Music on your boat - how?

[LadyG]

14 minutes ago, blackrose said:

LW radio? Why would you need LW these days? You can play just about every radio station on the planet on your phone with various apps and just play it through a bluetooth speaker

I believe Huwei sends me subliminal messages causing me to break any electronic gadget just after I have mastered it.

I  don't really like downloading,  I am a late developer ............................

Desert Island Discs is compressed on i-player, and I am so far behind with The Archers I now need to listen to the Omnibus edition on Sundays. ?

Edited July 15, 2020 by LadyG

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

I have an iPhone Bluetoothed to speaker. 
very simple

excellent quality. 
using spotify or YouTube 

[1st ade]

14 hours ago, magpie patrick said:

I think data is generally, err, data. I can't remember the last time I was given a single item of data/datum, except in the context above where a datum is a single reference point for other data

In computer parlance (my day job) a single item of data is called a "bit". It can be 0 or 1. (Please don't go down the quantum computing route...)

[magpie patrick]

9 hours ago, Goliath said:

I have an iPhone Bluetoothed to speaker. 
very simple

excellent quality. 
using spotify or YouTube 

Excellent quality and you tube do not go together! I do use it, but I sometimes cringe at the compression! 

 

Video let's artists and publishers get away with sound quality that just doesn't stack up for radio

9 hours ago, LadyG said:

I 'd like something that has LW and works for years.

My car radio shorted out [user error], and refuses to 'undock'

There's some interesting stuff on long wave, although all my aspirations on sound quality have to be left at the tuning dial when I listen to it

[Athy]

Radio 4 long wave is the ideal medium for listening to Test Match Special.

[dmr]

52 minutes ago, Athy said:

Radio 4 long wave is the ideal medium for listening to Test Match Special.

Is the long wave medium a bit like medium wave ? ?

[Guest]

12 minutes ago, dmr said:

Is the long wave medium a bit like medium wave ? ?

I'd say its more like three quarters wave, like wot the Queen does. 

[Athy]

16 minutes ago, dmr said:

Is the long wave medium a bit like medium wave ? ?

No, more like medium long wave.

[OldGoat]

12 hours ago, LadyG said:

I believe Huwei sends me subliminal messages causing me to break any electronic gadget just after I have mastered it.

I  don't really like downloading,  I am a late developer ............................

Desert Island Discs is compressed on i-player, and I am so far behind with The Archers I now need to listen to the Omnibus edition on Sundays. ?

They've ruined the Archers - (I'm not a fan anyway, but The Management insists on playing it loudly, thus it's difficult to escape) - by doing one voise at  a time rather than ignoring the social distanceing bit - It's only a radio show for heavens sake...

DID also has gone downhill of late - I don't think SWMBO listens to it either.

 

We're all doomed..

[Jen-in-Wellies]

3 hours ago, Athy said:

Radio 4 long wave is the ideal medium for listening to Test Match Special.

Also supposedly listened to by Trident submarine commanders to check if the UK still exists or not. Done prior to opening the Letter of Last Resort. If the Archers and Test Match Special have disappeared, they assume there is nothing worth coming home to.

 

2 hours ago, dmr said:

Is the long wave medium a bit like medium wave ? ?

 

2 hours ago, Athy said:

No, more like medium long wave.

Both waves come up short for audio quality. These jokes are increasing in frequency. ?

[doratheexplorer]

14 hours ago, LadyG said:

I believe Huwei sends me subliminal messages causing me to break any electronic gadget just after I have mastered it.

I  don't really like downloading,  I am a late developer ............................

Desert Island Discs is compressed on i-player, and I am so far behind with The Archers I now need to listen to the Omnibus edition on Sundays. ?

Those things are on FM too though.  Very few R4 programmes are LW only.

 

The Archers is very probably the single worst thing produced by the BBC (Radio or TV).  The writing and acting are largely abysmal.  It doesn't even fall into the 'so bad it's good' category.  It's just awful.  Should have been cancelled about 40 years ago and feels utterly out of place in the daytime schedule.  I have to remember to turn the radio off as the 2 o'clock news is finishing.

 

D.I.D. is still great though.  I had some concerns about Lauren at first but she's definitely settled into it more.  No patch on Kirstie though.

[OldGoat]

16 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

Those things are on FM too though.  Very few R4 programmes are LW only.

 

The Archers is very probably the single worst thing produced by the BBC (Radio or TV).  The writing and acting are largely abysmal.  It doesn't even fall into the 'so bad it's good' category.  It's just awful.  Should have been cancelled about 40 years ago and feels utterly out of place in the daytime schedule.  I have to remember to turn the radio off as the 2 o'clock news is finishing.

 

D.I.D. is still great though.  I had some concerns about Lauren at first but she's definitely settled into it more.  No patch on Kirstie though.

