320kbps radio audio available via MPEG-DASH

[Budge]

On 02/01/16 16:25, Owen Smith wrote:
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom" <madtom1999 at googlemail.com>
> To: <get_iplayer at lists.infradead.org>
> Sent: Saturday, January 02, 2016 4:10 PM
> Subject: Re: 320kbps radio audio available via MPEG-DASH
>
>
>> As far as I know no-one has ever been able to tell the difference
>> between CD and DAB let alone higher bitrates in double-blind testing.
>> DAB is not in any sense inferior bitrate-wise though otherwise its a
>> complete con.
>> Tom
>
> Rubbish. At the current 128kbps MP2 that is used for DAB, it sounds
> pretty awful on good hifi. All life has been squeezed from the music,
> it just sounds dead. Comparing to CD is hard because you don't know
> what CD they're playing.
>
> What I have done is compared Radio 2 FM vs. DAB vs. 128kbps AAC
> internet, and I can assure you the DAB is clearly the worst sounding.
> The FM vs. 128kbps AAC internet are different, neither is better or
> worse and it does depend on how good your FM feed is.
>
> I can do the FM vs. DAB comparison double blind, because my Arcam
> FM/DAB tuner has a button to switch between FM and DAB last stations.
> If I press it many times very quickly and don't look at the display I
> lose track of which it is playing and there's nothing to give it away
> if I cover the display with cardboard. Then I listen, make decisions
> about the sound, and remove the cardboard. I can always tell which is
> DAB and which FM, with the exception of Radio 3 when it's DAB is
> running at 192kbps MP2 and then I can't tell which is FM or DAB. Which
> clearly demonstrates the problem with DAB currently is the bit rates
> are far too low.
>
Please could we not have a golden ears debate here.  Just stick to the
facts of what is available and how it can work or be used with GiP.
Alastair.