In article , Michael Chare Munderscor
writes
Is satellite radio any better quality than DAB? How does the quality compare to
FM analogue transmissions?
Yes. The BBC services and quite a lot of others are at much higher
bitrates than what DAB is, or perhaps will ever be;(
However there are some excellent stations from over the channel and one
of the best is Bayern4 Klassik (absolutely stunning
as well as HR
Radio and some others I'll look up if you want
Their sound is in the main excellent, and some use 256 K/bits what
digital radio "should" be. The main French and German services are all
there, such as France Music as well as radio from some other countries.
Only problem is the sat's you have to aim at. The BBC services are on
ASTRA 28.2 deg the others are on ASTRA 19.2 and Hotbird on 13 deg East.
You will need a digital SAT receiver NOT a Sky digibox to receive these.
Several suppliers are around such as www.hisat.com who are "very"
helpful.
A digital sat receiver can be had for around 100 squids sometimes less,
a dish and LNB thats the thing on the end that receives the signal is
around 40 odd quid or so and some cable to connect it all together wont
cost that much more. You will need to install it which is quite easy if
you have a sat finder and quite a palaver if you don't but then again
its a fine way to spend a weekend

Ask that the receiver be pre tuned.
Not only is there a lot of Radio there is some interesting TV. Some is
encoded but quite a bit is free to view. The outputs of some countries
can be UN-encoded with things like X and Dragon CAMS etc

)
All in all a very good source of Radio for the price and excellent value
for money. As I mentioned different sats send out different things and
you can get dual LNB's that will receive more than one sat service etc.
have a look at
www.lyngsat.com and select the sats from 0 deg eastwards
and then you should be able to find out what's available.
Are there any HiFi satellite radio tuners worth buying?
Some of the better ones do have better audio stages but a lot have SPDIF
outputs that you can put through an external DAC. However the audio from
most of them is as good as moist sources you'll have access to..
--
Tony Sayer