On 15 Jul, wrote:
In article , Pat Wallace
wrote:
What do people think of R3 sound quality right now (10:05 BST, 15 July
2006)? I'm listening to a Mozart violin concerto and getting (i) on
DAB noticeable "screeching" distortion on loud bits, (ii) on Freeview
much better but still some distortion of the same type, (iii) OK on FM
apart from the slight extra background (audible on headphones).

Can't comment on R3 at present as I'm not listening to it. However this
morning I had a brief listen to a recording of the First Night I made
from DAB, and I wasn't particularly happy with the results.

I am hoping to record the 'repeat' on Monday afternoon, and then spend
some time comparing the DAB/DTTV/FM versions. Until then I'll reserve
judgement to some extent, but what I've heard thus far does not seem
encouraging.

I've now had a chance to do some more comparisons. I recorded the first
half of the 'First Night' live from DTTV BBC4TV onto a DVD as well as
recorded it onto CD from DAB R3. I've just listened again to these
recordings, and also listened/recorder the first half from the 'repeat'
this afternoon. (Shostakovitch 5th currently playing as I type.)

FWIW I currently feel that the DAB 160kb/s version sounds quite poor. The
masses strings, etc, seem to have a 'sandpaper roughness' which I don't
hear with the BBC4 or FM versions. At times this seems to spread across the
stereo image like some sort of modulation 'noise'.

So my impression thus far is that the drop from 192kb/s to 160kb/s has made
a quite noticable change for the worse in the sound quality of R3 on DAB.
I'm currently listening to the DAB rebroadcast of the 5th and even as
'background music' the anharmonic sandpaper effect is at times quite
noticable. Since where I sit to type gives no stereo image, it just sounds
like anharmonic intermodulation distortion being added to the mid/hf
spectrum. Is this what other people notice?

The puzzle is the change in sound quality is so marked. Classic FM does not
sound this bad to me, despite using 160kb/s. Previously, I'd have said DAB
R3 sounded better than Classic FM, but to my ears it now sounds noticably
worse! What do others think of this (ignoring level compression on Classic
FM if possible)?

Alas, listening to FM this afternoon simply reminded me of the reasons I
have tended to prefer DTTV R3. Level compression. Background interference
of various kinds. Noticable noise floor in the quiet passaged (despite the
level compression.) Being a very hot afternoon we are getting long distance
background interference on FM as has often been the case in the past.

The overall sound quality if these snags are ignored remains quite good on
FM, though. Hence it now seems to be a choice of which types of audible
problems are least annoying...

Oh well, at least I have many recordings, etc, from the past, so am not
exactly starved for excellent performances which have fine sound.

I am now wondering: What else on the relevant DAB mux has the 'lost' 32kb/s
been devoted to? So far as I know, the BBC haven't given any reasons (or
notice) of the change. Indeed, it seems to have been done with so much
'stealth' and with such weird timing - just before the Proms - that I can't
help wondering if it is simply a mistake and no-one at the BBC has even
noticed as yet!

Slainte,

Jim

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