit that is able to pick up the signal in areas of a weaker signal?

Only one way to find out.

[Nohedes]

Thanks for the repiles guys.

I think you are confirming my suspicions but as I've now got the radio, I'll give it a try tomorrow when the car arrives.

Will let you know how I get on.

[Nohedes]

Gave this a try last night. Plugged the DAB radio in via a Belkin jack-to-jack cable and connected the unit to the AUX IN slot.

On the short (5miles) test route the DAB worked fine, although it doesn't work if you shut the armrest lid. Didn't suffer from any distortion or 'squelch' that you sometimes get with DAB if the reception isn't very strong.

In summary this is probably worth doing if you want to listen to stations that aren't available on FM/AM such as BBC 6 Music or BBC 7.

The Pure DAB1500 radio is very good btw, with an excellent user interface, good sound, main rechargeable battery pack and it's even bundled with Sennheiser headphones.

Cheers

[DaveC]

The Pure Highway http://www.lovemyradio.com/ (doesnt look like its out yet but they are plugging it with adverts) looks like it might be a good option as it comes with a small windscreen antenna that connects to the radio via a 2.5mm jack plug - my thought was maybe to stick up the antenna near the A pillar, get a 2.5mm to 2.5mm extender cable and run the signal back to the unit which I'd keep in the armrest or maybe drop inside where the ashtray would be if it'd fit in a sunglasses holder version.