Versatile but not perfect (Blaupunkt Woodstock DAB 52)

Member Name: ahenry

Product:	Blaupunkt Woodstock DAB 52
Date:	18/06/03 (4009 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Versatile, Quantity of DAB radio stations, MP3

Disadvantages: Some rough edges, Quality of UK DAB radio stations

The Woodstock DAB 52 is a head unit that combines a normal FM/MW/LW tuner, and a CD player with the ability to place MP3 files - either on a CD or on a MMC multimedia card, and DAB digital radio. You can also get leads to plug in CD multichangers or an Auxilliary device (eg a portable MP3 player or a walkman cassette player).

http://www.blaupunkt.co.uk/7641705310_main.asp is the UK WWW site. It has a link to an online demo. This lets you see what happens when you press the various buttons.
http://home.t-online.de/home/Lauke/faq_english .htm is a FAQ. Its written by a marketing manager for Blaupunkt in Germany.

To get the DAB radio to work you need a DAB aerial. Glass-mounted aerials are easy to fit, but don't work as well as roof-mounted ones. You can either get a seperate roof-mounted aerial, or DAB/FM one that you can use instead of the standard FM aerial. This also needs a diplexer, which needs a power supply.

DAB radio _can_ give better sound quality than FM radio, but in the UK most DAB radio stations are broadcast at a lower bit rate than would be ideal. It means that there is more scope for a wider range of radio stations, but the quality of these not as good as it could be. The DAB sound quality is different to FM - there is a lot less backgroun hiss, but there are artefacts from the compression of the music which can make it sound tinny.
The Woodstock packs a lot of technology into a compact unit and some people have reported that it runs very hot. It certainly helps to use an external amplifier.
The cheapest UK stockists I've found are http://www.bluespot.co.uk/stock/woodstock.asp and http://www.my-blaupunkt.com/acatalog/www_my_blaupu nkt_com_Woodstock_DAB52_22.html
Playing MP3 files means that you can fit a lot more music onto each disk. If you encode the files at 128kbs, then a single CD will hold about 10 hours of music. The sound quality will be a little worse than a normal CD. If you encode the file wi
th a higher bit rate, then you can still get 7-8 hours of music onto a CD and you're unlikely to be able to tell the difference in sound quality to a normal CD.

To be able to play MP3 files, then you need to be able to copy the files onto a blank CD disk with a computer. You can create the MP3 files in the first place with various free programs. Exact Audio Copy is accurate, free, but slow www.exactaudiocopy.de.CD-DA X-Tractor at http://xtractor.sourceforge.net/ is also worth a look

If you put the MP3 files in a folder (sub directory) on the CD, then with some head units it is seen as if it was an album. When you select the MP3 disk, you can select different "albums", and then play the tracks for each album. If you have a complicated directory structure, then it can take a while to read the disk when you place it in the machine.

Personally I find the buttons on the Woodstock a bit wobbly and plasticky. There is a new model coming out from Blaupunkt called the Woodstock DAB 53. This is basically the same unit, but it adds a few features. It looks like it uses the front panel buttons from the Los Angeles MP72. These feel much more solid and nicer. The DAB 53 can also record from a DAB broadcast onto the MMC memory card. It also can be used with a microphone that listens to the ambient sound levels in the car and adjusts the volume and graphic equaliser settings appropriately. In Germany, the DAB53 costs about 20% more than the DAB52.

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