Have your say & ask the experts

Hi

Since I have no means of testing this without paying for a decent aerial - which would sound best - assuming a decent aerial was used.

a. FM, b. DAB or c. listening to one of the radio channels on Sky HD

Sky HD is all I've got and sounds pretty good but my memory of having a tuner 20 years ago makes me think that FM can sound fantastic.

BTW I listen to radio 1 & 2 and local commercial radio mainly.

Thanks

Thanks Andy

Is the FM tuner in my Denon 2808 going to sound much better than the Sky HD radio?  If so I might have to invest in a decent outdoor aerial.

Andy Clough:

I'd say FM, Sky and DAB in that order.

sorry to nitpick andy, but is that ascending or descending quality order?  I know DAB is supposed to be the bee's knees, but my experience (around south west of london) is that the signal strength and quality varies from non-existent to moderate, with stations not always being availble so FM is my favourite (with a 6ft internal aerial).

 of course if cricket is what is being listened to, then its LW or Radio 5 live extra on the digital tv box.

The BBC use Nicam to send audio to their FM transmitters.

Nicam is 14bit with a sampling rate of 32khz and a bit rate of ~700kbps, which is compounded to 10bit for transmission.

Sadly DAB uses very low bitrates and a rubbish codec.

Freeview/Sky offer higher bitrates and will sound fine through a good DAC.

Internet radio has the potential for high bitrates and good codecs, if we're lucky. I've found plenty of 320kbps classical stations. Again you need a good DAC; not just the headphone output of your laptop!

a4quattro:

Freeview/Sky offer higher bitrates and will sound fine through a good DAC.

Strangely I have RCA connectors on the back of an older Panasonic CRT telly which has built in  Freeview too - I plugged it into my Kandy after reading this and it sounds really good!

Outside of Radio 3 and what used to be on  LW, DAB pretty much sucks.  I have a small Roberts portable which is a well featured DAB / FM radio, sounds really good through headphones. The coolest thing about it though is that it does almost all the swish DAB style tuning stuff in FM too.

Xanderzdad:

Hi

Since I have no means of testing this without paying for a decent aerial - which would sound best - assuming a decent aerial was used.

a. FM, b. DAB or c. listening to one of the radio channels on Sky HD

Sky HD is all I've got and sounds pretty good but my memory of having a tuner 20 years ago makes me think that FM can sound fantastic.

BTW I listen to radio 1 & 2 and local commercial radio mainly.

Thanks

I'd get a DAC to use with your Sky HD box like A4quattro suggested. The Cambridge Audio DacMagic is getting alot of attention. But I'd also recommend the TAG McLaren DAC20 which as you can see from my signature that I have in my system. They sell for £300 second hand.

Hi

Thanks for all the advice.  I am intrigued about the use of a DAC though.  Is this to bypass the DAC in my Denon 2808?  Would it be that much better?

Thanks

dvdaudio:

hi andy is fm not due to be switched off like analouge tv soon, i may be wrong any info on this welcome thanks.

edit- here in fact

Some info on the switch to digital radio here.Don't hold your breath!

http://www.culture.gov.uk/reference_library/media_releases/5216.aspx

Chris