The worst toothpaster hacks of all are the cable companies and networks in the era of digital TV.
And the worst, bottom-dweller offender of them all is WABC-TV in NYC. In every system around here --
Comcast at my house, Verizon FIOS at my office and Cablevision at my brother's house, the sound
quality is terrible. I experimented with setting my Zoon recorder in front of my high-quality Sony
TV (last generation digital CRT, the only CRT to include HDMI; the best thing is the sound system
because the cabinet is huge so it can have full-range speakers built in unlike a flat-panel). While
just about every channel in the cable system puts out highly crunched audio (exception being HBO,
which is legendary for mumbling dialog and having to turn the sound way up, especially on their
original series). WABC is most crunched of all, and they also lop off the top end (there is no
signal above 5k with most programs). The net result is near-unintelligability because dialog is
drowned out by background noise and music (which is already mixed too loud in most TV programs
today). We have a cheapo Samsung flat-screen TV in the kitchen and anything on WABC needs to be
turned up to "40" to be understood whereas any other channel can be at "30" or even "25" if the
dialog was equalized for clarity. My wife has very good hearing and would make the same comments if
she were writing this, so it's not just a guy who's listened to too much music in his life!
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Durenberger" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 11:06 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Toothpaste
> Hello Steve. I am absolutely NOT an advocate of smashed broadcast audio, but we should recall
> that radio operates through two imperfect mediums...the transmission path where natural and
> electrical noise beat up the signal, and the ambience in which the receiver is located, where the
> station must sometimes fight for attention. (The automobile might be an example. )
>
> Regards,
>
> Mark Durenberger, CPBE
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steve Greene
>
> Compression is a tool used all the time on radio. In fact radio may be a prime driver of the
> trend.
>
> Steve
>
>
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