I use a McIntosh MR88 FM HD Tuner. It is perfect.
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For Jazz, WBGO 88.3 FM out of Newark, NJ is as good as it gets. |
I am very fortunate to have several high quality FM stations in my area. I have a late 70's, fully analog tuner (not digitally synthesized) that sounds so much better than when I stream the same stations through my component network streamer. I do appreciate the fact that my streaming device can get music from all corners of the globe, but for sound quality, nothing beats a good, uncompressed FM broadcast. |
I bought a near mint condition Rotel RT-1080 for a bargain price. Right out of it's factory shipping carton it looks and works like new. Thinking about getting a decent powered FM antenna for it and see what happens. This unit doesn't have HD or XM radio. Can't complain though, as I got it so cheap. |
Several good fm stations here. Classical, jazz, Colorado Public Radio and the mostly rock Colorado Sound. All public radio with translators all over the state. LA has many good stations too. We have XM too, mostly sucks except the Beatles channel. |
I was looking for a Tuner and decided on an HD radio tuner and it sounds fantastic. |
I do enjoy my Rotel RT-1084 tuner. Especially for the HD radio. I'm in the Philadelphia suburbs and get the Penn and Temple college stations, like mentioned above. Quite a cross section of music. Sound is mostly excellent, but not always. |
A FM tuner such a old Marantz,or McIntosh Vacuum Tube tuners are still highly praised and sound verygood , and some verygood solid state ones .magnum Dynalabs makes or made digital tuners with Vacuum tubes .
the only draw back with older tuners is that the better digital stations have up to
24/96 bit fidelity which is much better and much lower noise floor .
a lot has to do with your streaming setup . And quality of Ethernet
cabling,bandwidth and modem,router. As A.E once said ,
everything that counts can’t allways be counted!! |
It's true, the college stations use low compression on their output, same with NPR. I get some high quality classical and jazz here in Philly.
Rock stations are so highly compressed, just listen to the DJ or announcer's voice.
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So if you are within range of a college station you are indeed fortunate! |
I have several nice tuners in my collection - including a Scott tube tuner and a McIntosh MR77. Presently listening to NPR "All Things Considered" on 89.7 FM (WUSF Tampa) - using the Diatone (Mitsubishi) DA-F10 (1978). Excellent SQ! This is the only station I listen to because all the commercial stations in my area sound like dreck - musically and sonically. WUSF is a college station. Every night they have an excellent Jazz program from 9 PM to 5 AM! I am blessed to be able to listen to great Jazz programming every night in excellent sound! |
I listen to FM stereo at least 4 hours a day on my office system. Thankfully, there are still 3 excellent Rock stations in my area. |
Internet radio has not rendered good tuners obsolete, imo. A first-class FM signal will walk all over the typically digitally compressed streamed radio station, and this can be especially noticeable on live broadcasts. Of course, most FM stations are about as poorly compressed as much of today's pop music. Or worse.
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It depends. Classic great tuners can be found for <$200 now. Some broadcasters down rez so much that their over the air broadcasts might be better. Some major cities have frequently schedule (almost weekly) live (!) opera. For fans of this a good tuner , some decent interconnects and a well placed (!) antenna can be a very, very worthwhile investment.
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If you have radio stations that are worth listening to then sure. |
