DAB R3 balance
 

Pat Wallace wrote:
Anyway, the temporary change in R3 DAB sound, which is what this
thread was about, has now (morning of 12 Feb) gone away.

I think the BBC must have switched R3 to a low bit-rate for a while.
Let's hope they don't make a habit of it. It's bad enough having to
accept a measly 192kb/s.


R3 is changed to 160kbps whenever Radio 5 Sports Extra goes on-air in
the daytime. For example, rugby is on from 3.30 this afternoon, and R3
will be 160kbps while it is on.


--
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DAB R3 balance
 

John Phillips wrote:
In article , tony sayer wrote:
In article , John
Phillips writes
In article , Pat Wallace
wrote:
I'm getting poor R3 DAB quality right now (2005/02/10-20:00).
Normally it sounds exactly like FM except no background noise, but
since last night the frequency extremes are missing. ...

Anyone else hear this?

YES. I just did a check (2005-02-11 at 13:45) and yes, R3/DAB is
very muffled at the moment. I just compared it to R3/DTTV. Up to
now the two have been indistinguishable (well, apart from the extra
delay on DTTV). I wonder what's happened to R3/DAB - it's horrible
at the moment.

Probably had its bit rate cut to even it out with the other bit
disadvantaged channels;(

I started wondering about whether those who listen to R3 on DAB had
indeed got our come-uppance for being elitist. However it seems to be
back to normal this morning (2005-02-12 at 08:40).


Personally, I don't see how they can justify allocating 192kbps to Radio
3 while all their other music stations use 128kbps and R3 is on DTT,
digital satellite and almost certainly cable at 192kbps.


The top end of R3/DAB seems to be back in place and both R3/DAB and
R3/DTTV sound the same again (as I think they should at 192 kbit/s
for both).


Yes, they should sound identical.


--
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DAB R3 balance
 

Don Pearce wrote:
On Sat, 12 Feb 2005 00:22:53 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:
Actually the FM has a very high level of hiss, and a generally
harsh and unpleasant sound. The DAB is far better.

I disagree.

They're both ****e, so the comparison is meaningless.

Both ****e as you say, but the FM is far the worse.


Okay, see which you think is best out of these (I did say that there
were other, larger samples at the bottom of the page):

Download the other R3 sample:

http://83.142.53.30/~digital/radio3_dab.mp2 (4.4 MB)

the following 3 files are of the same recording, just encoded to
different formats:

http://83.142.53.30/~digital/radio3_fm.mp4 (6.9 MB)
http://83.142.53.30/~digital/radio3_fm.mp3 (7.4 MB)
http://83.142.53.30/~digital/radio3_fm.flac (16 MB)

Obviously the best one to download is the FLAC file, because it's
lossless.



--
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DAB R3 balance
 

On Sat, 12 Feb 2005 13:11:45 GMT, "DAB sounds worse than FM"
wrote:

Don Pearce wrote:
On Sat, 12 Feb 2005 00:22:53 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:
Actually the FM has a very high level of hiss, and a generally
harsh and unpleasant sound. The DAB is far better.

I disagree.

They're both ****e, so the comparison is meaningless.

Both ****e as you say, but the FM is far the worse.


Okay, see which you think is best out of these (I did say that there
were other, larger samples at the bottom of the page):

Download the other R3 sample:

http://83.142.53.30/~digital/radio3_dab.mp2 (4.4 MB)

the following 3 files are of the same recording, just encoded to
different formats:

http://83.142.53.30/~digital/radio3_fm.mp4 (6.9 MB)
http://83.142.53.30/~digital/radio3_fm.mp3 (7.4 MB)
http://83.142.53.30/~digital/radio3_fm.flac (16 MB)

Obviously the best one to download is the FLAC file, because it's
lossless.

What is the source of the FM files here - they don't actually sound to
have the normal FM Optimod artifacts.

d

Pearce Consulting
http://www.pearce.uk.com

DAB R3 balance
 

In article ,
DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:
I know there are some bad reception areas for FM. My point, which you've
conveniently omitted or forgotten, is that just because a smallish
percentage of the population do have poor FM reception is not
justification to provide low audio quality on DAB. Do you disagree?

The stations I listen to on DAB sound fine to me. The pop stations are so
heavily processed they sound awful on DAB or FM or DTV, so I'd rather give
them a miss regardless. Even if I liked most of their music, which I don't.

--
*Virtual reality is its own reward*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

DAB R3 balance
 

"DAB sounds worse than FM" schreef in bericht
...
It depends on the MP3 software you're using to playback. Some of the MP3
players hide the splat, while others don't.

What do you mean: splat?

gr, hwh

DAB R3 balance
 

hwh wrote:
"DAB sounds worse than FM" schreef in bericht
...
It depends on the MP3 software you're using to playback. Some of the
MP3 players hide the splat, while others don't.

What do you mean: splat?


It's difficult to describe, but it's one of the unpleasant artefacts
that DAB suffers from when there's relatively poor reception.


--
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DAB R3 balance
 

Don Pearce wrote:
On Sat, 12 Feb 2005 13:11:45 GMT, "DAB sounds worse than FM"
wrote:

http://83.142.53.30/~digital/radio3_fm.mp4 (6.9 MB)
http://83.142.53.30/~digital/radio3_fm.mp3 (7.4 MB)
http://83.142.53.30/~digital/radio3_fm.flac (16 MB)

Obviously the best one to download is the FLAC file, because it's
lossless.

What is the source of the FM files here - they don't actually sound to
have the normal FM Optimod artifacts.


They were recorded off Radio 3 FM from my Denon TU260L tuner to my sound
card, then compressed to AAC, MP3 and FLAC respectively.

I think R3 FM only uses Optimod at certain times, but I don't listen
very frequently, so I might be wrong. Don't they use Optimod at
drive-time and then remove it / turn it down in the evening?


--
Steve - www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info

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DAB R3 balance
 

In article ,
DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:
It depends on the MP3 software you're using to playback. Some of the MP3
players hide the splat, while others don't.

Mine probably doesn't since it's a RISC OS one, and basic. However, I've
not had any problems with it on the many other samples I've got.

--
*If only you'd use your powers for good instead of evil.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

DAB R3 balance
 

"DAB sounds worse than FM" schreef in bericht
...
What do you mean: splat?


It's difficult to describe, but it's one of the unpleasant artefacts
that DAB suffers from when there's relatively poor reception.

ah, okay, got it. Know it al too well.

gr, hwh