Where do you find your evidence for listeners caring for sound quality (The future of UK radio is now in your hands, Technology, November 23)? Choosing to rip CDs to a computer or iPod is about convenience not quality. Gavin Bailey
True. But in my experience, people almost always rip their music CDs at a much higher level of quality than DAB, which is roughly equivalent to an 80kbps MP3 file (see http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/bitrate_vs_quality.htm). Even podcasts are commonly better than that (ie 64kbps or 96kbps mono MP3).
There's also a significant interest in lossless compression systems such as FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec), and both Apple and Microsoft offer lossless encoding systems.
As I said, perhaps not everyone cares as much as I do, but there is plenty of evidence that most people do care. Even if they didn't, I don't think the BBC's attitude to "broadcast quality" should be "the worst we can possibly get away with".
