Gary Askwith said:
So how does internet radio compare in quality to Analogue FM or DAB?
Even my 20-years-of-motorcycling ears can detect a huge drop in quality with DAB
Oh and what about radio through the freeview box via the hi-fi speakers?...it def sounds better than DAB...whats the difference in bit-rate?
It all depends on the bit rate. I agree that most DAB sound is not up to good FM quality, but Radio 3 at 192kbps I find perfectly acceptable, and better than FM in some ways, given that I seem to be in a poor location for FM reception.
Listen Again bit rate varies considerably, but according to Total Recorder the best it's likely to be is ~85kbps - OK for speech, but not good enough for music.
Two years ago the BBC's Jenny Abramski (spawn of Satan) decided that 160kbps was good enough for live Proms broadcasts on R3 - it wasn't, and despite adopting the usual BBC management attitude of "We know better than the mere listeners" on the Feedback programme, she eventually had to back down.
The most annoying thing about the whole episode was that they nicked the crucial 32kbps off R3 in order to use it for a looped trailer on R5 Extra
I believe that you can get 256kbps or even more for R3 via Freeview, but I don't have a TV licence.