An eclectic selection of technology with some cookery
Whats a good way to get a reasonable selection of radio stations with minimal fuss and a decent Audio quality? Audio quality is likely to come down to bitrate so for a good side by side comparison of bit rates on broadcast platforms in the UK see Astra 2 Sat’s page on radio bitrates.
Although FM is still very much the benchmark a lot of modern digital radio formats are compared to, I always seem to struggle to get a good interference free signal. I’ve had loft mounted aerials on Hi-Fi component tuners and still got interference depending on atmospheric conditions. I’ve also had issues with plugging a USB charger in my car and suddenly having no useable FM signal. FM also lacks a decent choice of stations for me.
As for Amplitude modulated radio stations the small bandwidth really limits the Audio quality to the point of not wanting to listen to it for me.
It’s well known that the sound quality is rather poor but I work on the principle that at least I’ll get a signal and it won’t have the interference issues of Analogue broadcasts. There is also a significantly better choice of stations. In reality I struggle to get good coverage on DAB and depending on the radio in use the poor signal artefacts can be quite off putting. I should say Vauxhall car radios are very good in this regard.
I’ve only listened to this on occasions when rental cars have it left turned on. The choice was excellent to the point of it being a struggle to find what you wanted through the dashboard controls of a Chevy Impala. The sound quality was OK at best but the reception was not a problem unlike DAB.
Although definitely better than DAB / DAB+ due to the use of a better bitrate on the same codec. The choice is rather limited to the point where its hard to find what you want if it’s not BBC. Also the Sound quality is acceptable rather than amazing.
I don’t currently have a FreeSat or Sky setup to test but about 10 years ago this used to be my preferred listing method to get a reasonable quality Audio. However according to the current (at time of writing) Freesat channel list the selection seems a bit small. I’m not sure if this is a case of stations pulling out or the internet has spoilt me.
Basically this is the only way to get a decent quality audio signal in my opinion, all the broadcast platform seem to suffer from the compromise of low bitrates to offer more choice. Often to the point that I find listening to the station uncomfortable.
My preferred solution is to open a stream in my browser rather than using particular software. I tend to use the website of the station or if I can find a decent stream I bookmark it.
If I’m driving I have my phone bluetooth connected or plugged in to Carplay then use the Radioplayer app. I have set the “High Quality on mobile data” in the settings and the sound quality is very good! I can’t say I’ve seen a major impact on my data allowance by doing this even though I’ve listen regularly for a couple of hours a day. I even appear to get better reception than DAB without the annoying clicks and squelches.
This is where I’m struggling to find a solution and need to do further research.
Keywords: APPLICATION SOFTWARE, ELECTRONICS ENTERTAINMENTTAGS: AM, DAB, DVB-S, DVB-T, FM, RADIO