DAB+ = CD sound, right? Not quite, says the man who knows better than most, Colin Crawford, CEO of the UK’s biggest digital radio manufacturer, PURE. In Australia to help launch his company’s brand, he admonished the mob of hacks and dignitaries gathered at the catered function at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art, saying, “We never say CD quality. Rather, we say it is ‘like’ CD quality.” In England, many listeners are complaining that the signal quality from the BBC reaches nowhere near its potential because after a propitious start they have traded the bandwidth required for quality, for quantity. In other words rather than have one station broadcasting in hi-fi, they’ve opted for three or four in low-fi. And it seems that our ABC is about to follow suit.
Crawford explained that the BBC’s research showed that less than 1% of people who class themselves as audiophiles could discern the difference between super high quality and average sound. The other 99% was more interested in the variety offered by more channels.
Apparently, when the ABC joins the rest of the industry on the DAB+ platform by the end of next month, it will deliver considerably less than the purported “superior listening experience” we’ve been led to believe would be the case.
Even the 44kbs that most commercial FM stations will use for each of its multi-channels has been criticised as inadequate by audio buffs. Then again, wine buffs deride Jacobs Creek as “industrial,” yet it outsells Grange and the next 10 “quality” labels combined by perhaps 50 to 1
What then is more important – or what is the proper balance – between quality and quantity to which digital radio should aspire?
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