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2019 Proms available in binaural sound

Thanks! :) For some reason I have trouble each year finding this kind of list. That said, I've been 'underwhelmed' by the headphone/binaural mixes in previous years. Maybe this year will be better...
 
Hope it's better than the TV broadcast sound which is noticeably not-as-good as it used to be.... Used to enjoy the Proms on TV but the sound the other night of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde was thin and gutless.... Such a shame as I'm sure it was a great performance with audience and performers visibly moved.
 
Stream-age VHF continues to be marvellous. Perhaps some of these streams that seem gutless or underwhelming are being over-produced?

I think the VHF send has improved over previous years, and seems to be having something of a renaissance.

I never thought that the RAH was an especially good venue for listening by headphones, whatever the sending medium. If the effect is very resolved and detailed then an audience of about six thousand seems to provide a great deal of distracting noises off, which are far less irksome via a loudspeaker.

Best wishes from George
 
Not yet listened to the 'binaural' versions. However more generally this year I've noticed some brief 'drop-outs' like poor analogue tape splices in a few places. Noticed them on HDTV DVB-T2 broadcast (and stream recording)and also on fetched R3 files. Maybe its me...

Overall, I continue to prefer the R3 320k stream to the TV. And if someone is using the iPlayer TV for Proms, note that the sound is now limited to 128k.

In principle, therefore, the DVB HDTV is better if you want the video. But comes with two snags. The audio is 5.1. which might not suit if you want optimal stereo. And the TV sound balancing tends to be more level compressed than R3 via iPlayer.
 
Listening on FM I have also heard more than a couple of short dropouts which I don`t remember from previous years.
 
Listening to Rachmaninov Isle of the Dead - via the Internet stream - and it’s sounding very good. I still miss FLAC though.
 
Just watched it on BBC4.... Better sound than the other night I think. And I was very impressed with that new piece Midnight Sun Variations.... Like Tapiola - but 100 years on.
 
I mostly 'listen later' - i.e. grab the HDTV and/or fetch from iPlayer to hear later on. The only 'binaural' output I've listened to thus far this year is the first movements of the Shostakovich 5th. As last year, this seems to have a more distant 'boomy' balance than the standard versio, but I get no 'out around me' sense. So whatever they do doesn't seem to work for me. Not compared yet, but I suspect from this that - as last year - I'll prefer the standard balance, even when using headphones.
 
Barrymagrec said:
Listening on FM I have also heard more than a couple of short dropouts which I don`t remember from previous years.
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Ah, that's vey interesting. Listening to the 320 kbit/s stream I have experienced a few momentary but uncharacteristic drop-outs per concert. I wonder if this is the same.

I updated my streaming software to the latest version just before the start of the season so I can't rule out that as a cause /contributory factor. But if the same thing happens on another transmission medium it suggests something at source or in a common transport path. I will download the concert next time I positively hear a dropout and see if it's there as well.
 
I've encountered them this year via a number of routes.:

1) R3 320k aac files fetched using gip
2) BBC4 'best video' files fetched using gip
3) HDTV-DVB-T2 watched 'live' on TV
4) HDTV-DVB-T2 stream captured and recorded

As (1) and (2) are fetched after the live transmission via a non-real-time method they shouldn't be prone to pauses caused by stream-of-packet pauses. More like missing or garbled data in the packets.

So I'm left with the impression that they're arising near the source.

Only happened a few times, but still odd.

Some excellent Proms this year, though. And overall, good sound. I guess I'm just not a fan of whatever they're doing to 'binauralise' the output.
 
Jim Audiomisc said:
Some excellent Proms this year, though. And overall, good sound. I guess I'm just not a fan of whatever they're doing to 'binauralise' the output.
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Yes - splendid sound with largely excellent programming and performances. Better sound than I have heard from any seat I have had in the RAH. However I haven't tried the binaural versions.

Just these occasional glitches, which I can't recall from any streamed Radio 3 programming other than the promenade concerts.
 
Jim Audiomisc said:
Some excellent Proms this year, though. And overall, good sound. I guess I'm just not a fan of whatever they're doing to 'binauralise' the output.
Click to expand...

I very rarely find binaural convincing, and what I've heard so far doesn't make me change my mind. Not that it's _bad_ sound, just that it's not totally out of my head.
 
It does make wonder if the way headphones and ears and hearing vary so much means that what might sound 'binaual' to one person just sounds 'odd' or 'different' to most other people. In this case I've wondered if the BBC are assuming, say, the use of in-ear units, whereas I use circumferal traditional 'phones. Makes a different to the transfer function.
 
Hi,

That binaural thing does absolutely nothing for me. Should it? The sound stays well between the ears, and there is nothing spectacular at all.
I’ve got Etymotics in-ears and a pair of Philips Fidelio X1 headphones.

I just don’t get it.
 
Jim Audiomisc said:
It does make wonder if the way headphones and ears and hearing vary so much means that what might sound 'binaual' to one person just sounds 'odd' or 'different' to most other people. In this case I've wondered if the BBC are assuming, say, the use of in-ear units, whereas I use circumferal traditional 'phones. Makes a different to the transfer function.
Click to expand...

I’ve been using in ear AirPods.
 
From the above it sounds like the 'in ear' phones aren't any better than conventional designs as a way to get the presumed 'binaural' effects. Curous. I wonder what the BBC are doing when they listen...
 
The sound of tonights broadcast on BBC4 from iPlayer is hopeless... sounds like it was recorded on a dodgy VHS machine, it has tape dropouts blipping away every few seconds!
 
Hmm... no problems playing

http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediasel...-aac-lc-a/format/pls/vpid/bbc_radio_three.pls

via my Auralic Aries Mini. Not that I find Andris Nelsons' Bruckner terribly convincing, and he isn't much of an orchestra driller either - the Gewandhaus took a long time to get into their stride. When I heard them play Bruckner at Symphony Hall under Chailly a couple of years ago they were immaculate right from the first bar.

The timpani sounded as though they were in front of the orchestra whenever they played above forte - the balance engineer's fault, presumably. Most concert relays on Radio 3 get better sound than tonight's.
 
It was the TV broadcast on BBC4 I had problems with - Rattle/LSO - Koechlin & Walton. It really did sound like a tape with a kink in it every few seconds.I think the picture stuttered too. Bad enough to make Koechlin's Bandar-Log unlistenable so I gave up after 5 mins, maybe it got better after that.

Shame because its a great piece of music, and Koechlin is a rare genuine example of an unjustly neglected composer. I highly recommend David Zinman's RSO Berlin recording.

Agree re Nelsons' Bruckner.... his Boston recordings of Shostakovich & Brahms have been far more enjoyable than his Leipzig efforts.
 
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