In article . com,
Albert
Zweistein wrote:



Below is a quote from your page at
http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong...airandmod.html 'And
listening to Radio 3 or 4 using the FM tuner demonstrates how much
nicer these can sound via FM than via DAB.' I quite agree but would you
say this is a result of the low bit rate the bbc uses or is an
indication of the inherent superiority of analogue vs digital sound
reproduction?

Alas I can't give a simple yes/no answer to that question because there are
a number of differences between FM and DAB in practice. Couple of examples:

FM tends to add some low order distortion, and also intermod, particularly
for stereo. Caused by the limited bandwidth, etc.

BBC FM has *level* compression applied in a different way to DAB. So the
dynamics are likely to be different. My impression is that this tends to
make the FM sound 'warmer' as it acts a bit like a 'sustain' pedel.

I assume the use of low bitrates contributes, but the result comes from
combining many differences. Overall, though I find listening to R3 FM from
the 626's tuner sounds more 'relaxed' or 'natural' than from a 'Pure' DAB
tuner though the 626 amp sections.

That said, in practice most of my serious R3/4 listening these days tends
to be via using get_iplayer to obtain the files and play them. The 626
produces nice sounds from these as well.

FWIW my other systems use Armstrong 700 amps and Quad ESLs.

Jim

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