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Thread: Czech Radio upstages BBC

  1. #1
    Join Date: Oct 2008

    Location: Southampton, UK and Nicosia, Cyprus

    Posts: 1,139

    Default Czech Radio upstages BBC

    I have just written a letter to the London Times -l et's see if it gets printed.


    ----

    Czech Radio upstages BBC

    Our national humiliation is complete. BBC Radio Three used to lead the world in artistic and technical quality, but has been upstaged by Czech Radio. If you have the means to route a high quality audio output from your computer to your HiFi, tune in this Internet Radio Station

    http://radio.cesnet.cz:8000/cro-d-dur.flac

    This world class. The BBC has only very recently made Radio 3 available at 128 Kilobits per second in compressed format that squeezes the life out of the music (WMA); but Czech Radio's Classical Music Station is transmitted at 7-800 Kilobits per second using the lossless free CODEC called FLAC. With a sampling rate of 48 KiloHerz this transmisiion betters a Compact Disc. The stream is also available at a slightly lower quality 224 Kilobits per second using the OGG compressed format - this still beats the BBC's best.

    See the Czech Radio website in English.

    http://www.rozhlas.cz/english/portal/

    The BBC ought to be ashamed of itself.
    Brian

    In Southampton: Raspberry Pi 4 running PiCorePlayer, Beresford Caiman SEG, Quad 77 Int Amp and CD Player, AVI Neutron 4, Sennheiser HD25 headphones.
    In Nicosia: Small Format HTPC, Beresford 7520 ,Quad 405-2, Quart 980s German Tower Loudspeakers.

  2. #2
    Join Date: Jan 2009

    Location: Essex

    Posts: 31,846
    I'm openingabottleofwine.

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Labarum View Post
    I have just written a letter to the London Times -l et's see if it gets printed.


    ----

    Czech Radio upstages BBC

    Our national humiliation is complete. BBC Radio Three used to lead the world in artistic and technical quality, but has been upstaged by Czech Radio. If you have the means to route a high quality audio output from your computer to your HiFi, tune in this Internet Radio Station

    http://radio.cesnet.cz:8000/cro-d-dur.flac

    This world class. The BBC has only very recently made Radio 3 available at 128 Kilobits per second in compressed format that squeezes the life out of the music (WMA); but Czech Radio's Classical Music Station is transmitted at 7-800 Kilobits per second using the lossless free CODEC called FLAC. With a sampling rate of 48 KiloHerz this transmisiion betters a Compact Disc. The stream is also available at a slightly lower quality 224 Kilobits per second using the OGG compressed format - this still beats the BBC's best.

    See the Czech Radio website in English.

    http://www.rozhlas.cz/english/portal/

    The BBC ought to be ashamed of itself.
    Couldn't agree with you more. The BBC claimed that all their digital broadcasts would be at 256 kbs, however they 'sold out' and now, I believe, the majority are broadcast at something like 98kbs. Radio 3 uses 128kbs and this is increased to 192kbs for the Proms season.

    I'm afraid the BBC stopped leading the world in technical quality many years ago. Basically that's the way Britain has been going (downhill) ever since the '50s.
    Barry

  3. #3
    Join Date: Mar 2009

    Location: Elland

    Posts: 6,922
    I'm David.

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    im confused... how do i get to listen to this station?
    CS Port TAT2 - Benz LPS - Funkfirm Houdini - DS Audio Vinyl Ionizer - CS Port C3EQ - Kondo G70 - Kondo Gakuoh II - Maxonic TW1100 MKII - Isol-8 SubStation Integra

  4. #4
    Join Date: Oct 2008

    Location: Southampton, UK and Nicosia, Cyprus

    Posts: 1,139

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by hamish_gill View Post
    im confused... how do i get to listen to this station?
    I normally use a Squeezebox, but it will not receive this Station. The development team is working on it. It's a FLAC in an OGG container, and I don't understand all of that myself.

    I am as I type listening on my laptop which has a Beresford 7520SE (Caiman) connected via USB.

    I have the free player Foobar installed on the laptop - I dropped in the URL - File/Add Location - and off it went. Foobar is running in Vista Exclusive mode (WASAPI) which ensures a bit perfect transfer to the DAC, but that is an extra complication.

    If you have a music player installed on you computer that decodes FLAC, you should be able to tune into the stream.

    Tell what your hardware and software is. I may be able to help - or another member.

    It's worth a listen.
    Brian

    In Southampton: Raspberry Pi 4 running PiCorePlayer, Beresford Caiman SEG, Quad 77 Int Amp and CD Player, AVI Neutron 4, Sennheiser HD25 headphones.
    In Nicosia: Small Format HTPC, Beresford 7520 ,Quad 405-2, Quart 980s German Tower Loudspeakers.

  5. #5
    Join Date: Mar 2009

    Location: Elland

    Posts: 6,922
    I'm David.

