I can only get a highly unreliable dsl service in my current location. Streaming has not been possible. Also, the topography between my house and my preferred stations is full of hills up to 1500'. I have tried as many highly thought of tuners as I could find locally. Sansui's, Mac's, Kenwoods, Magnum dynalabs,... Sensitivity of every one was insufficient? Or something? I finally settled on a cheap old Sony ST-J75. Hands down the best of the lot for dealing with my situation. I listen to the Jazz, Classical, and community radio stations in Portland, Oregon. It sounds quite good too and locks on stations. I never have to adjust the antenna. And I can get an excellent variety of music 24/7.
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Here in the Phoenix area there is a solid classical station I frequently listen to on my office set up, via a Sansui 8080 receiver.
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Oh man! Not since my Onkyo T-9 died in '79. I did buy a Harmon Kardon Citation 18 in the mid 80s and literally never even hooked it up. I think the cassette tape followed by the CD craze got me. Plus I was thrilled to not hear all those irritating ads.
I lived in the Detroit suburbs in the 60s and 70s. There were 4 Album Oriented Rock stations then- Steve Dahl on WLLZ, Howard Stern on W4, Arthur Penhollow on WRIF- man those were the days! I couldn't even burp as low as Penhallows voice was. Irreverent humor, solid B side records, competition for audiences kept the car dealer ads to a minimum. What a great trip it's been to be born in Detroit in 1962. Fantastic cars, great rock n roll, and the HiFi boom all at once. I was in heaven!
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When working from home I listen to KNKX on a Magnum Dynalab Ft-101a Etude tuner. Sound quality is close to CD with my roof antenna, even though I'm about 40-50 miles from the tower. Not all FM broadcasts are equal, but if there's a good one in your area you may be surprised at how good it can sound.
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I listen every workday at least until 12PM. I am lucky that one of the worlds best stations is local to me, KCRW.com. The amount of music discovery for me from this station is amazing.
My latest KRCW discovery are:
- Island in the Storm - Mia Doi Todd
- 38th & Chicago - Jose James
This is why I like radio still. Musical discovery, especially new releases like the 2 above.
My tuners
- Magnum Dynalab MD108T (a great tuner)
- Sansui TU9090 (pretty good)
- Accuphase T-101 (modded to almost great level)
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I listen to NPR and other talk radio on tabletop FM radios.
I have two Luxman tuners but rarely use them anymore, in part because the audio quality of several local FM music stations in my isolated area has gotten pretty poor. I would use them more if the stations sounded better. Most of them sound better using the Tune In streaming app, although one rock station sounds even worse on Tune In--unbelievably bad, in fact.
For those who don't know about Tune In, you can use it to listen to just about any
radio station that outputs an online signal, and store the ones you like as "Favorites." It's free with commercials or $10/mo. for ad-free.
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I have used a Denon TU-680 NAB for nearly 30 years year. Great sound; so sensitive and selective it' picks up stations after they've signed of (just kidding). I'm thankful to have a 24/7 local Classical station that uses no compression or processing whatsoever, WDPR 88.1. And,, a local school system has a share-time FM that through the day, programs Jazz with only modest processing. The Denon was designed to be an off-the-air monitor for radio stations, so it had to be of high quality. (In case you don't know, in the 90's, radio stations in the U.S. had to monitor their over-the-air signal in the studio so that whoever is on the air knew if the station was off the air. Not as much need now as digital monitors are even better.)
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@Table jockey
Wow, that REL is beautiful! The other Turners are super nice also. It does bring back memories of a Marantz Receiver I had in the 80's. Thanks everyone for your replies. I think I'll continue to live without a Tuner for now.
Deadhead
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I have a Technics ST-9038 tuner I recently upgraded with better OPAMP, decoupling caps, MUSE bipolar coupling caps and it sounds better than ever. Just acquired a matching MICOM timer unit for it I’m reconditioning (it works after a fashion).
I grew up listening to FM, “Underground Railroad” on WUSF out of Tampa, FL in the early 70’s, stations in San antonio, Monterey (What was the station out of Watsonville? KAZU?) San Diego and other places I’ve lived. I listen to local WAMU for Hot Jazz Saturday Night (and nothing else), FM 89.7 WTMD out of Towson, MD and a few rock stations around DC (101.1, 100.3).
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Try listening to your FM tuner >> EARLY SUNDAY MORNING. <<.
It’s amazing how it can sound even better with less airwave traffic going on.
