"what the "Radio Authority"...failed to do, was to understand that MP3 is a better system than MP2....but they listened to to so-called "golden ears" of the BBC who said that consumers can't tell the difference..."
Hmm - what you fail to do is have a sense of proportion. The difference between MP2 and MP3 is not a huge amount - far less than the difference between MP3 and codecs such as AAC. Moreover, errors in the bitstream (which you are going to get on DAB) have a much more severe effect on MP3 than MP2. So, you reduce your coverage area if you use MP3 rather than MP2. Oh, and there's the extra complication in implementing the decoder (in every receiver), which isn't an issue now, but was then.
As others have said, the sound quality problems with DAB are not because it uses MP2 instead of MP3, but because the bit rates have been wound right down in order to squeeze more stations in. I recommend that for fixed receivers, if available you listen to radio on Freeview instead. The bit rate is much higher (at the moment...).
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@ the geek
"what the "Radio Authority"...failed to do, was to understand that MP3 is a better system than MP2....but they listened to to so-called "golden ears" of the BBC who said that consumers can't tell the difference..."
Hmm - what you fail to do is have a sense of proportion. The difference between MP2 and MP3 is not a huge amount - far less than the difference between MP3 and codecs such as AAC. Moreover, errors in the bitstream (which you are going to get on DAB) have a much more severe effect on MP3 than MP2. So, you reduce your coverage area if you use MP3 rather than MP2. Oh, and there's the extra complication in implementing the decoder (in every receiver), which isn't an issue now, but was then.
As others have said, the sound quality problems with DAB are not because it uses MP2 instead of MP3, but because the bit rates have been wound right down in order to squeeze more stations in. I recommend that for fixed receivers, if available you listen to radio on Freeview instead. The bit rate is much higher (at the moment...).