Need suggestions for Tuner/CD system

First one that comes to mind is the Onkyo mini system CS-515 and such. Price should be 22/23k or thereabouts.

the average sony ought to do a good job. or listen to philips too. prices i think would be 2-4k?

regards

stevieboy schrieb:

the average sony ought to do a good job. or listen to philips too. prices i think would be 2-4k? regards

me too thinking on these lines now after looking at the price of Onkyo. i already have an AVR but i am looking for something more basic which my parents (especially mummy) can use when she is resting in her room.

it is a sin to ask but can anybody suggest any decent models in sony/philips/panasonic range just the radio and CD player nothing more (no transistors please )

the models change so often! best to visit a showroom and see what they've got as latest. grundig too might prove a good option.

Sunil,

Consider buying Worldspace Radio with builtin speakers. Costs less than 5K with 6 months subscription. Easy to use. Very good sound quality if installed properly. Great program content with dedicated stations playing all genres of music. No non-sense talk by RJs and no Advts. You wont even have to spend money to buy CDs.

i heard Worldspace and a lower rez than FM ? is that true ?

Back in 1995/1996, Worldspace had licensed MP3 from Fraunhofer (before purchase by Thomson) so I'm not sure if they have changed it since. It does sound like compressed audio on the few occasions I have heard it.

In Mumbai, there are problems with reception due to our crowded apartment buildings stuck so close to each other but in Delhi you should be okay. My only reservation was upon hearing complaints that renewing subscription is a bit iffy and customer service in general. If this is not so then its a great idea. What no one disputes is that the service itself (i.e. programming) is top-notch and very well worth it.

Worldspace broadcasts content @128kbps,but sounds surprisingly good hooked to the stereosystem.
Like Sanjay said, they also have sets with a built in amplification & speakers & catch FM also apart from WS signals.But the patch antenna app 6" dia, needs a clear line-of -sight to the satellite in the SE direction.
I agree that it is very worthwhile & cost effective solution to music segregated by genre.Visit the World Space site for more details.

I have always wondered how WorldSpace has the Gall to ask more for its Satellite Radio's monthly subscription, than 100+ TV Channels per month...

I think this is one reason it has barely grown in numbers...

For one year subscription they charge Rs.1800/- + one month grace period is given.

Quality is ok. But compared to CD, the quality is bad.

If there were more local players in the DAB market it would have been better. It is a pity there is only Worldspace and that too at a rather high subscription cost.

I do agree that their charges could be lower-but the thing is, they do have a fantastic library.I love old hindi film songs, & so far as I am concerned, the great songs they manage to dig out from somewhere make it worthwhile. So ,for me, the rest of the channels are a sort of icing on the cake.
Re quality, it is certainly below CD quality inspite of whatever they may claim, but its surprisingly nice listening & more consistent than FM.
For 1800 bucks per annum,apart from old Hindi film songs, I get to listen to Classical music, both Hindustani & Western( & also Carnatic for those who like it ),Jazz,R&B,Rock, Pop,HipHop,Country, Trance etc, etc.
An OK bargain, methinks.
But surprisingly, they are not open to the idea of package deals, sweetening the cost for a 2 or 3 year down payment etc.

I did give a try to worldspace around 6 months back.
I assumed the sound quality wouldnt be good. In fact I was pretty much prepared to hear something even inferior to FM. Even with all this mental preparation and exceptionally liberal acceptance criteria, when I heard it through my system (during the demo session), it sounded soooooo bad that I had to take the step back. Believe me guys, I browsed through all the channels just in case a couple of channels sounds good I would still take it. My purpose was mainly to have an additional source of music which my family can listen to all day without having to look around and handle the CDs.
But it sounded so absolute crap in my system that I instantly knew no one is going to use it...so I finally had to reject it and I was not happy doing it . I realized that I have just lost a priceless collection of music.

It doesnt mean that the story would be the same with all systems...so please do try it out before assuming anything about the quality of the signal.

Lots of people seem to be hearing poor quality sound from Worldspace.

I have no such problem. Could it be poor quality reproduction from the current Worldspace receivers? I have the original Sanyo receiver when the service was first introduced - it sounds pretty good.

Viren.

i have had worldspace at home (lonavala) for many years now and while the sound is not cd quality it certainly is not unlistenable. a lot depends on the antenna being set up properly. guess the receiver also would play a role. have the first hitachi receiver they introduced. japanese.

The Hitachi & Sanyo receivers were superb... sold for Rs 5K and Rs 11K.

Sadly, no longer available.

The Worldspace broadcasts are ALL compressed MP-3 with a Max bit rate of 128 KBps. ( Much poorer quality than DAB Radio, or even high quality FM Radio transmissions.)

This compression is essential to squeeze as many audio channels as possible on the limited Satellite Bandwidth availble on WorldSpace's satellites.

Worldspace was launched to service the "underserved' regions of the World that do not have FM Radio.

India is now ( Finally ) catching up, with most cities receiving FM... sadly the content is Very Limited and too commercially driven.

That leave a Niche market for WorldSpace to tap...

I have the following models of WS Radio (collecting radios is my hobby)

1. Hitachi
2. JVC
3. Sanyo
4. AR 1

When it was introduced in India, Hitachi was costing 5 k. I got it from Modern World. Quality is ok for casual listening of various types of music. But for a serious listening it is not upto the mark.

DAB, DRM - they are not broadcasting in India. ampnut ji, may be able to give some more input in this regard.

DAB, DRM - they are not broadcasting in India. ampnut ji, may be able to give some more input in this regard.

1. To the best of my knowledge, there are no Local DAB (digital Audio Broadcasts) transmissions.

The little I have read on the subject says that even in the UK, where there were Great Hopes on DAB by the BBC, the DAB transmisions were highly compressed to conserve digital bandwidth, and the resultant sound quality was Worse than BBC's FM Transmissions. the DAB was not even indended to be Audiophile Grade.

2. Incidentally, about 5 years ago, I had attended a technical presentation by AIR's Head of R&D, in New Delhi.

He had spoken about a Short Wave DAB service which AIR had commenced ! It was a test transmission, and the tests were sucessful. No idea if this is still on... or probably no funding ?

Anyone in the know, do post.

I too remember hearing about talks to implement DAB in India but then nothing happened. The reason I don't care much about this is that I doubt the programming would be of very high quality even if it materialised. The last time I switched on FM was 5 years ago and all I heard were RJs in love with their own voice and wit, playing the same old MLTR, XYZ, ABC, etc.