Hello to everyone, I tuned into Radio Free Colorado yesterday and was curious about the new way Radio Free Colorado sounds, so I went to the RFC website (http://www.radiofreecolorado.net) and discovered that _*Radio_Free_Colorado_is_now_streaming_its_broadcast_in_5.1_Channel_Surround_Sound*_.
RFC SOUNDS GREAT! http://www.radiofreecolorado.net/playlist_files/RFC_playlist_192.pls I already had Radio Free Colorado as one of the favorite Rock radio presets I listen to through my home theater Surround Sound system at home, so I experimented by listening to RFC by tuning in to their 192 kbps MP3 stream (URL shown above), and yes, RFC is really transmitting in 5.1 channel Surround Sound. Wow, is all I have to say. My Home Theater setup is a Squeezebox Classic connected digitally using a S/PDIF Toslink digital optical cable input to my Sony Surround Sound amplifier receiver. I use Klipsch speakers (http://www.klipsch.com) for the left, center and right front speakers and Polk Audio speakers (http://www.polkaudio.com) for the two rear channel speakers. I use a Sony 10" 200 watt powered subwoofer for the ".1" channel (not sure why they refer to the subwoofer channel as the .1 of the 5.1 Surround Sound configuration). To me, Radio Free Colorado broadcasting its stream at 192 kbps in 5.1 channel Surround Sound is a significant internet radio advancement in technicality. I don't know if there are any other internet radio broadcasters transmitting their stream encoded in 5.1 channel Surround Sound. I speculate that there may be others, if so I guess they would be European radio stations, but I'm not aware of them. As it says on the Radio Free Colorado website, you can also hear RFC in 5.1 channel Surround Sound using a PC setup with the necessary five speakers. My son has this on his Playstation 3 in his bedroom. I listened to Radio Free Colorado on my son's 5 channel gaming speaker setup which is made by Logitech. RFC sounds very spiffy on my son's gaming system also, but RFC's sound quality really comes to its full glory when I play RFC using my Home Theater Surround Sound equipment. I say Kudos to Radio Free Colorado and to the Station Manager Gary Russell for buying the DSP broadcast processor (an Omnia) so us radio addicts that like Rock & Roll can *really* rock. I wrote to Gary and he wrote back, telling me that he had been planning this major upgrade for Radio Free Colorado to streaming in 5.1 channel Surround Sound for quite some time. He told me he would have done this upgrade sooner, but he was busy the last two years at Kandahar, Afghanistan. I wrote back to Gary about that, my brother is a Marine over in South Korea so I asked him why he was in Afghanistan? Gary replied in e-mail that he is U.S. Army O-2 (First Lieutenant 1LT) and an expert in EOD (explosive ordinance device) troop instruction ('Army 3rd ID, 2nd BCT information website)' (http://www.stewart.army.mil/units/2BCT/home.asp). But that now he is age 43 he no longer has to be active in overseas combat service. He went on further to explain that he used the pay he accumulated while serving overseas to purchase all new equipment for Radio Free Colorado, including the Onmia DSP processor (it's expensive! http://www.omniaaudio.com). I am glad that RFC is back online, it was my overall favorite Rock genre preset and now it is again. So, thanks go to Gary for bringing RFC back to the internet for us radio junkies, especially us audiophile junkies like myself. :) If you like Rock music and have a multi channel speaker setup on your PC or Home Theater setup I recommend you check out Radio Free Colorado. And while youre there, kick in (I did last month) some PayPal bucks to help offset Garys expenses for keeping and maintaining RFC on-the-air. Gary did (and still does) consider Radio Free Colorado to be a community radio, a listener-supported type of radio and not commercial radio since, uh, no commercials are ever played on RFC. :) I do hope that enough dough comes in to Radio Free Colorado so it remains on. Gary wrote back to me after I made a $10 donation that one of the ways he measures listener's interest in RFC is by taking into consideration whether people are donating any funds to RFC. Gary also told me that if you don't have a multiple channel Surround speaker setup (on PC or home theater), but instead only have 2 speakers playing in Stereo, dont worry so much if you cant afford to upgrade your speaker system. Gary says what you'll hear listening to RFC using only 2 stereo speakers is the rear Surround Sound Channels mixed in to your 2 stereo speakers as Expanded left/right Stereo information, the Center Channel mixed in to the middle of the 2 speakers as a simulated center channel (vocals have a lot of depth and clarity that way) and also the Subwoofer channel is mixed back in to the 2-channel Stereo signal as mono, left, or right channel sound information, depending on the recording mix of the song. Now that I understand all of this, I had no idea that 5.1 channel Surround Sound could be used for an Internet Radio station. I thought technically that 5.1 Surround was only for movies. Gary explained that electronically the RFC station electronics setup is about the same as the electronics used for encoding 5.1 sound channel Surround Sound used for Dish Network, Cable TV, etc. I'm impressed. Thanks Gary. :) Mike P.S. If youre interested in what work Gary was doing overseas, Gary recommended a particular book to me. Here is a URL link to an Amazon.com books page: 'Eight Lives Down by Chris Hunter' (http://shrinkify.com/16c1). In looking over the book Gary recommended to me (Eight Lives Down), now I understand why sometimes it seemed that Gary was definitely around at RFC running things, and why at other times it seemed he wasnt. It is because he couldnt be in two places at once. -- Radio Surfer You Can't Always Get What You Want....unless you buy it first! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Radio Surfer's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=31290 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=67535
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