sporkme
drop the crantini and move it, sister
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join:2000-07-01
Morristown, NJ
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| said by SRFireside  :It's all about fidelity there. While FM and AM radio are free the frequency response and signal to noise ratio is nowhere near that of a decent streaming audio service. Radio music is compressed and limited much more compared to the actual CD (or vinyl record even). A decent ear for music can tell the different right away. Depends on the station... I listen to a ton off over-the-air broadcasts, just not the commercial junk. The college stations, indy stations, NPR don't lay the compression on anywhere as much as the average rock station ("Listen to us!! We're louder!!"). We have three stations here that just sound much better over the air than streamed (WBGO, WFMU, WNYC), mainly because they don't compress the hell out of the audio. Just to clarify, you and I are not talking about compression as far as "data compression", but audio compression/limiting where the audio gain is automatically "adjusted" to make everything sound bigger and louder - low levels are boosted, peaks are squashed, resulting in a very flat sound with little dynamic range. I believe this practice started as stations competed to be the "loudest" so they'd stand out as you scanned the dial for music.
A good FM tuner and antenna still goes a long way. Unless you are in ClearChannel Hell and there's nothing you want to listen to on the radio. 
--
Bush/Cheney '04! - Scared Straight
"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it." |
