Classical Music on the Radio

JImjoyce25

Yes, you can stream the stations audio from your i-mac via i-tunes wirelessly to an airport express (located anywhaere in your house) which is hooked up to your pre-amps input. Just select the airport once it is installed and recognized by i-tunes and you then select the proper input on your pre-amp and you are good to go. Not real difficult if I can do I am sure you can. Just follow the directions that comes with the airport.

The airport can either be your wireless network or can join an existing wireless network. Pretty neat device bought mine on e-bay for 70 usd. I use a monster cable that I picked up from radio shack to connect the airport to my pre-amp. Now I have many choices of classical stations. The Swiss Channel I mentioned is not on i-tunes so I use airfoil to stream it from my windows media player the the airport.

My airport is plugged into an outlet next to my system which is hooked up to my pre-amp's aux input. It works great and I get all kinds of stations (classical). The airport even has an optical out so I can use an external DAC if I choose as the DAC on the airport is not the best although it is fine for casual listening.

Hope this helps.

Chuck

So, the choice is low sound quality mp3 over the internet or low programming quality via satellite?

if you have iTunes, you can stream radio stations. Take a pair of headphones and check their sound quality right on your iMac with iTunes. There are a lot of radio stations you can get over internet that aren't that bad sounding. 128kbps won't be as horrible sounding as you may think.
If your goal is to just listen and enjoy the music itself, the quality may be acceptable. However, this isn't going to be something you will sit down and listen to like you do with a CD or vynil. Depends on what you're used to, of course. WQXR is in 96kbps...right now they're playing Mahler's 5th, and it does not sound that bad.

The other suggestion that involves Squeezebox is also great.

My favorite and I think one of the best classical stations (and I have heard many over the years) is still WLRH Huntsville Alabama.

Sound quality via internet radio on a Roku Soundbridge is very good which makes it a practical option for a variety of good classical with well done, informative commentary as well wherever you might live.

For a classical radio lover, the SOundbridge could be the best $200 you can spend. Couple it with a good external DAC and you can really be in classical music radio heaven.

Jimjoyce25

I think you may be surprised at how good it sounds. You can alsways try it as it isn't very expensive relative to the cost of most things in this hobby.