FM stereo tuners - Xpost (OTish)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Odd isn't it? Would you buy a telly that needed an external monitor to work reasonably well? Yet many seem happy to pay a fortune for a telly then have to buy better speakers.

[Jim Lesurf]

May not be as bad as many assume. The reality is that being able to hear the range up to somewhere in the 5kHz - 10kHz region can be ample for hearing the sound quality of much music. So choosing ESLs isn't a waste. Indeed, the reduced colouration and distortion may be *more* useful for those with limited hearing as it clears the window they can hear.

Hi-Fi reviewers tend to over-rate the significance of higher frequencies.

Note also that some of the best classical music artists and conductors are over 70 years old and almost certainly have lost HF extension in their hearing. But they can still judge the sound quality OK.

Jim

[The Natural Philosopher]

No, thats 'socialism'.

Either to take what he public services offer, or you pay taxes *and* pay for private treatenent or education or WHY.

A huge number of parents can't afford full private education, but could afford to pay for better education . But 'one size fits all' political correctness wont allow e.g. a voucher system tradeable at ANY school. likewise in teh NHS., the moment you go private in a given area you lose the right to state treatment.

I suggest you get one ear done and 'lose' the aid and then say actually this time we would like it for the other ear...

[mechanic]

Welcome to our 'free at the point of use' NHS!

[Bill Wright]

My dad had a pair. He was deaf from artillery fire.

Bill

[Roger Hayter]

I agree. There *may* be places where the NHS authorities try to avoid providing two but they are in a weak position, two aids being so much more effective than one. (Obviously not in people with normal hearing on one side, but this is a rare problem.) If you point out that you like listening to stereo music, or that directional hearing is important to you for recreation or crossing the road, it is very difficult for them to refuse. And in the case of an impasse a formal complaint may get the decision changed.

[Roger Hayter]

I would suggest a formal complaint to the NHS body concerned. This is an untenable position they are taking. You could get an expert opinion, or just look it up on the Internet.

[newshound]

I was having the same thought the other day about first growth clarets....

[newshound]

Sound quality just doesn't have the same metrics. Same reason cameras sell on megapixels and zoom ratio, even though the former wrecks the low light noise and the latter, the IQ. Much the same for automobiles.

[Woody]

Then you have a fault with your car installation. There is DAB on Sutton Coldfield, Lickey Hills, Bromsgrove, Malvern and Ridge Hill all of which should give some cover.

[Andy Burns]

I'm noticing more coverage blackspots being created than destroyed lately. Overlapping transmitters creating destructive interference to the SFN?

e.g. anywhere in about a 5 mile radius of Trowel services which used to be fine, or a 10 mile radius of Houghton on the Hill (which used to have a minor blackhole for about 200 yards around the local DAB transmitter).

[Bill Wright]

It was always known that the presence of a DAB transmitter that didn't include the BBC national SFN would likely cause a coverage hole for that SFN. The gap between the DAB channels is minuscule so a strong signal from nearby was likely to wipe out an adjacent signal from further afield. Obviously receivers vary in their ability to cope. I have two DAB halfwave dipoles with their outputs combined. They are mounted so as to receive signals from Clifton (1km away) exactly out of phase. Of course only a small bandwidth is EXACTLY out of phase, so I have the dipoles arranged to null out the middle of the strongest mux.

Bill

[Martin Brown]

It is a jobsworth somewhere "saving" money. Penny wise pound foolish.

If you want to make waves involving your MP and the charity that looks after the interests of people with Menieres will probably move things along. I'm a bit surprised a consultant cannot force the issue himself.

I know junior doctors struggle to get audiology to do anything helpful when they have inpatients with severe hearing difficulties and need to do physiotherapy (my mum ran into that problem). I resolved it by calling in a personal favour from a consultant audiologist.

Not quite. Before the NHS offered digital hearing aids my father had a pair privately (since otherwise he could hear nothing intelligible with analogue - he could lip read pretty well though if you were facing him).

When NHS offered digital he went along with nothing and came out with a pair of the latest generation. After that the improvements in successive NHS digital aids pretty much kept pace with his failing hearing.

NHS aids are bigger than the private models but the signal processing is sufficiently good that they are not noticeably inferior any more.

Very pragmatic and in this case I agree.

[Martin Brown]

Balance is a *lot* more serious. Falls are a major source of expensive broken bones in the elderly (especially women). I'd make waves.

[charles]

possibly, but I don't know for certain, because I have a 60db notch at

4.5kHz in both ears.

[Martin Brown]

Outside of London and the Home Counties there are wide areas where DAB reception is at best patchy and at worst non-existent. When you do get a DAB signal it is fit only for listening in a car with engine noise.

The only thing DAB does better is the silent gaps between performances.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

And the same applies to FM. And AM too. No RF coverage is ever perfect everywhere.

However, I'd expect a car DAB radio to also have FM. Giving you the choice.

And as I keep on saying, the factory fit aerial may not be state of the art for DAB. And the same applies to FM. With car aerials, looks seem to be more important than performance.

[Bob Eager]

When I was a teenager, we lived in line of sight half a mile from a BBC mast in Brighton. The BBC signal was so strong that the TV wouldn't work on BBC. We used to unplug the antenna cable, and plug it in again for ITV.

In the end I made an inline attenuator tuned to the BBC signal.

[Andy Burns]

Yes, I used to get that near Copt Oak before it carried the national mux, and as I mentioned near Houghton on the Hill, so that's a known effect, I don't think Houghton has started carrying the BBC mux, but coverage is basically unlistenable for miles along the A47 East of Leicester now.

[charles]

mine automatically goes to FM if DAB drops out.

as the letter BBC EID once received from BL said: "The stylist choses the location for the aerial"