I still have a signed letter from Gordon Cooper, one of the original ‘Mercury’ astronauts, following his space flight in May 1963. I was also sent an 8″x10″ picture and the ‘official’ NASA book of the flight. They remain personal treasures – and are still in their original NASA envelopes.

Please try, by the way, not to retrofit the word ‘mythical’, which I didn’t say, into what I said.

I do have a generally poor opinion of DAB. It has quite a lot to do with crappy Winamp-playlist presenterless-and/or-VT’d programming, quite a lot to do with the completely-frickin’-insane licensing regime which leads to transmission costs bearing no resemblance at all to the actual market value of those services, and nothing at all to do with those sound-quality nutjobs.

In this case none of that matters a stuff though. Pretending that we can convert the existing receivers is silly. We can’t. You just reinforced that point by showing me several Hifi-only options that cost more than just buying a DAB set, and none that can actually adapt the radios you and I have in the kitchen, bathroom(*) or bedroom.

We’re all going to be stuck with those FM/AM sets for a *long* time, and we have to deal with it.

(* And until someone comes up with a battery-powered receiver that works indoors and lasts longer than the average shower , that one ain’t going nowhere.)

There are some valid objections to this sort of thing that are based in reason, comrade. Pretending otherwise doesn’t help.

Well, if you ignore the Intempo DA-01, another “mythical DAB adapter” which plugs into your hifi via your AUX input, and cost forty quid. http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/dab-hifi.html#intempoda01

Or, the “mythical DAB adapter” from Matsui, the Matsui DA-1, which similarly plugs into your hifi via your AUX input, and cost thirty quid. (It’s on the same URL as the Intempo above).

Or, well, the “mythical DAB adapter” from a company called Genus, the Genus Du1, for fifty quid or so. http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/dab-hifi.html#genusdu1

Now, look, all those are probably shite, and they’re probably not available any more either, and I’m certainly not recommending that you go out and buy them, since they look rubbish. But then, you’re not the one that doubts their very existence, or wonders “how exactly could any kind of gizmo be ‘added’ to such radios to transform them into DAB?”…

Seriously, James, that’s the most truly daft thing you’ve suggested in some time.