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    i have worked it out now... that is frankly astonishingly good for radio
    CS Port TAT2 - Benz LPS - Funkfirm Houdini - DS Audio Vinyl Ionizer - CS Port C3EQ - Kondo G70 - Kondo Gakuoh II - Maxonic TW1100 MKII - Isol-8 SubStation Integra

  6. #6
    Join Date: Oct 2008

    Location: Southampton, UK and Nicosia, Cyprus

    Posts: 1,139

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by hamish_gill View Post
    i have worked it out now... that is frankly astonishingly good for radio
    It is. Enjoy it. Let the BBC weep. (But do they care?)
    Brian

    In Southampton: Raspberry Pi 4 running PiCorePlayer, Beresford Caiman SEG, Quad 77 Int Amp and CD Player, AVI Neutron 4, Sennheiser HD25 headphones.
    In Nicosia: Small Format HTPC, Beresford 7520 ,Quad 405-2, Quart 980s German Tower Loudspeakers.

  7. #7
    Join Date: Oct 2008

    Location: Southampton, UK and Nicosia, Cyprus

    Posts: 1,139

    Default

    I just realised I could do an A-B test:

    This stream is one of my set Squeezebox favourites

    Title: D-dur Czech OGG 224
    URL: http://www.rozhlas.cz/audio/download/ddur_maxogg.m3u

    And is carrying the same station as the FLAC


    http://radio.cesnet.cz:8000/cro-d-dur.flac

    The FLAC is available on the USB input of my Beresford DAC, and the OGG on a COAX S/PDIF

    Button One of the DAC gives me OGG at 224Kb/s and Button Four FLAC at 7-800Kb/s

    The FLAC is clearer, but there is not much in it.

    I rate highly the other East European stations that stream in OGG.
    Brian

    In Southampton: Raspberry Pi 4 running PiCorePlayer, Beresford Caiman SEG, Quad 77 Int Amp and CD Player, AVI Neutron 4, Sennheiser HD25 headphones.
    In Nicosia: Small Format HTPC, Beresford 7520 ,Quad 405-2, Quart 980s German Tower Loudspeakers.

  8. #8
    Join Date: May 2008

    Location: A Strangely Isolated Place in Suffolk with Far Away Trains Passing By...

    Posts: 14,535
    I'm David.

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    Ashley james was saying similar eighteen months ago and ruined it by saying he liked 128Mb/s MP3's (so so I, but only on simple material).

    Internet radio or streaming music via computer (and small, active, desktop speakers) is where it's going to go and LP (and also CD I suspect) will become even more niche sources.
    Tear down these walls; Cut the ties that held me
    Crying out at the top of my voice; Tell me now if you can hear me

  9. #9
    Join Date: Oct 2008

    Location: Southampton, UK and Nicosia, Cyprus

    Posts: 1,139

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    I listened some more to the A-B FLAC-OGG comparison. Some Opera came on. I was very obvious when I was listening to FLAC - it was much more "atmospheric" you could hear the ambience of the stage much better, and it handled the dynamics with much more competence.

    I would want to compare some solo piano, a piano concerto and a violin or cello concerto.

    Listening to the FLAC using Foobar I want to compare the three "bitperfect" routines - WASAPI, ASIO and Kernal Streaming - Foobar support all three - a remarkable achievement.
    Last edited by Labarum; 06-08-2009 at 19:27.
    Brian

    In Southampton: Raspberry Pi 4 running PiCorePlayer, Beresford Caiman SEG, Quad 77 Int Amp and CD Player, AVI Neutron 4, Sennheiser HD25 headphones.
    In Nicosia: Small Format HTPC, Beresford 7520 ,Quad 405-2, Quart 980s German Tower Loudspeakers.

  10. #10
    Join Date: Apr 2009

    Location: Sheffield

    Posts: 2,026
    I'm Confused.

    Default

    Hi Guys,
    Just a brief note to say that I followed the simple instructions, (thanks Labarum, keep it simple for the likes of me ), and I got the music playing through my system. Whilst the opera type music was not to my taste I could appreciate the quality of the sound - stunning for radio. The more this is put into the public arena the more likely someone at the BBC is to wake up, take their finger out of their arse ( or ears), and do something to get into the game - good luck with the letter to the Times.
    Cheers,
    DaveK.

    My System:
    Power: Belkin PF40, Custom.hifi.cables Hydra and DC PSUs.
    Sources: Self built HTPC with Xonar ST sound card, NAD T585 multi disc player, Sony BDP-S350, Squeezebox Touch, Techncs SL1210 (mod'd) + Nagaoka MP30, Thomson Sky HD box.
    Amps etc.: 2 x Mini-T amps, MF-X10D Valve buffer clone, StanDAC 7520/Caiman (mod'd).
    Speakers: Mission 774s with added super tweeters
    Cables: best I can afford and likely to change except Homar's RF attenuated co-ax's and Mark Grant USB and HDMI cables. I also like silver i/cs and speaker cable.

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