On Mar 8, 10:04*am, SMS wrote:
On 3/8/2011 9:42 AM, RHF wrote:

Again there is a 'New' Generation that has grown-up
with "Digitized" [MP3] Music in their Ears -and- Only
Knows and Honestly Thinks Loud "Digital" Sounds
Blasting in their Ears -is- Good High Quality Music.
Their "Gold Standard" is iTunes Digital Music and to
this 'New' Generation of 'Digital' Music Listeners
{Audio Content Consumers} : What You or I and 'others'
would say is not good to poor sounding music is still
very good to great to them.

This is very true. I see it with my own kids, as soon as we get in the
car I get "can I plug in my iPod?" though paradoxically they do not want
the music very loud, either for their music or the classical and rock
CDs that I play.

The difference between a CD and an MP3 is much more distinguishable on a
home system with good speakers than on a vehicle's stereo or on junky
ear buds.

By the same token, I've had people in my car and house when I'm playing
HD Radio and they think that it's a CD.

One station in the Bay Area, KDFC, recently experienced an ownership
change and transmitter change and as a result many of its listeners have
to listen to it by streaming it online rather than OTA in FM or in HD.
Here's what one listener stated
http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_17562681?nclick_check=1:

"KDFC is gutted. The hiss-free power and dynamic range of its HD-radio
signal at 102.1 FM reaching my home here in Palo Alto was nothing short
of astounding before K-FOX sunk its vampire fangs into it -- CD-quality
for sure.

I had bought an HD radio midway through 2010, expecting something good.
What I got was GREAT. Holy Shostakovitch! It was comparable to the
difference between regular TV over an old glass-tube rabbit-ears set
versus the high-def video signal on a new HD receiver. Light-years better..

Bill Lueth can say what he wants about listening to 90.3 over the Web.
It's nowhere close -- a thin, tightly compressed apparition of its
former wide-open HD glory. And even with a good roof-top antenna,
listening on 89.9 is hopeless."

This was interesting because it validates what most people here have
been saying for a long time:

1) Streaming radio over the web results in lower audio quality than OTA.
2) Streaming radio over the web works at home, albeit at lower quality,
but isn't a solution for many (most?) mobile users.

It was also interesting because while you often hear reviewers praise
the CD-like sound quality of HD or DAB+, here's a listener that actually
understood _why_ it sounds better. If there's one problem with analog
FM, it's the loss of dynamic range. With an AAC+ Codec (DAB+ and HD are
both based on AAC+) you can achieve high quality audio with better
dynamic range with as low as 64kb/s encoding.

Of course the loss of the higher quality signal was completely related
to money. Anyone that's ever listened to digital radio is thrilled with
the audio quality, but that doesn't mean that the station that's
broadcasting the content they want in higher quality digital audio is
going to survive.

One of my Sons who the Schools 'claimed' to have
what is now called ADD/ADDH and they wanted to
put him in a 'Special' Class and 'Med' Him all up.
http://add.about.com/
Back then when KDFC was a wonderful sounding
Analog Classical FM Radio Station
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDFC-FM
And alternative Medicine Practitioner suggested
Playing Classical Music at a very low sound level
at night while he was sleeping; so we did and it did
seem to work after a few weeks. Something to do
with occupying the Mind with Sounds that cause it
to subprocess them; and allowing the rest of the
Mind to Function more Normally.
http://www.naturaladhdcure.com/holistic.html

Sorry to hear that KDFC is no longer on 102.1 MHz
in the SF Bay Area. But then again KKSF 103.7 MHz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KKSF
and KBLX "The Quiet Storm" on 102.9 MHz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KBLX-FM
before it both are no longer the Music Formats that
they once were either. Still have most of the KKSF
"Smooth Jazz" Cassettes and CDs from the good
old years.

~ RHF