What is DAB?
DAB is a digital radio technology used for broadcasting radio stations. It is used in several countries, mostly in Europe. The transmission uses the MPEG-1 Audio Layer 2 (MP2) audio codec to encode the audio for transmission. Most stations broadcast at 128kbps bit rate, although higher rates are possible such as 192kbps.
A newer format, DAB+, was announced in 2006 and went into effect in 2007. DAB+ uses a more efficient audio codec (HE-AAC v2), which means stations broadcasting in DAB+ can get better sound quality with a smaller bit rate, as low as 64kbps. DAB+ is not backwards-compatible with older DAB radios, so new hardware is required in order to receive DAB+ transmissions.