Re: [IRCA] [NRC-AM] Re: Another perspective on AM IBOC, from the broadcasters' mailing list

[Scott Fybush <scott@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Doug Smith wrote:

> It really, really did sound like FM.  I think the spoken word
> programming that's been on WPLN-AM when I've listened in HD simply
> didn't adequately demonstrate what HD AM can sound like.  (and WLAC, the
> other HD AM station around here, really never has sounded quite
> right...)  
> 
> I'm coming to the impression that some of HD AM's shortcomings are
> indeed actually those of receivers - that if some decent receivers come
> along, it could actually work during the day.

Heresy! Heresy! Fry that man at the stake!

We have one HD AM station here (WLGZ 990) playing music. It's true that 
the codec now in use for AM HD sounds better on music than it does on 
voice. I can actually stand to listen for a while to WLGZ, whereas I 
find the artifacts on WHAM and WHTK very fatiguing after even a short 
time listening. (Or maybe it's just the programming :-)

Even on music, there's something about the treble (most of which is 
synthesized in the receiver) that sounds fake, to my ears. I would never 
describe it as "FM quality," at least not having heard FM done properly. 
It sounds like a very high-quality webstream...and when it goes from 
music to commercials, most of which probably arrived at the station as 
heavily-compressed MP3s, it still sounds pretty rotten.

With any HD setup, but especially on an AM, so much depends on the 
quality of the source material, the extent to which it is or is not 
degraded on the way to the transmitter, and how well it's processed at 
the transmitter. WLGZ seems to be getting all of that mostly right. It's 
certainly in the minority.

(It doesn't help, either, that the WLGZ signal isn't a great one here. 
I'm on the fringes of its strong daytime analog signal, which is usually 
at least a little noisy here. Once it locks on HD, the noise goes away, 
but it takes a bit of work to get it to lock.)

s
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