DAB Radio for Merc

Hi Everyone
    My wife, yes honest want a new radio for our MB Gloucester has any one any sugguestions?
regards
Alan

I have an Alpine system in our Worcester linked to bose speakers, it is not a DAB unit though. I too would like to go digital, you will not have any choice in a few years anyway.

I looked at the Pioneer range, initially with satnav  built in but concluded that it was better to have a dedicated satnav and DAB head unit because of the cost of updating maps.

The Alpine I have is OK but not significantly better than the standard Mercedes radio, I will be looking closely at the Pioneer range myself with a decent aerial. You can't use the existing one. 
'hog

I assume the Mercs have an accessory position on the ignition switch . The Pioneer DAB I have cannot be used without ignition on as Peugeot don't have the accessory position on the switch.

Hi
  the radio in the Merc will work without the ignition being on.When I enquired at Halfords about getting a radio fitted they said nothing about needing a new aerial just £68 for a fitting kit
Alan

I added a Pure Highway 400 adaptor to the standard Merc radio.  All connected up correctly as an AUX input but the aerial design which sticks to the inside of the windscreen doesn't seem to be particularly good - it maybe the case that there is some coating on the windscreen which doesn't help.  The problem with the Pure setup is that you can't just change the aerial or add an external one.

MikeJJ wrote:I added a Pure Highway 400 adaptor to the standard Merc radio.  All connected up correctly as an AUX input but the aerial design which sticks to the inside of the windscreen doesn't seem to be particularly good - it maybe the case that there is some coating on the windscreen which doesn't help.  The problem with the Pure setup is that you can't just change the aerial or add an external one.

I had a similar issue with DAB reception from a windscreen aerial when I replaced the standard Merc radio with an Alpine X800 unit - (I think the cab overhang might also be a contributing factor to the poor reception issues). 
In the end I got rid of the windscreen aerial and replaced the standard Merc whip aerial with a DAB "shark fin" and the reception is now perfect for FM and DAB all of the time!
The new aerial was fitted by AS at the Willersey service centre - it involved a lot of furniture removal and took a few hours but well worth it!
I also had a separate 3 way switch (ON with ignition on - OFF - ON with ignition off) fitted to the dash which allows it to be used indefinitely whilst on site with EHU.

Liam wrote:

MikeJJ wrote:I added a Pure Highway 400 adaptor to the standard Merc radio.  All connected up correctly as an AUX input but the aerial design which sticks to the inside of the windscreen doesn't seem to be particularly good - it maybe the case that there is some coating on the windscreen which doesn't help.  The problem with the Pure setup is that you can't just change the aerial or add an external one.

I had a similar issue with DAB reception from a windscreen aerial when I replaced the standard Merc radio with an Alpine X800 unit - (I think the cab overhang might also be a contributing factor to the poor reception issues). 
In the end I got rid of the windscreen aerial and replaced the standard Merc whip aerial with a DAB "shark fin" and the reception is now perfect for FM and DAB all of the time!
The new aerial was fitted by AS at the Willersey service centre - it involved a lot of furniture removal and took a few hours but well worth it!
I also had a separate 3 way switch (ON with ignition on - OFF - ON with ignition off) fitted to the dash which allows it to be used indefinitely whilst on site with EHU.

Thanks Liam, I suspected the shark fin was the way to go, have heard several reports about the windshield type DAB aerial not being that effective. Useful info!! Expensive I would imagine?

groundhog wrote:
Thanks Liam, I suspected the shark fin was the way to go, have heard several reports about the windshield type DAB aerial not being that effective. Useful info!! Expensive I would imagine?

Hi Hog, 
Well, the Shark fin aerial was relatively cheap but fitting it cost 3 hours of Willersey's labour rate! 
But, in mho, it was well worth it. The previous windscreen aerial use to drive us crazy - you would be listening to something very interesting on the radio and then at a vital juncture in the programme you would loose the signal. Now it is perfect - even in Germany!

Hi Liam
   It seems a lot of work to get a DAB radio working,are there any other alternatives as my Gloucester has the same layout, did they have to take out all the front top cupboards or is has your bunks up top
regards
Alan

Hi Alan,
Yes, it was a lot of work but we thought is was worth it in the end. I am told that in some van configurations the windscreen DAB aerials work very well - but in our case it was just useless - to be fair the audio guys who fitted the head unit did warn us that the windscreen aerial may be a risk area!
For peace of mind I had Willersey do the aerial fitting (also, we were still within the van's warranty period) - and after all they built the van! It took 2 guys 1.5 hours to complete the job.
To be honest I can't recall (it was nearly 3 years ago!) how they managed to get around the furniture issue - but the end result looks fine with no evidence of surplus cable or anything having been disturbed. 
I seem to recall that the biggest issue they had was the unsticking of the original whip aerial from the roof.
Regarding alternative solutions - the only one I can think of is the possible fixing of a shark fin in an alternative location in order to make the cable routing easier but then the risk is that it might not work correctly.
Hope this helps.