The FM switch-off?
Thu, May 20 2010, 3:20AM
#2
RE: The FM switch-off?
I do feel, as some others in this thread, that DAB is a lost cause. But internet radio does give grounds for optimism. Already, the best way to listen to Radio 3 in the UK is, arguably, via iPlayer, where it's available on the highest quality level at 128k AAC. Not bad at all. And if you use, for example, any of the Squeezebox devices (internet radios or media streamers), then the iPlayer plug-in makes using the high-quality feeds very easy indeed. And as chebby concludes above, the internet feeds are only likely to get better.
If you Google high-quality internet radio streams you'll get plenty of results. There's one list, as an example, at the bottom of this page.
I do sympathise, however, with all those who have invested heavily in either DAB or FM equipment. I actually think there's a higher chance of FM's survival than an improvement in DAB quality. Too many people will be upset by FM's demise to make switch-off in 2015 a done deal.
Thu, Jun 17 2010, 5:55PM
#3
RE: The FM switch-off?
We don't have DAB in the states I understand, but I bet it's every bit like Sirius XM satellite radio I get in the car. It's nice to hear a focused playlist, jazz for me, but I heard some really nasty artifacts in the streaming. Slow stings with Sinatra were warbling off key and I'm sure Helen O'Connell could hold a note in front of a band. The trash quality of compressed sound is terrible but I don't think kids listen too closely to their music. I'm becoming a grumpy old fogy.
One option for me would be to get an iPod for the car
Mon, Aug 16 2010, 9:23AM
#4
RE: The FM switch-off?
<!--
@page { margin: 2cm }
P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm }
-->
Last year I upgraded my old tuner for a new one
with excellent FM quality but at the same time bought a digital
stream player (Linn Majik DS) and last month discovered internet
radio for the first time.
With a careful selection of pre-sets (via "Radio
Time" (google it)) I can now listen to classical stations from
all over the world in better sound quality than FM. (And I have
excellent FM reception here.) Yesterday I listened to Radio
Suisse Classique for two hours at an impressive 128kbps. Okay,
it was only selections, like Classic FM but without the inane adverts
and chatter, but at a quality that doesn't disgrace the other sources
in my hi-fi. And a wonderful selection of music, by the way.
At a similar bit rate (whatever that is) I now
listen to the Proms via internet radio and the quality is better than
FM. A very happy find.
But to really hear what this medium is capable of,
Linn broadcast its own music catalogue (again in selections,
unfortunately but understandably) at 320 kbps. At this rate I
struggle to hear the difference between it and the DS player (itself
better than CD) and my Sondek LP12 record deck.
Unfortunately, the few other stations broadcasting
at this rate hold no interest for me but I am sure others will follow
soon. If the BBC used 320kbps, FM will be not missed by music
fans who want the highest quality sound.
My thousand pound tuner is redundant. Ouch!
Wed, Sep 8 2010, 9:51AM
#5
RE: The FM switch-off?
Fact is that DAB is an industry-driven change and not a consumer-driven one. The industry wanted to fill the airwaves with channels more cheaply, and they do it at inferior quality and far greater expense to us. We shouldn't let them do it.
To me DAB was only a solution to talk radio that used to be on MW with its interference problems.
Wed, Sep 8 2010, 1:17PM
#6
RE: The FM switch-off?
It is worth noting that the BBC is streaming promenade concerts broadcasts at 320kbs (see the BBC Radio 3 page).
Thu, Feb 24 2011, 5:44PM
#7
RE: The FM switch-off?
Vic JayL was closest to a viable solution, although expensive!
My option is USB link from computer - PC/laptop/netbook - via a Digital Analogue Converter, ie. a DAC and analogue link to hifi system.
A list of live classical music stations in Europe can be found at:
http://www.listenlive.eu/classic.html
A sensible DAC ranges from 20 to 10,000 pounds. Good Hifi 500 to 1000 pounds
Shops were only good places to buy music if you lived in or near a large city. The internet and downloads are at least more democratic in this respect.
The 1950s and 1960s were a dire period for audio quality and reliability for most people. It is wrong to point to the best available at the time and assume everyone was using a Thorens or Garrard Transcriptor or Quad or Leak. No, the majority were 'enjoying' their records on autochangers with worn/chipped ceramic stylii built into crackly radiograms where tuning between Home and Light took longer every year due to the cords around the pulleys getting slacker!
£160 today will get you an iPod Nano and a decent pair of Sennheisers which would trash any 1950s domestic recording device with a pair of it's headphones that looked like something out of "One of our aircraft is missing", and moreso if playing lossless material.
Dock the iPod into a cheap transport like the Onkyo ND-S1 and you have a source quality (with lossless) that any 1950s audiophile would kill for at a fraction of the cost (relative to average income) of it's quality equivalent 50 years ago.
As for FM, I will deeply feel the loss when it eventually gets axed. (I use a Naim tuner and a decent roof aerial in a high reception area). However, some of the alternatives are already pretty good (BBC iPlayer radio is encoded in AAC which makes a big difference and Freeview BBC radio channeled via optical to a DAC are both better than DAB).
I have recently done some side-by-side comparisons between BBC CD (of Radio 4's George Smiley dramatisations) and iPlayer and iTunes rips of the same CD at 256kbps AAC and there really are only minor quality differences.
Original FM broadcasts have that wondeful 'bloom' (for want of a better word) and DAB is flat and compressed. But the middle ground between is being held well by iPlayer and Freeview and will - hopefully - only get better. (Especially iPlayer as the capacity of the internet improves in time.)