[Gllug] MP3 player recomendations

[Christopher Hunter]

On Sun, 2007-09-02 at 17:39 +0100, Nix wrote:

> FM radio's pretty bloody awful as well, to my ears at least. I mean,
> yes, I can listen to it, but I'd much prefer something that doesn't
> scrunch the dynamic range and lop off a huge hunk of perfectly
> audible frequencies, thanks.

In the case of commercial FM radio in this country, you're mostly right
- the frequency response is OK (~20 Hz to 15 kHz), but the applied
processing is hideous.  

The Radio Authority are draconian with their specifications, and the
commercial stations want maximum "loudness" so that they use heavy
compression (old fashioned, nasty "pumping" variety - they don't
understand delay-line limiters), and then they clip the living daylights
out of it to prevent "overshoot" because their crappy compressors and
limiters aren't up to the job!

There are a few FM broadcasters that maintain reasonable quality (within
the limits of the FM broadcast medium), but they're becoming few and far
between, and even Radio 3 is sometimes now using obvious compression (it
used to be a human hand gently applied to a fader!).

Chris


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