World space india to shut shop

So with best possible gear ( Bryston or Larita) and Speakers and Dac you are satisfied with Bad source like DVD player transport or Worldspace?

Please hear a good ( or average) cd on CD player with digital out ,and you will elaize what you were missing....or hear a good record on TT..

The chain is as strong as weakest link and longtime I suspect that the source is VERY WEAK in this case.In fact you should have collected Good Cd's or FLAC first ,then tried a good PC or Bit Perfect CD player and then tried valve amplification. I am doubtful if digital out in LG DVD player is bit perfect ( expert comments please) and as a transport it is too jittery.(Again expert comments please)

Hemant


There is someting amiss if you can connect to the music only if it is played back on a quality system.

I can listen to music on a transistor radio and be fully involved and connect with the musicians,but what do I know i am not an "AUDIOPHILE."

Worldspace provided good music of reasonable quality,and I for one will miss the service.

Regards
Rajiv
 
The chain is as strong as weakest link and longtime I suspect that the source is VERY WEAK in this case..........

Hemanth, though what you say about listening to music as an audiophile is agreeable, if we expect to be able to sit in a sterile room and listen to music in the best of equipment, it is a very unpractical solution. And the worst of this solution is that you are limited by the quantum of music you can listen to as you have only a limited number of music on hand.

FM radio and WS remove that restriction. They really do open the world to you and bring to you songs you have not heard before. For example, I listen to local Fm stations in Chennai, and have collected a set of over 150 new songs in just 4 weeks. Similarly after listening to WS for over 18 months, I have a list of what I call 'Songs to die for' (phrase stolen from Stereophile) that I am slowly assembling. I have over 1000 songs in this list.

As long as the music is decent, I feel we must not close our ears to various forms to listening to music. I certainly will not agree to listen to distorted sound. But, as long as there is no distortion, I have no issues. On a simple Sony system, at around 50dB I do not hear any distortion from WS, and that is good enough for me.

It is important that we learn when to be critical and when to just enjoy the music we hear. Otherwise we will be on a perpetual path of up-gradation and will always be unhappy.

Cheers
 
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I never got hooked on to Worldspace, despite my brother and other friends recommending it. Instead with my Squeezebox I can listen to hundreds more stations over my broadband connection.

No doubt, listening to uninterrupted audio is pleasure.

George
 
Always wanted to get one right from its introduction, but had a feeling that its subs model, paid radio may not work in India in the long term, esp with the proliferation of internet radio/STB, etc. Really feel sorry for the existing users, but hope something better will be in store for them.

Regards.
 
Hemanth, though what you say about listening to music as an audiophile is agreeable, if we expect to be able to sit in a sterile room and listen to music in the best of equipment, it is a very unpractical solution. And the worst of this solution is that you are limited by the quantum of music you can listen to as you have only a limited number of music on hand.

FM radio and WS remove that restriction. They really do open the world to you and bring to you songs you have not heard before. For example, I listen to local Fm stations in Chennai, and have collected a set of over 150 new songs in just 4 weeks. Similarly after listening to WS for over 18 months, I have a list of what I call 'Songs to die for' (phrase stolen from Stereophile) that I am slowly assembling. I have over 1000 songs in this list.

As long as the music is decent, I feel we must not close our ears to various forms to listening to music. I certainly will not agree to listen to distorted sound. But, as long as there is no distortion, I have no issues. On a simple Sony system, at around 50dB I do not hear any distortion from WS, and that is good enough for me.

It is important that we learn when to be critical and when to just enjoy the music we hear. Otherwise we will be on a perpetual path of up-gradation and will always be unhappy.

Cheers

No venkat my question is to Helim who constantly strive for better sound and that is why shiefted from one dream equipment ( Bryston) to another one (Lyrita)
But in all his discussion he initiated he is striving for better sound I observe that he is using same average source or degraded source .I mean he initiated a thread about high quality recordings but IMHO high quality recording will sound bad if transport is bad. Or he never mentioned then what hi quality recordings he bought or sourced ( as many recordings are not available in india),that is quiet funny.
In any system there is generally Source-Amp-Speakers -Cable.And there is software or content to drive source.any componant is weaker and it will badly affect system sound. And I belive that all componants must be some type of balance ie If you are using a Good Norge system you should not overspend Rs 25000 on interconnects ..it is overkill and in fact you may not get desired effect at all!!!
so this was my attempt to say if he is using inferior sources like mp3 or worldspace then it is killing the purpose of buying expensive amps!!
 
so this was my attempt to say if he is using inferior sources like mp3 or worldspace then it is killing the purpose of buying expensive amps!!

I agree. Worldspace cannot be used with a high end system. At best it is used with a reasonable amplifier and speakers. Amplifying it with high-end system will only aggravate the sound.

Cheers
 
Dear HiFi Vision Members,
World Space USA has become another Leeman Bros. company which has swindled lakhs of potential investors and after that they suddenly apply for Bankrutsy protection in US Courts. It is same thing with World Space. Inspite of filing Bankruptsy Protection petition as early as in Oct-2008 we Indians were kept in dark and Worldspace India was cooly collecting subscription renewals and were promoting new worldspace receivers as recently as December Ist week of 2009. We can safely conclude that Worldspace-USA has duped lakhs of UNSUSPECTING INDIANS.

Raslibi.
 
