Re: Radio 4 in Mono on DAB

Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 20:41:33 +0000 (UTC)
Newsgroups: alt.radio.digital,uk.media.radio.bbc-r4
Size: 1,505 bytes

"DAB sounds worse than FM" <email-address-deleted>
wrote in message news:bfju19$p9o$email-address-deleted...
> Andrew Norman wrote:
>
> >> Indeed, we R4 listeners are on the weakest platform in this
> >> argument. Of all the BBC DAB-available channels, R4 is the one with
> >> the least strong claim on DAB bitrate. It's there for marketing
> >> reasons (to persuade a relatively well off market segment to buy
into
> >> DAB).
> >
> > That is simply not true. To many people (me included) the effect of
a
> > low bitrate on quality speech output is higher than on rock/pop
music.
>
> I find the opposite is true.
If it is possible I find that both are true.
In my experience the low bitrate on rock/pop music becomes more obvious
and more obvious with increasing volume and I find that speech,
especially female, on R4 and R3 has a nasty "metallic ringing" sound to
it. All of this disappears when switching to FM but rock/pop music
doesn't sound particularly good to me on FM due to the broadcasters
fiddling with it.
> > I can just about put up with listening to rock/pop on 128k MP2. I
> > can't listen to Radio 4 at the same bit rate because at that level
the
> > distortion on the spoken voice is too distracting.
>
> The reality is that neither should use 128kbps because MP2 was
designed to
> be used at 192kbps for stereo radio stations.
>
Quality technical standards are dying out in the BBC 'cos they're just
too expensive.
--
RobH
The future's dim, the future's mono.