Wireless headphones are very useful as they let you walk around the room while listening to music or the radio without a cable getting in the way.
Unfortunately, to use wireless headphones with a DAB radio you need an extra piece of equipment—a Bluetooth transmitter.
This is because while many DAB radios have Bluetooth, they have a Bluetooth receiver rather than a transmitter.
This means that you can send audio to the radio’s speakers via Bluetooth, but you can’t send the radio’s own audio to Bluetooth headphones.
Connecting headphones to a DAB radio wirelessly
To achieve a wireless connection, you can buy a small and affordable Bluetooth transmitter which plugs into the radio’s headphone jack and allows you to listen to the radio through wireless Bluetooth headphones. If you are looking to buy a new DAB radio, make sure it does have a headphone jack, as some do not have this capability.
One popular option is this TaoTronics transmitter
Do any wireless headphones have a built-in DAB radio?
At the time of writing, there don’t seem to be any wireless headphones on the market with built-in DAB radio.
There are a few pairs of ear defenders that have DAB radio built-in. They could be a good choice if you want to block out external noise, though they’re not very sleek and stylish!
Clas Ohlson’s Wireless Bluetooth Ear Defenders aren’t the prettiest, but they are rechargeable and give you the option to tune into FM and DAB+ radio on the move.
If you want to know more about ear defenders with built-in radio, we’ve covered this topic in more depth here.
Don’t you need the wired earphones to act as an ariel
Yes, that’s correct. (edit: only on pocket radios)
If that was the whole answer how can i hold a “personal” dab radio and play through the speaker without headphones attached to act as an ariel
Sorry for the confusion, I assumed Graham was talking about pocket radios which usually require headphones to be attached physically to act as an aerial.
There are some personal DAB radios with built-in speakers that don’t require headphones to be attached.
The main reason you can’t use wireless headphones with DAB radios is that DAB radios don’t feature Bluetooth transmitters.