"-=jd=-" wrote in message
...

[snip]


The one thing I got to hear most of was the undecoded signal -
As soothing as a bored 8-year old with a 100-foot length of
bubble-wrap. But for 10 to 15 seconds at a time, the decoded
signal quality was *scary* nice. I would have to say it was
notably better than FM. I had the impression I was in the same
room with the broadcaster. It would be nice to hear an
uninterrupted stream for a half-hour to get a better sampling.



I don't know if this is the same thing, but I was listening to one of the
local 1000 watt AMers today, and it sounded really nice. There was a three
dimensional sound from the studio that's not normally heard. I think the
normal studio reverberations and such are supressed either deliberately or
as a byproduct of the usual studio audio processing. Anyway, it sure
sounded lifelike.

I'm not so sure lifelike audio is much of a selling point, however. Hi-Fi
radio has been around in one form or another since the thirties, and it's
never been real popular. I figure people usually listen to the radio
casually, and pull out the recordings when they want to listen intently.

The only problem with standard AM as a high fidelity medium is it takes alot
of signal to get a good signal to noise ratio. I really doubt DRM can
better the fidelity potentially availiable from standard AM with a strong
signal. But, even in very strong signal areas, there seems to be no
interest in high fidelity AM anymore.

Frank Dresser