i live in jefferson, md - about 60 miles nw of dc, towards the bottom of the western side of a ~1600' ridge. w/my roof-mounted aps-13 antenna, and an onix bwd1 w/soap power-supply, i get *excellent* audiophile sound from dc. but there's only two stations i find worth listening to, for signal quality *and* content - weta/90.9, which plays classical, & some mixed programming, when it's not broadcasting npr. i especially like "songs for aging children", broadcast from 7-9pm on sunday evenings. but, i mostly listen to wpfw, @ 89.3. this howard-u station plays lotsa jazz, caribbean, s-american & african music. i listen to this station a *lot*! great content (if ewe *like* this sorta stuff), & a good uncompressed signal. if ewe like listening to either of these stations, there's *lots* of tunas for ~$500 (plus or minus $500, depending on model & how careful ya shop!), that, when hooked-up to a good antenna, will deliver great sound. 'course, i recommend shopping used! :>)
if ya like stations like dc101, *no* tuna will make that sound good, & i'm not criticising the music, yust the compressed signal. however, i have found that a dbx 3bx dynamic range expander can make extremely compressed signals sound quite listenable - not yust from a good tuna, but from a good cd-player or turntable, if the software happens to be compressed...
doug s.