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TSL and Sound Quality

kfbkfb

kfbkfb

I (usually) listen to FM on a 2004 Honda Civic car radio.

About 3 years ago, I noticed the sound quality on KCFX
was better (better treble and stereo imaging) than the
other local FM stations, consequently, I listen to KCFX
more now than I did in the past (they've had the same
format for ~35 years)

I haven't looked at the audio on a spectrum analyzer, so
I don't have specifics.

I was wondering if there is any research about improving
sound quality that results in more Time Spent Listening?

Kirk Bayne
 
kfbkfb said:
I was wondering if there is any research about improving
sound quality that results in more Time Spent Listening?
Click to expand...

So much of that discussion has to do with the listener's playback system. The radio station can't do much if you're listening on a cheap car radio. I've seen studies about the amount of compression and how that can cause listener fatigue.
 
Yes, high levels of compression/clipping causing significantly reduced dynamic range of music seems to reduce TSL. Same goes for adding excessive high frequencies to the mix. Female TSL can suffer because women are more sensitive to high frequencies.

A few years ago I attended a radio focus group where one of the questions involved audio quality. Since asking someone who doesn't relate to why the audio sounds good or bad can get subjective, they played a set of music from a heavily processed station, then again with almost no processing. Consistently, less processing 'sounded' better.

One woman panelist summed it up well: 'All of the songs saved my phone sound SO much better than the same songs heard on the radio.'

When it comes to the radio business, we aren't just competing with each other anymore. Loudness wars of the 70's and 80's are over.
 
TheBigA said:
In a quiet room or in a moving car?
Click to expand...

Either, or both. The old saying that good quality audio sounds good anywhere, seems to hold up.

Processing music for cars, mono clock radios, or the GM's Caddy radio, is always fraught with unintended consequences.
Seems like the GM always wins, though.
 
Kelly A said:
Either, or both. The old saying that good quality audio sounds good anywhere, seems to hold up.
Click to expand...

My experience has been that the listening environment has a lot to do with it.

Good quality audio doesn't matter if you can't hear it over all the background noise.
 
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