[BC] Re: It's Eureka over IBOC down under

[Ernie Belanger]

Excellent commentary.... So true and So eloquently stated.

My hat is off to you!
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <RRSounds at aol.com>
To: <broadcast at radiolists.net>
Cc: <David at translantech.com>
Sent: Friday, October 21, 2005 8:15 AM
Subject: [BC] Re: It's Eureka over IBOC down under



It makes me feel so old to say this, BUT...

When I was young, Broadcast FM radio was the cleanest, most dynamic and
spectrally broad, lowest distortion audio source most people had access too.

Of course the engineering staff at any particular station had quite a bit of
control over how seriously they took that capability, but nonetheless,
technically FM could equal or beat any other consumer audio source!

And while one could listen to FM on inferior equipment and have an inferior
but adequate listening experience, one could also spend more and ultimately
have a more hi-fi experience. The 'adequate' experience was merely one 
subset of
the bigger universe of radio listening.

The present paradigm doesn't allow for that. The better the receiving
equipment you buy, the worse broadcast radio sounds, because all kinds of 
artifacts
are revealed. And it's not just FM, which still CAN sound very very good. 
IBOC
or any grossly data-reduced system plays to a rather low common denominator,
welding into place a level of quality that no receiver, no matter how
expensive, can improve upon because it is never transmitted in the first 
place.

I'm not talking about content, or what the other content providers are 
doing.
That's a whole different discussion. I'm talking about the relative 
technical
status of OUR delivery system. We have long ago let slip any hold on the
title "state of the art." How it happened, and who to blame is yet another
discussion. I'll let someone else point the fingers.

Maybe, "adequate" or "entertainment-quality" audio is what we're destined to
provide for the future. So be it. I have no illusions. I'll do the best I 
can
within those confines, working to offer the best listening experience I can. 
I
think most of us want to.

But I sure wish there was a way to work toward bringing at least some of the
OLD paradigm to the listening experience, where, if you wanted to and could
afford it, you could turn on a RADIO to hear the reference, the best quality
audio available to the consumer.

Kind Regards!
David P. Reaves, III
TransLanTech Sound, LLC
Home of the Award-winning "Ariane Sequel" Digital Audio Leveler