Strong disagree. The “more stations” is really, really important in markets with few options. Even in markets like Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth the FM choice is diabolically limited. The DAB stations are vital, as is the digital broadcast of AM music stations like 4BH.
As for dropouts, they are non-existent in the Brisbane metro area and even towards both Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast. Just doesn’t happen.
Not so for AM stations, where even 32 Kbps is an improvement in sound quality on most receivers. There is also no static or interference from sources like overhead tram lines or power lines.
Although I’m not sure about this, if DAB+ is anything like FM, then there should be improved in-building coverage in built up area (e.g. inner city) compared to AM.
Bingo. Imagine you are little ECC in the Upper Hunter, and you were stuck with 2NM, Power FM, 2KY and 2UH, and eventually Newsradio. Boring stuff. But then, along comes digital radio with the promise of more stations - like Triple J and maybe wider music choices. Little ECC would be delighted.
This is how aggreation got sold in the regional areas - you get 2 more stations! Maybe a third if SBS pulled their finger out. Quality is one thing, but sometimes, quanity is what gets you over the line.
There is in the Sydney CBD, helped no doubt by having infill DAB repeaters atop the Centrepoint tower.. There is meant to be one atop 101 Collins St in Melbourne CBD too, not sure if that is on air or not.
I wonder if CRA will consider moving them to above Central station once the new Atlassian building opens.
Would it make much difference?
I think they would be better off leaving it where they are now.. Centrepoint is more centrally located and moving the repeaters out to the southern edge of the CBD would probably make reception worse anywhere from Pitt St mall up past Martin Place, which is probably where Artarmon DAB has the worst coverage.
I think I completely forgot there is even a possibility of this being rolled out outside major cities since it never happened and seemingly never will
Thanks TV Cynic, a shame, the 2A and especially 1A made a clear difference within the licence area around buildings and in the open air, examples include the western valleys south of Worongary and north of Coomera around Pimpama.
Trials years ago by Trevor Harwood, TJH Systems around Wollongong and BAi at Dockers Plains and Mt Baranduda in recent years proves DRM+ is a huge success in Australia, reasonable price for implementation and maintenance, excellent coverage and no concern of interference.
I don’t doubt the transmission technology. It’s more a question of if Australia could ever get critical mass of car receivers with both DAB+ and DRM.
I think DRM would be a hard sell too… it’s hard enough already as it is when consumers can’t differentiate between digital display analogue, analogue radios with RDS displays, DAB+ and ‘digital radio apps’.
I agree. Many people can’t even find DAB in the car let alone another band. I’ve personally had to show a couple of friends what DAB even was in their car, and how to activate it… sad, but true.
Agree, when I bought my 2 year old car in 2022, the DAB+ radio had never been used as when I first switched to it, it started doing it’s initial scan.
It’s the poor marketing that makes it a hard sell.
I think DRM would have been a bit easier for the stations to market - DAB+ is one scan and all your competition is listed right next to you by name, whereas technologies like HD Radio and DRM+ are tied much closer to a frequency that the station controls, much like how now they all promote their own separate apps.
Promoting “Triple M 80s on 105.1-HD2” doesn’t assist your competition like “Find us on DAB+ after scrolling past Gold 80s first because it’s in alphabetical order!” does.
Even if DAB just had channel numbers “Listen to MMM 80s on DAB Channel 57” you’d avoid that issue, it’s very anti-radio to just be looking by name when advertising a frequency was the way for a century.
One way to make DAB+ sound better that I have noticed is to use speakers instead of headphones.
Using headphones on my pocket Sangean, it’s very evident to me that the sound is super compressed. It feels like I’m trying to eat candy and calling it a full meal. After a while it really wears me down mentally, even with perfect reception.
Using speakers on my portable Richter, I find I can basically listen to it the same as anything else and I don’t really notice the compression as much.
Obviously the signal itself isn’t changing, so I can only think this must be some kind of neurological thing? I think my brain fills in the “gaps” itself when it’s on speaker. But those gaps are more evident, and harder to fill, when I can hear it better?
The headphones would be more revealing audio wise so would be revealing more of the compression artefacts than over say a single mono speaker in a radio. A decent Hi-Fi setup would also reveal these shortcomings.
In summary 32kbps still sounds like crap over any moderately decent audio setup.
So in a sense you are better off with a worse system
I can’t prove it, but I think that some better receivers do a far better job at SBR - I think some cheap devices might not even bother, or do it very poorly.
Then you’ll love the JBL Tuner 3
It has a neat feature where you can change the station using the phone via the JBL Speakers app.
Note: not paid by JBL, I have a lot of their gear and I trust them. If anyone from JBL would like to take me on as a spokesperson for an obscene amount of money, please reach out 
.