[OKDXA] Whew...

[Nelson Derks]

> $3000 for a CD player?  Yes there are some that cost that much and more!
> And we thought Ham Radio was expensive!!  Geez I could buy a complete
> multi-op contest station on what some spend on their HiFi gear.
>
> Don't ask me how I know about this junk, :-)

This evening I picked up a used Yamaha CDX-396 CD player on eBay for $32.00
delivered. The seller claims it was purchased new in 2000 and is near-mint
in both appearance and functionality. We'll see. The pic looked real good.
One thing I like about the Yamaha stuff is the free owners manuals available
for download.

So... It turns out they had three flavors of that model: The 596, 496 and
396. Aside from bells and whistles, the only difference between the 596 and
its lesser siblings are in a couple of specs: Dynamic range of 115 dB vs 105
dB and THD of .0025% vs .0030%. I doubt if I'll notice the difference, and I
was impressed that it's possible to make a ten fold increase on a dynamic
range of 105 dB... But, in practical terms, who cares? Most of the CD's I
have are 'vintage' music recorded on gear that was lucky to see 70 dB of
dynamic range and .1% THD, then processed and compressed for a little extra
punch on the radio... And much of the new stuff is even worse in terms of
being over-processed.

Which brings me to another point... Why is it that with every improvement in
recording equipment, the FM station operators take that as an invitation to
compress the last remaining dB of range out of their audio? Has the concept
of listener fatigue been completely forgotten, or is it assumed you'll have
a short-term audience during drive time only, so you might as well be
loud...? Gimme a break. The only FM station in Tulsa I can listen to for an
hour or more is KWGS, the NPR station. The rest of them get on my nerves
within 15 minutes.

Me thinks some "broadcast inginears" need to have their ears reamed out.

- AC5UP