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In Reply to: RE: swtiching off fm in uk posted by ziggy on July 22, 2009 at 23:42:39
Do you really believe them Ziggy? I reckon the ABC would cease analogue transmissions tomorrow if they could, given how heavily and incessantly they are promoting DAB+.
I know they said in Limelight that you could use your old FM analogue tuner till it "wears out". But a couple of months ago, they weren't saying DAB+ sounded better either. Now they have done a complete turn around and are saying it sounds better.
Of course this is complete and utter garbage, but I think it makes their position pretty clear to me. At the moment they are having to pay Broadcast Australia to maintain both an analogue and digital broadcasting infrastructure. I am sure given that the ABC usually has to beg for money at each budget round, they would much rather be paying just for digital.
I will be (pleasantly) surprised if we are still receiving analogue FM broadcasts in 5 years time at the quality level we are getting now.
No I don't Mercury Boy, hence my sarcasm for the year 2015.
I agree, they are really pounding the technology to the point where it's sounding like a scratched record. Frankly I'm sick of it.
What I heard was a $599.00 proper DAB+ TUNER through a Marantz 2 channel hi-fi system set up .......can't remember the brand of the tuner..........who cares anyway.
The salesman Who I have known for many years from a now obsolete ''exclusive high end store'' was raving on how good it sounded.......better than AM!!!!!!!!!..........I said what!?........no........better than AM?..........WOW........I've got to get one!....................he walked away with disgust!......woohoo!!!
Right...well of course the very last thing any of us should do is actually complain to the ABC about the poor sound quality of DAB+ compared to FM analogue. If they got enough complaints, I wouldn't put it over them to actually sabotage the FM analogue transmissions to the point where they actually become even worse.So, instead I have devised a form letter (reproduced below) that I encourage everyone to print out and send to their state ABC classic FM office:
Dear ABC Classic FM,
I was absolutely thrilled to hear that you have began digital radio transmissions! This is exactly what classical music needs - a high quality source rather than those faded, jaded, interference-prone, low fidelity transmissions we have been receiving on the analogue FM band for the last 33 years.Bless Julia Lester's soul. She has been such a digital evangelist that quite possibly everyone in Australia who is not deaf and has travelled in a car on the way home from work has now heard about the wonders of digital radio - 100 times over. And to think you gave away 5 free digital radios to your devoted audience of hundreds of thousands! Talk about market penetration and putting your money where your mouth is!
I actually auditioned a DAB+ portable clock-radio at my local Harvey Norman the other day and was completely blown away by the sound compared to my home setup which consists of a Magnum Dynalab MD108T, Krell amplification and vintage Quad electrostatics. Pardon the pun, but the sound from the clock radio was so Pure, I sadly realised that I have wasted the last 33 years of my life listening to vastly inferior quality analogue transmissions. But I guess that's life, isn't it? You test drive a brand new BMW 7 series and it is so very hard to go back to your Toyota Yaris.
Unfortunately, the asking price of this portable marvel was just too high in this economic climate. Heck, the asking price was too high in any economic climate. And I can't sell my redundant Magnum Dynalab analogue tuner because everybody has now seen the digital light thanks to the stalwart Julia Lester, so no one wants an analogue tuner anymore.
I've got two children I am trying to put through university, and since they are studying very hard to become medical doctors, I felt it was my duty to fully support them financially rather than have them work at McDonald's every night and on weekends to help make ends meet. And I don't want them driving taxis either.
I also have two step-children who are 7 and 12 years old respectively. I need to put them first of course as well. There are clothes, school fees, food and iPods to buy for them.
So it looks like it is going to be a very long time indeed before I could ever afford a digital radio, even if they were selling at $29.95.
But at least you are still transmitting in analogue, even though the quality is third rate. Hopefully, since you are still transmitting in analogue, it won't get even worse to the point where I simply cannot hear what is going on any more. That would be terrible, wouldn't it?
So spare a thought for struggling parents such as myself, and please at least try to maintain the same, very basic standard of low-fi FM analogue transmission for the foreseeable future. It is better than nothing at all. And in the meantime, I can salivate, contemplating the day in the dim, distant future, when I have my very own DAB+ radio plugged into the Krell.
I am thinking that once my two older children qualify as medical Doctors in 2016 and have subsequently paid off their HECS debt by 2022, perhaps by then I can afford one of these digital marvels. But since I will be driving my current car until 2025, perhaps you could keep broadcasting that low-fi analogue until then. Otherwise, I will never hear you when I am in my car (which is quite often).
Signed your loyal Audiophile listener
xxxxxx
Edits: 07/24/09
Mercury boy, thank you for one of the best chuckles I've had in quite a while................frankly I pissed my pants and had to change my undies.....over 50 incontinence.....oh no!?).
I WILL print out your letter and It WILL go straight to the ABC, care of our darling Julia with a request that she forward it on to the drongos that think DAB is so great.
Don't know what she or the ABC will make of it, but if more of us valued listeners do the same, maybe the Tech's over there will begin to wonder why it sounds like garbage and that the ''serious'' valued listeners won't have a bar of DAB until they make it sound better......and they know they can!
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