Fm tuner

"And now I own the finest FM tuner ever produced. There’s nothing better, at any price."

vtmtodvm-  you found something that agrees with your ears.  Have you owned one a Marantz 10B, REL Precedent,Scott...etc? I wasn t aware Sony produced such a product that can match and exceed the performance of these tubed classics.

Im a KUSC listener in SoCal, and yes that and our Jazz station can sound great on a decent tuner with a good antenna. I'm using a 65'  tubed Mac MR71.

Load of BS Vt, both St.Paul MN and Madison WI have 24/7/365 Classical
PBS stations as does Chicago .
As does smaller cities like Syracuse  ,WCNY , which I stream because its my home town .
And no doubt many others I am unaware of .

tablejockey, I based that conclusion on what was stated (and implied) by Peter Acxel, owner of the now defunct "The Audio Critic". It's in his post, see: http://www.biline.ca/audio_critic/audio_critic_web1.htm#sony

schubert, it's my understanding that the other stations that you allude to are NOT actual full time classical music broadcasters. I'm told that they carry other programming, too, like "All Things Considered" and "Morning Edition" and related NPR format programming, as well as some pop and folk music. Is this truly not correct? 

vtvmtodvm

... I merely intended to refer to "HD Radio" as hi-def because that is what it is named; the HD handle stands for hi def.

No, "HD Radio" does not mean or stand for "high-definition."

See: https://hdradio.com/trademark
" 'HD Radio’ is the brand name for the digital radio broadcast technology developed by iBiquity Digital Corporation. The ’HD’ in ’HD Radio’ does not stand for ’high definition’ or ’hybrid digital.’ ”

This is significant distinction because - no matter how happy you are with your HD radio - it’s 96kbps at best, and it uses an even lower bitrate than that if the station is also transmitting HD2 and HD3 subchannels.

I own the finest FM tuner ever produced.

That may be true for you, in your location, especially given your satisfaction with its 96 kpbs HD signal. After all, some people are satisfied with 128 kbps mp3 files.

To understand more about the limitations of the little Sony XDR-F1HD, see: http://www.fmtunerinfo.com/sony.html

cleeds - thanks for the lawyerly info. The iBiquity statement sounds a bit like a defensive disclaimer, doesn't it? And it still doesn't explain just what the label "HD" signifies. Who would ever be so inventive as to surmise that it implied hi-def? Maybe just me?

I think that the relevant focus here is not so much about whether 96 Kbps is of the utmost audio quality, but more about the best way to hear currently available FM music broadcasts without any background noise. As far as I know, that means is via "HD (FM) Radio"---whatever that term might mean---provided you're able to latch on to a good "HD" signal. The Sony XDR-F1HD probably gives you the best shot at doing this when such signal is available, provided you've upgraded that tuner as described.
I'm familiar with the info noted in the "tuner info" site, and concur. But that stuff (mostly) addresses the stock product, not the upgraded version. My stock tuner was grossly misaligned and suffered treble falloff. The RF range was greatly enhanced after rebuild, and the sound got lots better. I recommend http://www.xdrguy.com/sony-xdr-f1hd-audio-performance.html