Analog Tuner Existence.....

Perhaps digital radio will produce decent stereo. Except in strong signal areas the difference signal that is combined with the mono (sum) signal to derive stereo is so noisy that it is often best to switch to mono reception.

Eldartford,

Digital radio will produce great stereo separation to go along with the totally compressed signal. HD radio streams at 96K max, and that's only if they dedicate their whole bandwidth to one channel. If they decide to divide it up to make more money, you end up with 48K or less.

Go listen to any Internet station streaming at 96K, then tell me whether you'd trade it for a decent analog signal. All the stations I listen to here also stream, and I'll take the broadcast signal every time.

Your complaint about weak signal areas is totally valid, and roughly analogous to old scratchy vinyl vs. CDs. HD radio may not help you, though, because just like HDTV it's either on or off. If the signal where you live is too weak, with HD radio you'll get nothing, whereas now you can at least listen, albeit in mono.

As HD radio becomes more prevalent, those of us with analog tuners will become a fringe group, just like those of us with turntables. I can live with that.

David

here is something that I don't really get it. most FM stations these days play music from computer harddrives in MP3 and other compressed formats. What's the point of having a high-end tuner and perfect signal reception if the source quality is poor and compressed?

Jerryko,

Because there are still plenty of stations (we have 3 right here in Eugene) that still play music from the CD or even directly from (gasp!) vinyl. These are all public stations, and you can definitely tell the difference from the crappy compressed commercial stations you're referring to. If such commercial stations are your only choice, I agree that it doesn't matter what the signal OR the receiver is doing.

Jerryko,
I think you would be surprised of the sound quality of a good analogue tuner.
I'm not suggesting you buy one, just if you ever get a chance to listen to one.

The majority of my tuner use is back ground while I go about with other things.
A station that stands out is CBC Radio Canada ,with live in the studio chat, radio concerts to music documentaries.

There have been a few times where the quality of the broadcast has distracted me to a point where it made me stop what ever I was doing to listen.
And yes as Armstrod points out some of the public funded stations are certainly worth a listen to....

Trumpetbri, buy and enjoy that Mcintosh and don't listen to the rumours, because that's all they are.