Discussion
Transmitter Man said:
Effjay said:
I doubt that a CD loses any amount of audible sound unless it's a compressed MP3 that is burned on to a disc from a download store etc.
Surely with all modern music the original source file from the recording studio will be an uncompressed (in terms of bit rate) wav file; nothing should be lost when this is transferred to disc.
Granted though, CD and vinyl may have different sound characteristics and a lot of modern music, particularly dance music, is heavily compressed to get a loud track at the expense of dynamics.
Incorrect Jay,Surely with all modern music the original source file from the recording studio will be an uncompressed (in terms of bit rate) wav file; nothing should be lost when this is transferred to disc.
Granted though, CD and vinyl may have different sound characteristics and a lot of modern music, particularly dance music, is heavily compressed to get a loud track at the expense of dynamics.
A vinyl record is an analog recording, and CDs and DVDs are digital recordings. Original sound is analog by definition. A digital recording takes snapshots of the analog signal at a certain rate (for CDs it is 44,100 times per second) and measures each snapshot with a certain accuracy (for CDs it is 16-bit, which means the value must be one of 65,536 possible values).
This means that, by definition, a digital recording is not capturing the complete sound wave. It is approximating it with a series of steps. Some sounds that have very quick transitions, such as a drum beat or a trumpet's tone, will be distorted because they change too quickly for the sample rate.
But you get the idea. You can only appreciate what you're missing when you compare side by side. Music comes alive.
Have a listen to my station here in Cyprus where we use the mildest of compression from an Orban Optimod - www.sunshineradio.com
Vinyl still has superior dynamic range.
Phil
Edited by Transmitter Man on Thursday 5th March 10:35
The debate about 96khz is an interesting one and depends on the output sample rate. Theoretically (I say theoretically since it is moot whether there's any point going beyond 44.1k or 48khz) if the output medium is CD then it would be better to use 88.2khz as you will get no rounding errors on sample rate conversion.
Thread Resurrection time. According to the article in 2013, DAB was already close to obsolescence.
I've only had a car that can receive DAB for a couple of years and I have to admit that I was very much looking forward to finally having it. But now that I do have it, I find I never use it. It cuts out due to signal blockage far too often to be able to live with, so instead I listen to FM radio which doesn't cut out until I drive completely out of range and actually sounds better too. My car also has a hard drive-based jukebox function into which I've loaded some of my favourite albums. And if I fancy listening to something new I stream from Amazon Music Unlimited to my car via Bluetooth. Which renders DAB completely redundant.
So seven years after the article was written, who still listens to DAB in the car? Not me.
I've only had a car that can receive DAB for a couple of years and I have to admit that I was very much looking forward to finally having it. But now that I do have it, I find I never use it. It cuts out due to signal blockage far too often to be able to live with, so instead I listen to FM radio which doesn't cut out until I drive completely out of range and actually sounds better too. My car also has a hard drive-based jukebox function into which I've loaded some of my favourite albums. And if I fancy listening to something new I stream from Amazon Music Unlimited to my car via Bluetooth. Which renders DAB completely redundant.
So seven years after the article was written, who still listens to DAB in the car? Not me.
te. Fancy trying to modernise something, and making it worse. Way to go!When I'm in the car with the family we use DAB which works fine, Absolute 90's if its my choice, heart if her choice! Good thing with heart is that if the DAB signal drops it will automatically switch to the heart FM.
When not in the car I just stream music over Bluetooth. Listening to adverts has become completely avoidable now.
When not in the car I just stream music over Bluetooth. Listening to adverts has become completely avoidable now.
Those of you with poor in-car reception from a standard setup might like to find out how well the aerial performs. Several manufacturers do a piss poor job of it. Anything with an aerial evident on the roof should be ok though, but you won't find that on a higher end car as they don't look to the stylists' liking.
At least RDS has some benefits
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Data_System
Which other car manufacturers aside from SAAB can set the clock from RDS?
DAB has too many issues
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Audio_Broadc...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Data_System
Which other car manufacturers aside from SAAB can set the clock from RDS?
DAB has too many issues
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Audio_Broadc...
saaby93 said:
At least RDS has some benefits
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Data_System
Which other car manufacturers aside from SAAB can set the clock from RDS?
You could've at least picked the traffic announcement feature.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Data_System
Which other car manufacturers aside from SAAB can set the clock from RDS?
saaby93 said:
DAB has too many issues
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Audio_Broadc...
Plenty of benefits listed there. Which issues are a problem for you? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Audio_Broadc...
TheInternet said:
GC8 said:
It is poor. Technically DAB is terrible.
Feel free to just listen to the DAB+ stations then. I'm afraid they don't tend to sound any better.GC8 said:
Im not sure what your point is, but I have listened to both. Even where DAB+ services are available, you still suffer from all of the problems associated with every DAB signal. Virtually unlistenable, in one of the largest cities in the country and when you can hear it, the bitrate in both formats is far too low.
That is the fault of the regulators rather than the technology.The only things wrong with DAB is that it was ahead of its time and it isn't easy to monetise so doesn't get the investment other tech gets. Established itself too early and too slowly and then ended up competing with streaming (which earns money for the network providers).
When FM first came along the listening experience was far worse with patchy reception, complete lack of availability of the majority of stations and (until the radio makers learned to seamlessly fade out stereo-to-mono switching) a sound quality that was frankly terrible on the move.
As far as I am concerned there is still a demand for it and it would only take a few tweaks to solve the existing problems. Turning up the bitrates is just a policy decision. Filling in the reception holes is a matter of will - if it were one of the mobile phone networks they would have been on it decades ago.
Edited by Evercross on Tuesday 1st September 07:02
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