Reviews: The Antennas Direct DB4
Better than Rabbit Ears?

I recently moved and found that in my new location, my trusty old rabbit ear antenna was not pulling in as many stations as it did in my old apartment. No matter where I put it or which direciton I pointed it, it was only getting 15 out of 19 channels that I got before. Humpf!

So, I decided to get a better antenna to see if that would fix things. After checking the reviews on Amazon and Solid Signal, I decided on the Antennas Direct DB4. Note that since I wrote this review, a newer version of this antenna has come out, called the DB4E. You can check it out here.

I recieved the DB4 in just a few days and it arrived in a surprisingly thin and light box:

While unpacking it, I slightly bent one of the aluminum "bowtie" rods. No problem though, I simply bent it back into shape. Here are the parts:

Most of the unit is pre-assembled. The reflector and antenna screw together with just two screws, each with a long spacer. If you want to mount it on a stand, that is sold separately, but the mounting hardware is included with the antenna. Note that the coax cable is NOT included, but I wouldn't expect it to be (just use the coax cable going from your wall to your cable box or from your cable box to your TV).

When fully assembled, the antenna is 28.5" tall, 19.5" wide, and less than 5" thick. It's mostly made of aluminum, so it's very light. It could hang on a wall with one nail, no problem.

I plugged it in. Immediately I could tell this thing was pulling in more channels than the rabbit ear antenna. However, I still had to play around with location and direction. I found the best results when I pointed it outwards at a window:

I re-scanned for channels and was able to bring in 24 channels with 4 duplicates, for a total of 20 unique channels. My old rabbit ear antenna was only able to bring in 15 unique channels in my new apartment. So, this got me 33% more unique channels than my rabbit ear antenna!

So, the look is not so great in my living room, but no big deal. I'll simply buy a house plant to put in front of it. Think of it this way, I've only spent $38 on this, compared to $57 every month of basic cable (how much is your basic cable costing you every month?!)

2012 UPDATE: I have tested the DB4 against the Mohu Leaf and found the Leaf to be superior. Read my review of the Leaf here.

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