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Who has the BEST sound?

K

keyjock

Guest
Just curious, now that we are into the digital age of broadcasting, whereas most stations have abandoned the old analog processing etc. Who do you think is pushing out the best quality? I'm talking "audio" not "programming!"
I know that my hears 'bleed a bit' when I punch in WODS, sometimes parts of songs have actually disappeared, and others the highs or lows are distored and so on.
Your thoughts please.
 
CE Rob Landry put a ton of time and effort into maximizing the audio quality of WCRB 102.5 for many years before the sale. The result was impressive...whether you liked WCRB's choice in classical, the audio quality was quite good. That Inovonics Omega FM processor was sweet. I have no idea how much of that equipment migrated to 99.5...hell I don't know if Rob migrated himself. He's an excellent engineer, though...a real "golden ear".

WERS has historically put in a lot of effort to have a quality airchain and transmitter. IIRC they had an Aphex 2020 that also sounded quite nice. Again, with the new HD transmitter I don't know what they've got in there now. The same guy helps maintain WHRB's transmitter plant so I assume their STL & processing are of good quality. Their air studio is pretty elderly, though.

But of all the stations in Boston, I'd say WBUR is the most meticulous about their studios, airchain and processing. Considering that a lot of their audio goes through multiple codecs thanks to the new ContentDepot satellite system that PRSS uses, it still sounds quite good. I'm listening to them right now and the HD signal sounds excellent. Actually WBUR's shining achievement is their processing...which does an incredibly good job of making every speaker sound at about the same "loudness" regardless of the source quality (studio, satellite, ISDN, telephone, cellphone, satphone) so you rarely have to struggle to understand the speaker, nor do you have to adjust the volume very often. The only place I find they have problems with that is the BBC World Service which is a lot more accepting of terrible audio quality than NPR usually is. There's good reasons for the BBC to be like that...but it's still maddeningly difficult to understand some of the phone calls they air.

On the bad end, I have heard WTKK air MP3's that couldn't have been better than 16kbps mono and they sounded gawdawful on analog, I can't imagine on HD. And the processing on WBCN & Kiss108 used to be unbelievably aggressive, to the point where you could clearly hear the compression going on. I wonder if they've backed off since HD was installed?
 
For audio quality, I would say that WGBH-FM is right near the top of the list...
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I would agree with you except they don't time-delay their analog to match their HD Radio...so the audio sounds like crap when it blends and you hear the last seven seconds of audio again. It's really maddening if you're in a car and on the fringe of HD reception. I've heard they're going to tackle this after the move into the new Brighton Landing studios (currently underway) are finished. But until then, I gotta ding WGBH. :-[

Aside from that, though...their overall airchain sounds quite good, and they've done an excellent job on the processing. Especially on classical, a notoriously difficult genre to process well without over-doing it.
 
With regard to Rob Landry, he operates a website http://www.hippogryph.com/forum and on it he said he was let go when the new owners took over. WCRB's format, both on 102.5 and 99.5, doesn't need the best audio processing since they don't play music with wide variations in dynamic range. Lush orchestrations of Viennese waltzes and equally lush orchestrations of a few operatic arias exhibit constant dynamic volume. The excerpts they play from longer works are usually the sections that are the fastest and loudest (for example, the 'scherzo' from Brahms's Fourth Symphony; the second and fourth movements have very quiet even hushed sections, but WCRB never plays them). Except for fund-raising drives, WGBH-FM plays pieces like these in full with the quietest passages quite audible over a silent background...100,000 watts doesn't hurt either.
 
If you're around the South Shore, Rockland HS Radio (WRPS 88.3fm) has pristine sound...epsecially for a High School station.
 
SheaTheDJ said:
If you're around the South Shore, Rockland HS Radio (WRPS 88.3fm) has pristine sound...epsecially for a High School station.
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I must agree. WRPS/88.3 really sounds clean and crisp. Apparently they have added Orban processing and a new BE-250 exciter. It might be only 100 watts, but it's probably one of the best Stereo signals in the area. They've come a long way since 1974. And the music is great!
 
So are we specifically talking radio station? processing? DJ or microphone? I did a narrative VO two weeks ago and almost passed out when I saw the TeleFunKen 47...I could have sounded like Sinatra in that thing...hail to the microphone gods
 
wkrpfm said:
So are we specifically talking radio station? processing? DJ or microphone? I did a narrative VO two weeks ago and almost passed out when I saw the TeleFunKen 47...I could have sounded like Sinatra in that thing...hail to the microphone gods
Click to expand...

Hi Erica. I believe the item in question was for actual radio stations. But since we're bringing up microphones..... yes the TeleFunKen's are of superior quality. I've used them myself, though not the 47 in particular. But personally, I love the "old standby", the RE-20 or 27. Virtually every station has one or two of these mikes. Their durability, their clean response and quality really sets them apart. In fact, at one of my stations.... we have a first generation RE-20 in our newsroom. It's been there since 1984 and still sounds great! The Senheisers are also very good for on-air work as well.
Good to hear from you Erica, take care.

-Peter Q.
 
Add 92.9 WBOS to the list of having the best sound. Very good sound without sounding too overprocessed. I also like 88.9 WERS, 89.7 WGBH, 90.9 WBUR (check out late Saturday nights when they're actually playing music, it's amazing!) and 106.7 WMJX.

For stations with the worst audio, Oldies 103.3 and 101.7 WFNX top my list. And I always thought that WKLB could have a little more umph.

Jack
 
Remeber in the 70s that the old WJIB-FM 96.9 had an excellent air chain. When Advent factory was in Cambrigde they used JIB when testing and designing the Advent 300 stereo receiver.
Another, fine audio from the 70s ; Victor Campos ,then of KLH, playing 15ips Master tapes of classical recordings direct into WGBH 's line to the xtmr.
 
Any radio who's transmitter is in the next room from the air studio
 
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