I might be swapping my car in the not to far off future and I'm intrested in getting a Digital radio as my dad has a hire car with one. Can you get something so you can keep the exisiting head unit as some of you may remember I can't stand aftermarket ones because they're always the wrong colour and shape for the car so never look right.
I've heard you can get something that picks it up and sends the signal via FM/AM so you just tune your radio to the second radio, what are these like and can they be set up concealed?

I considered sticking the inside of a new radio into the body of an old head unit but having opened one up, I don't really fancy that.

there was/is a product by Pure that does as you describe, my Dad has one, it is ok-ish.

Halfrauds are always advertising on planet rock that they do DAB car radio's for £100,..

pure_linky

hth

Thanks, yeah thats what I was thinking. Are they any good? I might just give in and buy a head unit if they're only £100. I'll have a look up Halfords on the weekend, they always seem to have a sale on stereos. I found some classic styled head units on ebay but none had DAB.

I had one of the brand name MP3 to FM transmitters, it was shockingly awful. The problem I had was that my car has the mother of all floating earths, so as soon as I switched the engine on it screamed through the transmitter. The obvious fix is to sort out the regulator and the earth points, but that seemed a lot of hassle.

I want to find one that actually plugs into the aerial lead rather than transmitting on FM. About twenty years ago my mate had a CD player that worked like that, because of the direct connection it was actually pretty decent. Still only FM standards but in an acoustically inefficient box (IE a car!) it was as good as it needed to be. Unfortunately all devices now seem to want to actually broadcast on FM, and with most cars having their aerial on the outside it does seem a little flawed.

It will be worth you checking the head unit first of all though, a lot of cars have head units with line inputs already there, either a headphone jack in front or proper phono connections in the back. Then all you need is a DAB unit with line out and you're all sorted. It's what I ended up doing with mine, I found it had a 'TV in' which I managed to jump on the back of.

As a brief description, currently the options are an FM transmitter type unit, such as the Pure Highway etc, that stick to your wind screen and plug into your cigar lighter. You will have cables in your car and the unit stuck to the windscreen like a satnav.

Alternatively, and at a higher cost, you can get a hideaway receiver such as the Autodab unit but that product is only controlled via the vehicles steering wheel controls.

There are a number of replacement DAB head units available that fall in between the above two products prices but they obviously replace your factory stereo and may not fit in with the look of your interior.

Not that it helps you now, but I am developing my own DAB receiver and a prototype is currently being made. It will be completely hide away, connect via your existing aerial connection, be controlled in a unique way and have a number of added benefits/features.......but that is all I wish to divulge at this point!

If you make one that works let me know.