My new system

Hi !

Congratulations ! Have a blast !!!

You may add Worldspace Diva as soon as possible - low on cost & high on pleasure.

AM/FM tuner? Save you money for something better. These are OK for car only.

CD Player - what's your current source? This should be a high priority item.

Turn-table? Huge investment not just in the equipment but in the media - I won't go that route unless I already had a huge collection of vinyls.

Spend on CDs. Go through the music & film section of the forum.

SDhawan schrieb:

Hi ! Congratulations ! Have a blast !!! You may add Worldspace Diva as soon as possible - low on cost & high on pleasure. AM/FM tuner? Save you money for something better. These are OK for car only. CD Player - what's your current source? This should be a high priority item. Turn-table? Huge investment not just in the equipment but in the media - I won't go that route unless I already had a huge collection of vinyls. Spend on CDs. Go through the music & film section of the forum.

The order on my list is as per price. Worldspace Diva is 1500 and 2500 with 1 years subscription. Actually the Yamaha tuner is not that expensive - I got a quote of 4000, but have to confirm.

How would u compare Worldspace sound quality with a good FM tuner and a CD.

My current source is Philips DVP 642k DVD player and a iPod Mini. The CD player was quoted 16000 and the turntable 18000+preamp 4000.

Actually I have demoed the Philips DVD (DVP 3007) and Cambridge Audio 340C at my dealer's and the difference was not huge. Actually Philips DVD player is a good compromise.

I do not have a substantial vinyl collection, but I am fond of the vinyl sound. The rafis and kishores sound better on vinyl than CD. I will get more records from some relatives. But the CDs of new recordings are superior (from late 90s). Hence, I want the TT in my setup. And I am going slow.

Oh Koushik....thats great news...Congratulations!!!
You have definitely made a very nice choice...
Yes your Philips DVD player can serve you for quite sometime because they are pretty decent with Audio.
I dont have much idea about Radios...so cant comment which is better among Worldspace and FM Tuner.

Your Turntable project is quite interesting. I have heard a few vinyls on a good turntable (Technics) and I was literally blown by what I heard. Its definitely something to be owned and cherished. It is difficult to get Vinyls, but one has to get started somewhere....that too for something this fantastic..Way to go buddy.

Now the most important thing...spend a LOT on CDs...dont get carried away by equipments alone. There is a lot to be listened to. Believe me that gives you the ultimate pleasure.

I'm a newb in this but IMHO you'd be served better by getting an external DAC and connecting it to that dvd player than buying a new CD player. AFAIK the DVP642 is probably the best budget transport in existence and with a bit of modding can give pretty high end transports a run for their money. Worldspace is very poor quality transmission... they use ultra low bitrate (96k-128k) mp3 compression for transmission. It is certainly not high fidelity but definitely a good way to sample new music.

reignofchaos schrieb:

I'm a newb in this but IMHO you'd be served better by getting an external DAC and connecting it to that dvd player than buying a new CD player. AFAIK the DVP642 is probably the best budget transport in existence and with a bit of modding can give pretty high end transports a run for their money. Worldspace is very poor quality transmission... they use ultra low bitrate (96k-128k) mp3 compression for transmission. It is certainly not high fidelity but definitely a good way to sample new music.

Thanks for the info on Worldspace. However, u haven't compared it to FM. Actually FM on my AVR sound pretty good - but not hifi. Hence, if the quality of both are same, then its a worthwhile investment for me. At 2500 I am not expecting hifi anyway.

kousik_s schrieb:

reignofchaos schrieb: I'm a newb in this but IMHO you'd be served better by getting an external DAC and connecting it to that dvd player than buying a new CD player. AFAIK the DVP642 is probably the best budget transport in existence and with a bit of modding can give pretty high end transports a run for their money. Worldspace is very poor quality transmission... they use ultra low bitrate (96k-128k) mp3 compression for transmission. It is certainly not high fidelity but definitely a good way to sample new music. Thanks for the info on Worldspace. However, u haven't compared it to FM. Actually FM on my AVR sound pretty good - but not hifi. Hence, if the quality of both are same, then its a worthwhile investment for me. At 2500 I am not expecting hifi anyway.

