Terrible radio reception

[Steel188]

Hi All,

Had my 3+ for 7 weeks now (nearly 4000 miles already) and really enjoying the comfort and general PHEV experience. However, the quality of the radio reception is really bad. I've checked that the RDS is properly set, but as I travel around I probably have reduced sound quality, or interference, around 50% of the time.

I travel all over the country and it appears that the RDS auto re-tune is very slow, because pressing the station select button usually rectifies the issue for a while. I listen to ClassicFM or Radio 4, which in my previous cars have only had problems in the remoter parts of Scotland or North Wales, yet the PHEV even looses signal in Central London!

Any experience from others would be gratefully received before I demand my dealer fixes it!

Thanks

 

[Ollycat]

No issues with either those stations in my 2016 car. I don't bother with DAB though, waste of time.

 

[ChrisMiller]

Why don't you like DAB, Olly? It's my first experience with DAB in a car and I appreciate the choice of extra stations. Reception (FM too) is tricky here in the Chilterns, where opposite sides of the hill are either in the London or Oxford multiplexes, so there's an occasional couple of seconds hiatus as it retunes.

 

[geoffshep69]

My first car with DAB as well, and generally I’m pretty pleased with it. Much better choice of stations and I can listen to TalkSport in much greater quality than in my previous car where I had to listen on MW. I didn’t even have LW in the last car so couldn’t get the cricket on Radio 4 LW (had to stream it via my phone) so looking forward to that as well later in the summer.

The DAB usually works OK, an odd moment when it goes blank but not very frequent at all and doesn’t really bother me. Only niggle I have is then when switching between the presets for DAB1 and DAB2, it doesn’t always display the correct station names on the display. For example, if I’m listening to a preset on DAB2, it will display the 6 preset stations, but if I then move to DAB1 it still shows the presets from DAB2. Fortunately there are only 6 to remember and its easy enough to know which button to press for the station I want.

 

[Ollycat]

We're in east Berkshire, I've always found there is a limited selection of DAB stations - same for the DAB radio in the house.

 

[Steel188]

Thanks all for the replies. As I have a 3+, I don't have DAB, just trusty FM with RDS. Compared to my previous cars (Zafira Tourer, Galaxy, C4 Grand Picasso & Vectra Estate) the sound quality is poor and the ability to hold on to a signal bad.

The car is booked in with a dealer next Friday as my Charging Port Flap has moved on its hinge so it now rubs the body as I open it, so I'll talk to them to see if my issues are considered worthwhile by them or whether I have to get MMUK involved.

I'll keep you all informed.

 

[discorduk]

As I have a 3+, I don't have DAB, just trusty FM with RDS. Compared to my previous cars (Zafira Tourer, Galaxy, C4 Grand Picasso & Vectra Estate) the sound quality is poor and the ability to hold on to a signal bad.

I have a 3 as well, yes the FM quality is abysmal. The RDS is slow to switch, the volume often gets quieter as the signal fades, the signal quality in general is poor so it has to retune way more frequently than previous vehicles I have had.

TBH I have found the electronics in general to be lacking in features and quality, yes this is a base model, but base models of much cheaper cars of similar size are way better, when my lease is up i wont be going with mitsubishi again thats for sure

 

[Ollycat]

No issues with either those stations in my 2016 car. I don't bother with DAB though, waste of time.

Decided to experiment on the way to work. Only 6 of the 18 presets had any reception, the others all had "No Data"

 

[ChrisMiller]

One of our regular runs is to Eton, and we have no problem with DAB reception there or en route. But you can get mysterious 'blind spots', as with mobile phone signals, so you may just be unlucky.

 

[Bladevane]

My first experience of DAB and I'm really pleased with it. There's a dead spot in Henley for a couple of seconds but that area is heavily shielded by buildings and narrow. Otherwise reception is as good as, if not better than FM.

