Daddy Dee Posted July 29, 2003 Share Posted July 29, 2003 Some months ago I started a thread on the music channels available on DirecTV. It was just an aside on having fun discovering tubes and the unexpected enthusiasm from my wife. One day as she was leaving the house for work, she had turned on the system and was playing one of the music channels through the La Scalas. I came through another part of the house and hearing some unfamiliar tunes asked what she was playing. She just smiled and said goodbye, you'll need to see for yourself, and headed out the door. I went into the LR to find the source was the satellite. This morning I made another discovery that is worthy of celebration! A kind of long and somewhat irritating story with a very happy ending. I live in the country, sort of. Used to really be in the country, but happens to be only 8 minutes away from the airport in Little Rock. My house is in a small bermuda triangle of cable service. There are about five homes that are not served by any cable TV service and it's too small a potential revenue source for any of the cable companies to put anything into infrastructure. So O.K. I get DirecTV two years ago at the same time I have to go back to dial up internet service which is a real bummer. (I know DTV offers satellite internet, but I still think it's too pricey for what one gets). The story continues... Dish Network now offers local channels (previously unavailable in my location) by satellite and DirecTV, which now also has the legal priviledge of moving into offering local channels here can't get it's act together. O.K. switch. DN offers free hardware, two receivers and installation for the same price as continuing one receiver and no local channels on DTV. Further DTV wants $200 just to put up the dish which will be capable of receiving (multi satellite sources) for local channel service at some undetermined time in the future, supposedly before the end of 2003.) Nothing personal, I simply found the promise of "Soon" and extra bucks unsatisfactory. O.K. Now the really really cool stuff. Taking a cursory look around on DN. Notice more variety of music channels. Nice.... Notice channel called "Jazz Traditions"... tune in... playing is Karrin Allyson... next cut... Miles Davis.... next Stan Getz.... Well, it's too early for happy hour, so I thought I'd share this good news with the forum. YYYYIIIIIPPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! Is this cool or what? In addition to just having some WORLD CLASS MUZAK floating through the air, what a great way to ID composers and artists I'd like to add to my CD collection. That is the very next best thing as reading the recommended Jazz favorites thread on this forum! more later and best regards, Dee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted July 29, 2003 Share Posted July 29, 2003 I, too, was pleased to find this plethora of music. First with DirecTV, now with Dish. However, I soon discovered it was CD quality at best, perhaps even compressed below that. As Muzak, just fine, but not really satisfying as a source to sit and listen to intently. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whell Posted July 29, 2003 Share Posted July 29, 2003 That's disappointing to hear, Mallet. I used to subscribe to "Digital Cable" (nothing "digital" about it at all, really) for, among other reasons, the access to "digital quality" music free of commerical interruption. I found that with cable, the quaility of music was more analogous to the output of a decent quality cassette deck. I was hoping that Direct TV or Dish might truly offer a much better quality product. I also found, over time, that the "rotation" on many of the music stations was very much like local FM, and therefore did not yield much in the way of exposure to music that I wasn't familiar with. Has anyone tried the in-home version of XM Satellite Radio, sufficient to comment about the sound quality? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted July 29, 2003 Share Posted July 29, 2003 Interesting you should mention cassette. About the only thing I use them for is the occasional "informal" recording with a Sony WMD4 Pro walkman and single point stereo mic. Using the very best cassettes and Dolby C yields sound quality well beyound that CD can provide. Remember, the issue I brough up was the brick wall problem with Redbook when listening to acoustic and other very wide range material. Again, I don't have any problem with the ubiquitous CD, except I no longer even try to listen to acoustic music from them. Only electric rock, talking books, etc. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whell Posted July 29, 2003 Share Posted July 29, 2003 I guess I was thinking about pre-recorded cassettes. Home made cassettes in my experience sound excellent as well. I've got a couple of old DBX-equipped Yamaha cassette decks that yield superb sound, provided I make the tapes myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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