In article ,
Forester writes
Watching the proms I was frustrated at not being able to listen through
the hi-fi whilst watching an out of sync digital broadcast! I thought it
would be nice to connect the box to the hi-fi, but the sound isn't quite
as good as my tuner. We are about to move house and thinking of updating
my Philips OnDigital box to one of the newer Freeview ones. I've noticed
that the new boxes are MUCH quicker re. text and channel changes, but
what is the sound like? I have to say my old box is quite poor on audio
quality; the normal NICAM signal sounds a lot better to me. Many of the
radio stations are atrocious quality. Are the new ones any better? I
read somewhere (Gramophone, I think) that digi boxes are let down by the
part that converts the digital signal to analogue audio out (sorry,
don't know the correct name), rather than the digital signal being the
problem. I don't know about that, because my experience of digital
broadcasting is that it is a long way from matching analogue - in this
country anyway.

If I do buy a new one, I would prefer to have phono out because I have
no plans to upgrade my amplifier for the sake of the TV box. Are there
differences between the boxes? I'm thinking of getting another Philips,
but only if the sound quality is better.

David

DTV boxes in general are built down to a price and the sound stage isn't
a prime concern. You'd do better to get one with a digital output stage
and put that through an outboard DAC.

However for better overall quality a good FM tuner and even more
important a good well set up aerial system will give it to you as it
should be

Its also available on the Sky/Astra system but the average sky box is a
**** poor excuse for a receiver. You can use better digital ones for
radio but even then the BBC outputs radio 3 at 192K/bits when they
could do even better. Klassik 4 from Bayern in Germany uses 256 K and it
shows, pity audio quality isn't a prime concern of digital broadcasting
in the UK(
--
Tony Sayer