 

[themolecatcher]

Yes, I have the 2015 basic 3 model and yes the FM radio is terrible...worst on any car Ive had in 30+ years

 

[billa]

Had my PHEV for a year now, work in London and travel up and down the motorway every couple of weeks, no problems with DAB radio only loose the signal in underground car parks......

 

[westdevon]

I'm in West Devon and DAB reception is great. I've been all over the South West without any problem. Its unusual for Devon to have anything that works better than other places. I cant get a phone signal at home though

 

[jthspace]

Interestingly, DAB isn't the massive success that was hoped for. WiKi has an interesting article on the whole issue. The most interesting one is that FM gives a better sound than DAB as DAB is highly compressed. I like DAB in the car as we listen to Smooth Radio which isn't available on FM and put up with the odd signal loss. We used to listen via the phone / car radio when I had an unlimited data plan, but that still suffered drop-outs.

I don't know where the DAB antenna is on the PHEV but the FM signal could use a signal booster but you would have to pull the radio out to fit the booster in-line with the aerial plug and connect to 12v feed. I haven't seen a post on how to pull the radio, so don't know if it is easy or not.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_radio_in_the_United_Kingdom

Jeff

 

[ChrisMiller]

FM gives a better sound than DAB as DAB is highly compressed.

In part, this is a financial issue. On any given DAB multiplex, you can have a lot of stations at low bit-rates (low quality sound) or fewer stations at higher bit-rates. The market pushes towards many stations with low sound quality (something of the same affects Freeview and HDTV). One reason is that many listeners are using equipment that couldn't support high quality audio whatever the bit-rate used. And cars aren't an audiophile-friendly environment, being pretty noisy (unless you have a Roller or a PHEV ).

 

[greendwarf]

Yes, I have the 2015 basic 3 model and yes the FM radio is terrible...worst on any car Ive had in 30+ years

Can't say I've noticed any difference from that fitted to my previous Avensis - perhaps it's a Japanese thing.

 

[paa451843]

Yes, I have the 2015 basic 3 model and yes the FM radio is terrible...worst on any car Ive had in 30+ years

I absolutly agree, the FM radio on my MY 2014 is useless, it don`t hold any preset stations and the reception is something of a joke...
In Sweden we don`t have DAB but I travel a lot in Norway and the DAB seems to work better than the FM.

BR//PAA

 

[discorduk]

FM gives a better sound than DAB as DAB is highly compressed.

In part, this is a financial issue. On any given DAB multiplex, you can have a lot of stations at low bit-rates (low quality sound) or fewer stations at higher bit-rates.

It's also that they are using a really ancient and very inefficient audio codec, MPEG Layer 2 audio.
Newer standards like DAB+ and DRM (Radio Mondiale) use the much more efficient HE-AACv2 codecs, but apparently we cant have those radio standards in the UK because DABv1 isn't popular enough yet. (forehead slap)

 

[ChrisMiller]

It's also that they are using a really ancient and very inefficient audio codec, MPEG Layer 2 audio.
Newer standards like DAB+ and DRM (Radio Mondiale) use the much more efficient HE-AACv2 codecs, but apparently we cant have those radio standards in the UK because DABv1 isn't popular enough yet. (forehead slap)

Well, switching to DAB+ would mean throwing away every DAB radio in the country, so you can see why there's a certain reluctance to do so - it's the early adopter problem. And the financial argument would still apply - if you have a compression algorithm that's twice as efficient, you can either have twice as many stations, or the same number at higher quality. Guess which way the market will go?

In any case, it's likely the next generation of 'radio' will be digital streaming via the mobile Internet.

 

[VillageIdiotDan]

Only niggle I have is then when switching between the presets for DAB1 and DAB2, it doesn’t always display the correct station names on the display. For example, if I’m listening to a preset on DAB2, it will display the 6 preset stations, but if I then move to DAB1 it still shows the presets from DAB2. Fortunately there are only 6 to remember and its easy enough to know which button to press for the station I want.

Hey Geoff, not sure if you still have the PHEV ut do you still get this as I am and it's annoying me. Wondered if you'd found a solution!