Make Internet Radio Sound "Better"?


Apart from the dac one chooses to use, are there any tweaks to make Internet Radio sound "better"? Or are you limited by your Internet connection?
Marcober
marcober
If you are using a squeezebox, Bolder Cables does a mod for the digital output or analog outputs or both. Also choose a good digital cable if using an external DAC. You might also want to investigate upgraded power supplies for the squeezebox and software mods alluded to in the Audiocircle forums.
I am using a Squeezebox Transporter with a Cary Xciter dac and very good quality cables. But I want MORE!
Listen to good quality stations like radio paradise or WWOZ and get the right DAC.

Define "more". Sound quality of the better sources should be hard to distinguish from CD quality at least with most types of music.
The limitation isn't usually your Internet connection or the equipment you have to reproduce the signal once you receive it, it's the resolution of the digital stream that's being sent, and that's not something you can do anything about.

Most Internet radio stations provide a 128 kbps signal, at best, which is about the same as the lowest quality mp3 file you're likely to encounter. A good DAC and other downstream equipment will make the best of that signal but that's more a matter of doing no harm than improving the low resolution source.

But, even with that limitation, Internet radio is a terrific way to discover new music, along with Pandora, Mog, Spotify and other online resources.
decent internet radio will likely outperform most any fm radio in a pure tech
ical sense. whether you like it or not is another story.