In message , Brian-Gaff
writes:
Well, I still do as you say, tough I have to say mp3s are pretty naff
compared to a good CD or vinyl recording. There are lossless codecs now and

I disagree. _Low bitrate_ mp3 are pretty naff; given enough bits, they
can be indistinguishable from the original to _most_ listeners,
especially older ones who've lost their upper frequencies (and also
depending on the equipment used). What an acceptable bitrate _is_ is of
course a source of endless debate, and also - if carefully chosen -
dependent on source material. (I have some 1950s mono material [early
Tom Lehrer] that is fine at 32k; encoded at lower sample rate, and mono.
I have other material [1980s pop for example] that I can still hear the
_odd_ artefact at 96k. I very much doubt there is much material - or
ears or equipment - that could tell 320k mp3 from the original.)

together with cheap storage, many find home servers the way to go. I'm not
so sure as although formats change the problem is that data on a drive can
be totally lost very easily.

Yes. Needs to be backed up - in the cloud, on another drive, or on
optical media. For audio only, you can get many hours on even a CD, and
days - possibly even weeks - on DVD, then BluRay. (Though I'd say for
backup only.)

I'm thinking tat at the moment, DAB tuners exist and most can cope with
DAB+, so may be valid. The sad part is that the quality and station choice
on DAB is looking more like a replacementfor medium wave these days as its
mostly mono and compressed.

Agreed (though it depends on what you're listening to; speech is
probably OK most of the time).

Not that it's relevant to the original enquirer, but are there DAB
add-ons for computers? Many years ago I had an FM tuner card, then there
was of course the original Psion (I think it was) Wavemaster, a
futuristic-looking blue thing that received DAB and plugged into a USB
socket. Is anything similar still made? (I've just had a look, and there
aren't _any_ wavemasters on ebay! Either I've remembered the name wrong,
or they've all either failed or are being kept by those who have them.)

Other sources. I'd suggest a decent computer to get internet content,
rather than an internet radio as feeds change so often its a real pain to
set it up anew after its suddenly been moved. Freeview, and to some extent

Yes, though the resetting may be more difficult for Brian than some,
since electronics manufacturers do seem to persistently refuse to cater
properly to the VH. But it is still a good point - setting up such
devices isn't trivial.

Freesat is often a reasonable source of good quality, and at least radio 4
extra on Freeview is in stereo, unlike DAB, but for how long one wonders.

I don't _think_ it will go anytime soon, though you can never tell.

A relatvly cheap pvr or set top box is all you need, but steer clear of the
really cheap ones as if you want analogue out I often find that they are a
bit lacking on bass and plugging things in and out definitely affects levels
elsewhere. Seems to be no buffering. DVD and blue ray players can be good as
they play cds and mp3 cds as well, and its often the case that audio visual
devices can play content on sd cards and ramsticks too.

All good points (and interesting about cheap STBs, though I wouldn't
have thought the levels will be a problem for a setup where you, er, set
it up and leave it).

If you are into mp3 players or apple devices then obviously some kind of
input for those is handy as well.

Yes, it's always good to have an extra analogue input or two (and
possibly digital one, though there are still few such sources).

Marantz do some nice recorders that sound quite good working on ram
sticks, but not cheap.

There are quite a lot of solid-state recorders around. Olympus do a
range of qualities (mainly to internal RAM).

I still keep the ability to use cassettes with dbx and dolby, and I'd like
to also have reel to reel as well and of course having a computer as part of
the system does mean one can make digital media out of analogue recordings
too.
Brian

--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Thankfully, I know where the bodies are buried (the abandoned Television
Centre, in the /Blue Peter/ Garden), ... - Eddie Mair, RT 2015/4/25 to 5/1