My new personal DAB radio is soaking up the battery power so fast that I am considering going back to my personal FM radio. Great sound on DAB but eats up energy.
2007-06-30 22:26:59 · 5 answers · asked by dusty 4 in Cars & Transportation ➔ Car Audio
Quite simply the electronics required to decode the digital radio signal and turn it into sound is more complexed than the relatively simple electronics required for an FM signal. The extra power is being used to operate those more complexed circuits.
2007-06-30 22:39:39 · answer #1 · answered by 203 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
On balance I think it is worth it. I enjoy classical music and want to hear the full range of the orchestral instruments. I find DAB does have the advantage in superior AF quality. Also where I live I seem to pick up local stations on DAB just as easily as on FM. Another advantage of the DAB set I have is that it has a "pause" facility. If for example I am in the middle of some very interesting radio programme and do not want to miss anything, and all of a sudden the phone rings or some unwelcome person calls at the front door who I need to get rid of , I just press the "pause" button, and then when interruption has been disposed of , can carry on listening at precisely the point I left off, even if it was 30 minutes or more ago You can not do that with FM or AM (unless of course you have a built in cassette recorder and actually start it up on "record" at that moment). Although with DAB you do not have as good a range from transmitter, my Roberts DAB radio has the option of changing to FM when the need arises. For example before driving back from the south coast to Reading, I can change to FM just to get the traffic reports from Radio Berkshire from 50 or 60 miles away on FM, which is too far away for DAB to be able to pick up. But I can not change it to AM if I want longer range reception.
2016-05-20 00:42:56 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
New technology, and so far nobody has come up with low power circuitry. Hopefully this will improve as DAB takes off. Remember laptops running on internal batteries have improved enormously when the demand appeared
2007-07-01 05:46:52 · answer #3 · answered by The original Peter G 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The power consumption shouldn't be draing your battery with the car running. If your battery is getting weak and you're not running accessories with the car OFF for long periods of time, then there may be a problem with your battery or alternator.
One way to tell it's power consumption is look at the fuse for the device. It can't pull more amperes than what the fuse is rated for.
2007-07-01 04:08:03 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Pretty much anything with constant digital streaming requires more power than analogue signals. I've noticed the same thing with my digital guitar effects pedal, which EATS batteries compared to the old Boss units I have.
2007-07-01 09:30:58 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