FM is no where close to hifi...so there is no point trying to dig out something that doesnt exist in the first place.
Its just a fun media and thats what you should expect and the fact that your AVR does a decent job should be good enough to concentrate on other sources of music (preferably something in the leagues of hifi)

To me 1 hour of quality listening is way way more satisfying than listening 10 hours to B grade recordings.
Same goes to my approach to collecting music as well....I would prefer to have and listen 50 high-quality CDs than listening a radio with 10000s of songs, all compressed to sound just mediocre.

I know there are tracks (especially old hindi classics) which cant be had in the form of high quality recordings, but thats exception. Most of the later days recordings are far better on CDs than on FM or Worldspace.
No offence meant to radio users, its just my own way of thinking.

Hi !

I completely agree on all that has been said about the sound "Quality" of FM & Worldspace radio. I would add the probably with good signal & properly setup reception both may sound equally good - but in my personal observation Worldspace sounds remarably better, clearer, consistant & stereo than FM.

The point that I want to really emphasize here is the difference in content of Worldspace Vs. FM. worldspace far exceeds in quality of content & service:

-No advertisements (except worldspace's own promos)
-Complete songs
-No nonsense talk be RJs - rather good introduction of music & the artists
-Wide range of dedicated music channels - Old Hindi Music (Farishta), New Hidhi Music (Jhankar), Indian Classical, Regional Music, Western Classical, Jazz, Pop, Rock, etc.
-The old time radio feel - nostalgic

The investment of 2000 on Diva is worth it. And hook it up with your hifi equipment and you wont regret.

Please note: Get the antenna installed at your rooftop with a proper cable running down to your set.

I agree with Doc about the range and quality of worldspace music but feel that a good dedicated FM reciever with a good aerial is better sounding. I think your AV reciever should do the trick. The quality of music on FM in Bangalore is detereorating IMO and Worldspace I believe is getting better. So its a trade off.
I would say go for Worldspace if you can place the antenna correctly. Unfortunately its not possible in my apartment.

I too have had worldspace for over a year and feel its one of the good investments that I have made.Like Sanjay says,
it sounds surprisingly good when hooked up to a proper stereo system.
IMHO the advantage over FM is the variety of dedicated channels of western music that you get-great way of sampling jazz,blues classical, hiphop,rock etc.
Do go listen to the demo
Kamal

I have my system hooked up to the worldspace receiver and record certain stations through my Juli@ sound card and they sound surprising nice and clear when I play them back later. I also have around 100 odd CDs on my system encoded in Flac and most times nowaday I give them a skip. Its only so many times can you hear the same songs. I'd much rather hear worldspace and lots of Internet radios (including the one suggested by Sachi) though my hifi.

there is something about the unexpectedness of the different song which makes audio very interesting. i realised this when i noticed that i preferred listening to FM in my car rather than my cxds which i dutifully carried along !

Arj schrieb:

there is something about the unexpectedness of the different song which makes audio very interesting. !

Very Correct...

Here are some of the CDs I bought recently for my system.

1)Steve Vai - Passion & Warfare
2)Diana Krall - Love Scenes
3)Joe Satriani - Is There Love In Space
4)Evanescence - The Open Door
5)Richard Clayderman - The Classic Touch
6)Vanessa Mae - The Best Of Vanessa Mae
7)Yanni - Live At The Acropolis

Future purchase wishlist:

1)Diana Krall - The Girl In The Other Room
2)REM - Automatic For The People
3)Johnny Cash - Americal Recordings
4)Phil Collins - No Jacket Required

You have bought great music. I would like to know your review of Vannesa Mae & Yaani.

Regarding Phil Collins - check out the best of collection also.

SDhawan schrieb:

Regarding Phil Collins - check out the best of collection also.

Latest buys:
1) Phil Collins - Hits (its got all the hits from No Jacket Required)
2) Pearl Jam - Ten (Black is my favourite here)
3) John Lennon - The U.S. vs John Lennon (Imagine is the most popular)
4) Diana Krall - From This Moment On (music arrangement is superior to Love Scenes)
5) Nana Mouskouri - I'll Remember You (if you haven't heard her, please do)