Best EVER VFM Upgrade – C-KO’s New DAB Tuner Gives Good Stuff

There are some 23 million cars out there with stock FM radios.
Some ignorant souls in the automotive world are getting fretty about the FM switch-off and when it is going to happen. The Digital Radio UK organisation are now in control of efforts to promote both the broadcaster use and listener ‘˜migration’ to DAB and have told Talk Audio that when the market penetration of DAB units hits 50% of listeners, then the date for the FM gradual closedown will be announced. Well, that’s going to be ages but in the meanwhile, there is a whole world of brilliant broadcasting out there, only on DAB, just like there is on digital telly versus old fashioned-terrestrial.
Right now, on the digital TV front, the same sort of non-profit organisation as Digital Radio UK (the one with the little TV robot dude in the adverts) has reached the ‘˜looking after the pensioners and disabled’ phase of providing DVB-T set-top boxes and installation for the ‘not technically equipped’ for a few pounds, prior to analogue TV switch-off.

With all those OEM FM radios driving around, there have been some truly stalwart and cleverly designed solutions offered to enable DAB reception in cars with deeply embedded and unlikely-to-change systems. They are from at least a couple of companies, one of which is Celsus Ice so we’ll look at that in due course, as I know they are excited about it.
But what about all of those of you who are likely to read Talk Audio magazine? Enthusiasts, lovers of good sound and choice of tunes. Well, you can change your headunit to a DAB and loads of you will. Kenwood’s are looking sexier than ever. But what if you have a posh system with AV capabilities already? These things cost plenty and to have it rendered obsolete at its broadcasty heart is a cruel blow. Thus, for the aftermarket buyers, those who have already invested in Ice, C-KO have developed a lovely hideaway DAB box.

It has an AV input socket set of its own on one side to replace the one you just used plugging it into your system’s AV in. It has a source button on the card remote it comes with to call up this extra device. It has a connector for the DAB aerial and another to connect the Infra Red ‘˜eye’ to, for controlling the unit.

A simple display reveals that it has ten bands of six-station storage and after auto-tune, it picked up everything from outside my house, way more stations than on FM. There were clusters of ethnic stations, several Asian, Greek, Russian, Polish, all sorts.
And then Tony Rook, marketing ‘˜Master of the Toys’ switched to talkSPORT and revealed that that one DAB-only station (if you don’t count hissy Medium Wave) is a crucial persuader for selling DABs to blokes. Especially cabbies, I gather.
Sound was crisp and it means DAB for all those with an audio-visual input in their car and so access to a new ocean of cool radio. You do have to have a screen to see the display but it’s cunning as hell. Expect to pay around £140 plus fitting.
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