Re: Audio Files - best quality
I didn't mention TV. But since you've brought it up, my experience is that broadcast HD via a digital antenna can be quite good, certainly better than the same program though a cable system. But I am within a reasonable distance from the broadcast towers, I don't know how much worse it gets for people on the fringes of the reception area.
While this is pretty much a (my) personal problem, between me and the local ABC affiliate, I happen to only be 25 miles or so from their tower, i also happen to be at the bottom of small hill directly in the path between me and that tower. I expect I could get great reception with a roof antenna. When I bought this house a few decades ago there was a roof mast with a motor so i could aim at different cities. For now I don't plan to mount a roof antenna to watch the NBA finals every year (they usually aren't that competitive). But this year looks like a contest.
When The Suits lowered terrestrial radio to the LCD, an LCD audience is what they got. Doing a radio-sponsored show is the worst, you'll get an audience that looks like every trailer park and meth lab in the county must be vacated tonight. I think it's a fallacy to assume that the prevalence of extremely compressed audio today is the result of customer preference. I don't think that people have ever been given a choice.
We basically disagree between cause and effect... Did the suits target meth heads, or did that become their demographic that they need to satisfy. I suspect the latter, from decades in the trenches trying to front run (guess) what customers want.
I recall some choice in some markets. IIRC NPR used to run noticeably lower nominal audio levels, while their programs were still compressed. back when I lived in the NYC area there was a mostly classical station (WPAT?) that delivered some actual dynamic range. If a station turned off their compressors and gained market share, they'd leave them off, but with modern music so compressed, I don't know how we could even tell the difference.
For an interesting news item about terrestrial radio, some companies are buying up old school radio stations to lock in their access to content, as the music industry evolves further toward web based distribution. Another almost related news tidbit. Fleetwood Mac just negotiated a separate royalty from clear channel for playing their music. Clear channel has signed similar deals with a few other labels, so that looks like the future of how artists monetize their music. That industry has been seriously disrupted by technology and the suits are pedaling as hard as they can to keep up with the change.
JR
[edit-] for TMI, last night during a heavy rain downpour I lost the satellite, so switched back to my digital receiver that was still on after the basketball game... So while satellite was completely blocked by the rain, i still got a mediocre digital TV signal. Too bad Kimmel wasn't worth watching.[end edit]
. I've been on flat land my whole life (not too far from the beach). I haven't had any form of cable for most of my life. It's a huge rip off. You get so many channels of infomercials and the rest are mostly repeats. I can get that for free. The few funny new shows can be had online once a year when it's raining outside.