Sad as i still remember the launch of World Space Radio in India during 1999 winters, that time they had offered recievers from brands like NEC, Panasonic, Sanyo, Hitachi.
I have BPL but not using it from past 3 years, dont know what to do with that device :sad:
 
Thank God I could not subscribe!! Last fortnight I got tired of spending 500 bucks every weekend on CDs, and went searching for a renewal coupon so I could listen to the 24h Carnatic channel. The website would not accept my radio serial nos which was from 2002 or something. Went to viveks, they said there no longer deal... Pai international - out of coupons, they told me WS had a counter in forum 3rd floor. So went hunting there no luck. And the damn call center guy was urging me to renew, and I even got a email from WS last week telling me to contact their office for renewals. :mad: Maybe they did not know about the bankruptcy announcements - th junior staff, but it is clear the top-level mgmt deliberately kept everyone in the dark - those crooks!

Regards
 
Sad to see them close shop.
I have listened this and really liked the quality and un-intruppted playback of music.

Are their any other alternatives available?
 
Irrespective of what anyone says, I think WS is (and hopefully will continue to be) one of the best radio programs I have every heard. The RJs had extraordinary knowledge and were always very friendly. They have answered all my questions about singers, genre, film, or any other question I threw at them.

After reading this thread I put on WS, and I see that they continue to deliver the same professionalism in spite of not knowing whether they will get their month's salary. Hats off to them.

My ears have been opened by WS to new (to me) genres, songs I did not know existed, and songs I had completely forgotten. Over the last 12 odd months I have built a personal library of over 1000 songs after listening to WS.

It is extraordinary that for a mere 14 paise a day, you could choose from over 40 channels and listen to music 24/365. Even if you choose to use the Net, it will cost you at least 10 times more in just connectivity. I have yet to come across any channel on the Net that has the database and knowledge of WS. And you have the great buffering issue unless you pay a king's ransom for connectivity. And of course, you have to constantly surf and choose. In WS my remote did everything.

In homage to a great service, my WS is not going to be switched off till they go off the air, even if my wife looks as if I need to be sent to a asylum.

Cheers

Absolutely agree with all your sentiments. Worldspace was a bold experiment and gave us all hours of listening pleasure,of all kinds of music and of course, the news channels. I am really sad to see them close down. I hope some Indian business house comes forward to buy up the Indian operation and hopefully continue the Service.I wonder if the African Service on AfriStar will still keep running. Perhaps those of us within its coverage can re-orient our antennas and keep listening to at least some of the Free to Air channels.
 
yup, it was brilliant, i picked up a receiver in my last year of college (2004)....an impulse purchase that I did not regret. Somewhere along the way i stopped using it, although my parents have since been regular users. They are really sad about its demise and I doubt they'll ever get into internet radio, simply because worldspace was so simple. If there is an internet radio device that is as simple to use as the worldspace receiver, then they might get hooked, as of now I don't believe even the squeezebox can match the simplicity of worldspace, but I could be wrong.

But yes, with internet bandwidth becoming cheaper and more plentiful and widespread it was only a matter of time when satellites as a medium for long distance data transfer would be rendered obsolete. That process is in full swing. IPTV will slowly but surely knock out DTH. The applications where satellites will reign supreme are the ones where ultimate and unrestricted portability is of prime importance, such as GPS and satellite telephony, for everything else....there's dark fiber :)
 
Happy that the WS is out of India. Rs.1800/- per year for less then 48kbps MP3 quality and a low quality receiver. There was nothing digital or Analogue in their transmission, Browse the net and you can get more No. of songs then you get from the WS and all at better quality then the WS and that too FREE. These Crooks should have been chased out of India Long time back.
 
Thank God I could not subscribe!! Last fortnight I got tired of spending 500 bucks every weekend on CDs, and went searching for a renewal coupon so I could listen to the 24h Carnatic channel. The website would not accept my radio serial nos which was from 2002 or something. Went to viveks, they said there no longer deal... Pai international - out of coupons, they told me WS had a counter in forum 3rd floor. So went hunting there no luck. And the damn call center guy was urging me to renew, and I even got a email from WS last week telling me to contact their office for renewals. :mad: Maybe they did not know about the bankruptcy announcements - th junior staff, but it is clear the top-level mgmt deliberately kept everyone in the dark - those crooks!

Regards

Guess, you were lucky! I renewed my subscription on 22nd December after quite a few follow up calls from the rep:mad:
 
Worldspace radio had been a great way to be in touch with the evolution of the music and also hear the golden oldies for people like me who are away from home state.

Generations are moving ahead of the CDs. Constantly replenishing them is a pain.

FM caters to local areas so they are partially fulfilling.
Much of the population would like to be in touch with their state's music also. That is nostalgic always.

So my question to this forum :

Is there any alternative ? Why is no one thinking of it in India ? FM (or similar) which will be catering to all India audience not limited to states. I know it can be done only through statellites but then why is that no one is interested ? :sad:
 
World space is dead silent. The receiver is now a headache. Is there any possible use of the World space receiver?
 
Guess, you were lucky! I renewed my subscription on 22nd December after quite a few follow up calls from the rep:mad:

Damn! Sorry for you! :sad: Maybe and hopefully you will get a refund cheque in your mail a few years later after bankruptcy proceedings are done.

Regards
 
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