Fired up the Magnum Dynalab FM tuner early on the all-tube system today.
98 Rock never sounded better, and the throwback sound can be enjoyable.
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Still use my tuners. Have a McIntosh MR-71 in the great room, and have a MR-88 in my bedroom. I wish I could adapt my MR-71 for HDRadio. We have a lot HD stations around here. The MR-88 sounds better when there is a HD signal, the MR-71 sounds better on a non-HD signal.
We have a fantastic classical and American Songbook station around here. It is still worth listing to the radio.
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The station that I love to listen to has an emphasis on high quality source material (when possible) The DJ's bring in vinyl when they can because they say it sounds better.
This station has an over the airways FM signal, internet stream, and an over the air HD radio signal. I was able to listen to the HD radio signal with the famous Sony XDR unit modded by the XDRguy.com. The radio signal was unlistenable to me (not high quality) compared to the FM broadcast. The internet stream was better than the HD radio broadcast, but not as good as the FM.
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Nice to see some of the responses here! I used to listen to FM a lot. The only discreet tuner I ever had was a Sansui TU-S77AMX, but one I stuffed that away in the closet(having a new AVR), I seemed to lose interest in FM radio programming. Coincidently this was around the time the FCC allowed the change from 3 mass market stations to (7 in one market????). I remembering MetroMedia coming into Boston and buying up whatever they could.
Suddenly the airwaves changed- Oldies 103 was gone, BCN became a shell of itself, Lorne and Wally(formerly WVBF) were now WROR after their brief intro to Country. Hell- even Country changed big time! WCLB became WKLB and became Hot Country. Hot Country was no longer the Country of the past- it sounded more like Hip Hop!!!
I only commute one a week now(thank you Covid), but at 2 1/2 hrs on the road, I made a USB stick of all kinds of music. I didn't have XM in my car, so USB was it. I actually detested listening to FM Radio on my commute.
Once home- I listen to Sirius XM streamed into my Deon Receiver, as well as various Internet radio stations for Classical and 80's/90's Country. There are a million Classic Rock stations out there, but afraid that much of that is "stick to format" corporate stuff. Some day I'll explore!
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Listening to jazz on 89.3, WNUR, Northwestern University as I type this. I like listening to the college stations here in Chicago; 88.7, WLUW, Loyola, 88.3, WBEZ North Eastern, 90.9, WDCB, College Of DuPage for new and interesting music I'm not familiar with. Not to mention Public Radio, WBEZ, and for a city this size, one classical station in the middle of the dial, WFMT, 98.7 broadcasts an excellent signal and not bad programming. We once had a better(I thought) classical station WNIB, 97.1. The owners, a couple who ran it on a shoestring budget(had a dog running around the place and they drove an old Volvo wagon) and a pure love of music were getting old and nearing retirement when a major radio station corporation who wanted the license for the broadcast frequency to play rock offered them an amount I believe was north of one-hundred & fifty million dollars. That's a $150,000,000 plus! What timing I guess.
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I still have and use my Onkyo T 9090 II tuner sometimes, but mainly to stay up to date on any upcoming concerts announced by a local classic rock radio station.
The Onkyo T 9090II was considered one of the best tuners ever made, but other sources sound better, so I don't listen to it much. I see it on the same level as a good old-fashioned newspaper. Good for news!
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IMO, even today no "streaming radio" can rival the sonic purity of late-night music programming from a good public radio station using a quality analog FM tuner into the line stage et seq. A better source for discovery of "new" recordings as well. So ditto and +1 to all fellow fossils.
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@yyzsantabarbara The station that I love to listen to has an emphasis on high quality source material (when possible) The DJ’s bring in vinyl when they can because they say it sounds better.
Nice! Yep, and when it occurs, you can sense it - something more engaging about the sound and music - and it’s noticeable right away. I was sharing with a few friends how I still very much enjoy my MD FM tuner periodically, on late nights. They think Im silly. Hard to explain to anyone who’s never really heard it first hand. Sure helps to have a great tuner and good FM antenna to lock it in. 👍
Some times I’ll swap over to streaming the same track on 16/44 lossless, and while its more clear, it may not always have the "alive" vibe type of sound as it does with good FM sometimes. Like you said, the few Radio DJs that play vinyl periodically.
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Another overlooked fact is the sense of community when you are listening to a DJ.
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+1 to ricmci. 8-12 daily on local NPR classical. MR 88 w/outdoor antenna.
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