Re: [ARSCLIST] Internet audio: What do you expect of it ?

[Don Cox <doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 17/12/07, Roger and Allison Kulp wrote:
> A number of recent threads here,have caused me to question just what
> people expect of internet audio in the first place.There are some
> people,and I won't name names,who seem to expect audio either
> streamed,or downloaded from the web,to be the equivalent of listening
> to a record,CD,or even a reel tape,on a fine audiophile system.
> 
Yes. If I want "internet audio" at all, it would be to download a file
that I can burn to a CD to give normal CD quality.

> Uh-uh.I'm sorry,but that's the wrong way to approach it.If this is
> your intent,you are bound to come up disappointed.Internet audio,is
> more like FM radio was,back in the days before corporate
> consolidation.

The sound quality on the BBC's FM radio used to be very good.

> Just as each radio station had different types, and
> grades of equipment,and some stations had weaker signals than others
> ,so too is there a vast difference in sound quality from one stream,or
> archived files from one site to another.I clearly recall,as a kid in
> the 70s,listening to taped programs aired on FM radio,that were so
> garbled,and distorted,as to be unlistenable.

We had nothing like that in the UK. FM quality has declined (compression
is now almost universal), but has never been as bad as you describe.
Most people find digital radio to be of inferior quality compared to FM.

> The quality of the
> archives at a site like wfmu.org,for example,are a vast improvement
> over what many FM stations air,even today.Same with some of the talk
> stations I stream,like KPHX/novamradio.com,which I have on now.
> 
> Downloading a bad sounding file,is no different from making a cassette
> off of the radio.I think it's very fitting that the iPod should look
> so much like a cheap transistor radio.
> 
The tapes I made from FM radio in the 1980s still sound good. I
no longer have a roof-top aerial, so can no longer get the same sound
quality.

> Which is why I applaud a product like the Fatman iTube.I view it as an
> important step,towards such a product that can work independently of
> an iPod,and will connect directly to the computer/sound card.I plan to
> contact the manufacturer,to see if the thing can be run this way.
> 
> I see it as a latter day version of the all-tube FM tuner,rather than
> the CD/phono amp.
>                                        
An all-tube FM tuner, connected to a good aerial, should give much the
same sound quality as an LP, or better.

Regards
-- 
Don Cox
doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx