I know bout Mars more then I know about Australia, still last few weeks I discovered and quite enjoy at my work this Australian station:

http://www.abc.net.au/classic/

Good programming and the 15 hours difference makes an interesting difference for catching live AU broadcasts during the US work hours.

Hello Rony,

No, I've never heard a DB Systems-modified AirPort Express.

You might start by buying AirPort Express from Apple (89€); this should give you some insight... If you sense it has further potential, then (since you are in France) you could contact DB Systems and arrange a demo, either at their place, or possibly at the home of a satisfied customer who lives closer to you.

It is worth noting that without advertising of any kind, DB Systems has acquired quite a good reputation within French audio circles (and now that I think of it, a couple years ago I sold a pair of Verity Audio speakers to a guy who was eying a DB Systems modified AirPort Express).

Looking at the website, apart from apparent good taste, one can infer certain things :

Assembly of components appears to be first class and old school.

However, I'm not sure I trust the dudes ear; there's too much DSP-corrected compromise and digital filtering involved in his system (When spending that sort of cash, why resort to DSP? Especially with all that space?)

If you do go for a demo or end up buying one of their modded units, I'd be interested in knowing your opinion.

jd*

Romy the Cat wrote:

I know bout Mars more then I know about Australia, still last few weeks I discovered and quite enjoy at my work this Australian station: http://www.abc.net.au/classic/ Good programming and the 15 hours difference makes an interesting difference for catching live AU broadcasts during the US work hours.

I live in Australia and listen to this radio station every day. A liitle more info.

The website has the program listed for Today, Tomorrow, Yesterday and Future dates.

I also listened to the Mozart 100 and found it to be very educational.

There was many interviews of historians and musicians explaining the various Mozart pieces.

Worth a listen.

regards,

Gordon

Thanks, Gordon

How good the quality of their live FM broadcasts? Are you recording them if they are good?

http://www.romythecat.com/Forums/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=8330

From what I hear over Internet I might that the quality of their FM might be very high… I hope, I hope…

Hi romy,

I am sorry I will not be much help regarding sound quality of FM at present. I do not currently record but hope to do so in the future. My FM stereo reception is poor but this is mostly to do with my aerial. I also live in a dip. It seems I get better reception when switching my NAD tuner to Mono. I really don't mind listening to classical music in mono. My love for classical music is blossoming but I am trying not to get too anal retentive. I love your web site and have learned so much but unfortunately my system is not to a standard where I would be comfortable making determinations in sound quality. 

The ABC are going digital in August. The format is DAB+. Tangent from Denmark market a DAB+ with a coax out. I would assume from this that I will be able to record digital directly to a PC. Hope to do this in the future. I understand for a period they will also be transmitting analogue, but eventually it will be phased out.

Perhaps you can answer a question for me. Will the live broadcast be digital? Do they use digital mics? Will this affect quality. 

You might also like to check out the following web site: http://www.3mbs.org.au/listen.html. 3MBS is a local radio station in Melbourne. 

Sorry I am not much help at present.

regards,

Gordon

The fact that they are broadcasting digital streams over web has no impact over FM reception of cause. The problem is not “digital” but with the stations the embrace HD Radio. The HD Radio is very popular here in US and many do FM/HD simulcasts. To get a FM signal “clean”    from a station that does HD your multiplex decoder in your tuner shall have a filter that would sharply kill the garbage over 53kHz or 65kHz. You might look at the web for posdetection filters… Some tuners have it some not. Those that do not have it will be a problem with HD …

If the posdetection filter is simple to fix there is something else that is the bigger bitch. They sold a lot of HD radio in cars and they want the cars to have a reliable connection. If you run FM and driver into a bad reception area then you just pick a noise. If you are in bad reception area with HD then you completely loose the signal (like telephones). So, if you lose HD then they automatically switch you to FM (any HD receiver has FM logic). To do so the FM and HD feeds need to be synchronized and here is where the major problem arrives. The run one feed as a master and another as slave and the slave feed constantly delayed or run ahead of the master feed. So they in REAL TIME jerk the slave feed back and forth, synchronizing it with master. If the FM feed is the master then it is not a problem (the HD listeners are deaf anyhow) but if the FM feed is a slave then it is a huge problem as you can hear the artifacts of the feed jerking… So, it is all depends what kind listeners your station considers revealing and depends of how much the people who work at the station care about Sound.

I do not know anything about the DAB+ format. The FM/HD is all that we have here in Boston.

Understood. Thank you as always for the technical info.

I mentioned the DAB+ becasue the ABC are spending all their time and money implementing digital. 1st July is the start. You might glean some info on perceived quality of this format if recorded. For an excellent explanation on DAB+ see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Audio_Broadcasting

To summarise this; DAB+(Digital Audio Broadcasting+) uses the AAC+ audio codec and can provide high quality audio with as low as 64kbit/s. I am currently trying to find out what bit rate Australia will be using. Reception quality will also be more robust on DAB+ than on DAB due to the addition of Reed-Solomon error correction. The technical sescription on how it works is found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reed-Solomon coding. It is used Bottom line is taht it fills in missing bits(errors). Reed–Solomon codes are used in a wide variety of commercial applications, most prominently in CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray Discs, in data transmission technologies such as DSL & WiMAX, in broadcast systems such as DVB and ATSC, and in computer applications such as RAID 6 systems.

Getting back to the recording part of the discussion I am assuming  that all tuners for DAB+ will decode the AAC+ then using an internal DAC send the analogue signal to the amp. There are a few DAB+ tuners on the market which has a coax output so I am assuming this is bypassing the internal DAC of the tuner. I can send this digital signal to a pc card and record. According to a source in the ABC the live broadcasrs will use digital mics. I currently have the name of the manager of digital radio and am waiting for him to reply.

I don't believe that the live broadcast will be digital. Currently only major cities will be able to receive DAB+ and for a while the ABC will have to still issue analogue signals. Australia is a big country and the ABC is a national(govt) organisation which must consider the populace.

3mbs is going digital in 2010. They are interesting because they only have to consider one city and its members. I hope to talk to the technician. 

All this should interest you Romy becasue eventually to record FM radio in Australia, assuming it is worth recording, DAB+ will be the progenitor of the signal. Of course it goes without saying that the original voices and instruments will be analogue. Perhaps there will be a day when we go to a star wars opera and all the singers will be wearing Darth Vader helmets to encode the signal at source and send it to an encoder fitted to our ears. I often wonder if much of todays technology is "technology for technology's sake". I know that the DAB+ will give me a better reception, but will it give me better sound quality. I am sceptical at present because of the use of a specific codec(AAC+). It all gets down to the algorithm and unfortunately no one with educated ears will be making the decision.

regards,

Gordon

3MBS tell me that they cuurently do not know which bit rate is going to be used in their digital broadcast. They have a contract with another company which decides on how much bandwith is allocated. They are pushing for a high bandwith because they understand the type of customers they have are a more discerning listener. 3MBS is nearly all classical content. They are trying to get 192Kb/sec but think it may be 128Kb/sec. They will be usiing analogue mic at live broadcsts.

The Tangent Net-200 has a coax(spdif) out. The DAB+ will be decoded and the resulting digital signal will bypass the internal DAC. This info provided by the Tangent Distributor. This will be interesting as now the ADC can be left out of the chain of recording, ie, digital FM in to the tuner - encoded in tuner - digital out to PC card - recorded in digital and sent to an external DAC.

regards,

Gordon 

Here is a double jeopardy case. From one side it comes from EnjoyTheMusic.com – how frequently you have seen non-idiotic articles in there? From another side it comes from Boston audio Society speaker – the association where sincerity is more frequent then water on Mars. Still, here I comes– a wonderful article in a stupid publication from a person who represents a stupid organization: David A. Rich’s “No Time For CDs”

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/bas/1109/

Very good, David!