FM audio quality in Ireland

Big Tone

This is a topic not discussed too often so here goes..

I've been to a lot of countries around Europe and beyond and have alway brought my trusted hi-spec portable world band radio (with RDS for idenification purposes) with me and I am always amazed at the high quality of audio on FM in those countries.

I'm not saying they all sound brilliant but most of them do. No matter what genre of music station or even talk radio stations, the audio fidelity is far superior to anything I've heard in Ireland.

There seems to be a mentality here that loud is good and the perception is the signal is strong, even when it may not be in some parts. The loudness war here had led to FM stations sounding sonically poor and overcompressed to the point where the dynamic range is almost non-existent! In those other countries the FM is of hi-fi quality, I have never heard it so good! Even the national stations here dont sound up to the mark!

Anyone else have any opinion on this?

L1011

Properly set up 112k DAB sounds far superior to the average dynamically companded, booming Irish FM signal.

Thats saying quite a lot if you know the technology involved...