02-10-2016, 11:56 AM
Some of Mike's objections were valid in the past but have a diminished force, if any, now. Battery life has improved greatly - I think Roberts' first sets offered around 8 houirs from a set of four D cells, now it's 120. There's not much of a receiver cost differential any more except at the very cheapest end of the market - no £3 DAB sets yet that I'm aware of - and anyone looking for a new radio will have a harder job finding a decent analogue-only portable than a decent DAB one. That's hardly an argument for digital radio as such, of course, just a consequence that in the face of relentless promotion the market has shifted that way, however sluggishly. Then, portable radios of quality were hardly very prominent before the first self-contained DAB sets arrived at the back end of 2001.
I actually rather welcomed DAB at the time, not just for ready access to the BBC World Service, still a favourite station here, and the now defunct Radio 7, but because it introduced a little life into a dreary domestic radio market where the vast majority of consumers were settling for very cheap and very poor portables. Then, with the maturing of the DAB market, most folk looking to buy a standalone radio at all today are probably settling for very cheap and very poor DAB portables...
Paul
I actually rather welcomed DAB at the time, not just for ready access to the BBC World Service, still a favourite station here, and the now defunct Radio 7, but because it introduced a little life into a dreary domestic radio market where the vast majority of consumers were settling for very cheap and very poor portables. Then, with the maturing of the DAB market, most folk looking to buy a standalone radio at all today are probably settling for very cheap and very poor DAB portables...
Paul
