@tablejockey ”….That along with your location and ability to use a proper antennae are required to enjoy FM. …. Other than PBS related stations, the rest is garbage…”
I concur with the 1st comment but I strongly disagree with the 2nd comment. It is definitely not garbage in the majority.
We have 92 OTA fm stations available here in Toronto that I whittle down to a simple dozen of faves based on my variable listening genres du jure (… a very broad selection of jazz, light jazz, classical, local news, easy listening , pop, and rock …. No PBS limitations here )
(A) Sure, a bunch of these local fm stations may have reception quality issues for a multitude of reasons including multipath signal issues for signals bouncing between the skyscraper office towers if you live in the city core.
(B) Most are still great providers of fine varied genre content. And yes, there exists some “garbage” content just like the equal menu proportion of digital garbage mixed in with the good in Internet streaming stations popping up.
(C) The difference is that all too many of the of these digital streaming stations come in a compressed audio digital signal format and crap POS audio performance comparatively. Sending it through a high-end DAC with upscaling cannot compensate enough.( garbage in … garbage out)
The OTA direct fm analog signal is a superior high quality and uncompressed reception signal that is CD quality or a notch above depending on atmospheric conditions….IFF you have the quality build equipment to handle it AND proper signal reception through a proper external stand-alone fm antenna .
I can surely appreciate that in the absence of a good local FM market or resistance to upgrade to a quality build fm tuner , those audiophiles will migrate to digital streaming. But here again the variable build quality and resulting audio performance of the wide range of $ - $$$$ streamer/ DACs now plays a key role.
FM analog broadcasts and FM analog tuners are not going to suffer an extinction any time soon.