Bring back Dick Barton and Mrs Dales Diary - I say.

Oh and the Radio Doctor.

[Athy]

19 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

Those things are on FM too though.  Very few R4 programmes are LW only.

 

 

Test match Special is also on Radio Five Sports Extra, but only people with D.A.B. radios can receive that station.

[doratheexplorer]

2 hours ago, Athy said:

Test match Special is also on Radio Five Sports Extra, but only people with D.A.B. radios can receive that station.

Or the internet, which is nearly everyone.

[Athy]

8 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

Or the internet, which is nearly everyone.

I don't know if it broadcasts over the internet, you may well be right. But if I want to listen to TMS on our boat (as I often do) I need a radio.

[doratheexplorer]

2 minutes ago, Athy said:

I don't know if it broadcasts over the internet, you may well be right. But if I want to listen to TMS on our boat (as I often do) I need a radio.

All radio worldwide is broadcast on the internet.  In fact probably the majority of radio stations are now internet only.  Don't you have any access to the internet when you're cruising?  How do you moderate?

[OldGoat]

8 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

All radio worldwide is broadcast on the internet.  In fact probably the majority of radio stations are now internet only.  Don't you have any access to the internet when you're cruising?  How do you moderate?

Perhaps as I, Athy feels that listening to the radio via t'internet is a shocking waste of scarce resources. It's a generation issue, shades of "2LO calling - Writtle talk"

[Athy]

16 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

Don't you have any access to the internet when you're cruising? 

How do you moderate?

No, I don't. No computer, no telephone and no T.V. on our boat, that's part of the appeal.

I wait till I get home - staff are allowed holidays, you know.

Edited July 16, 2020 by Athy

[magpie patrick]

1 hour ago, doratheexplorer said:

All radio worldwide is broadcast on the internet.  In fact probably the majority of radio stations are now internet only.  Don't you have any access to the internet when you're cruising?  How do you moderate?

Certainly a number are, however the kudos that music promoters attach to a show that is broadcast on FM  is very significant compared to internet - we have to abide by OFCOM regulations, internet stations don't, and promoters love that fact, telling artists that we're a "proper radio station" - they also like the geographic identity

 

I should just add, very few radio stations have dropped FM, but a lot of new ones never were FM, so where I live for example you can get all four BBC, Classic, Heart, Breeze, two BBC local radio stations (plus often the Welsh ones although I'm not in their area) three commercial radio stations and three community radio stations that do broadcast on FM - all on whatever radio you have to hand, battered old contractors tranny, £6 job from Asda, or the car radio. However you need a laptop to get other ones such as the Warminster radio station which is internet only. 

 

There does come a point where I wonder how many radio stations one needs

[Thomas C King]

9 hours ago, 1st ade said:

In computer parlance (my day job) a single item of data is called a "bit". It can be 0 or 1. (Please don't go down the quantum computing route...)

I'd say that data can live at different levels of abstraction in the computing world. So, a bit is may be an atomic datum (not in the Physics sense). And yet, someone's phone number may also be considered a datum; a bit of data, can be made of many bits. At higher levels of abstraction, data becomes information, meaning agentless knowledge.

On topic. We use Google Home and Spotify, but we keep it turned off most of the time. We just ask Google to play what we want. It's not a device for audiophiles, but it is convenient.

Edited July 16, 2020 by Thomas C King

[Col_T]

19 hours ago, LadyG said:

........................

 and I am so far behind with The Archers I now need to listen to the Omnibus edition on Sundays. ?

Perhaps that is God's way of telling you to give up listening to it!??

[zenataomm]

With most things nautical I prefer to remain within the well tried and proven methods.

I avoid adopting technology from other applications which then need shoe horning to fit life on a boat.

 

Consequently because I have neither room for 8 musicians nor deck chairs to rearrange as on Titanic, I don't entertain the need for artificially reproduced electronic warbling onboard.

Also it's just something else to attract scrotes.

 

Thank you for asking though.

[DandV]

On 15/07/2020 at 21:45, Machpoint005 said:

It strikes me that if anyone wants high quality sound reproduction, they are never going to get it inside a narrowboat. You can do whatever you want with the recorded medium, the amplification and the loudspeakers, but you can't get the nice "live" acoustic space you need. That's simple physics.

The main trouble I have receiving hi fi sound is the 70 year old terminal receivers permanently installed recessed into my skull are now somewhat degraded, especially at high frequencies.  Fortunately not to the stage of needing any wearable boosters. 

So paying top dollar for superb sound a waste for me, but conversely crap sound still sounds crap.

Sony have some bluetooth speakers that if you buy two of the same model, you can configure as a pair of stereo speakers.

 

[robtheplod]

Interesting thread... I thought boaters liked listing to birds or their engine so this topic is a bit of a revelation to me...

[Jen-in-Wellies]

On board music done right.