I agree, stations broadcasting at the same rate (320kbps) sound very different. I told one of the better sounding station owners that, I support, that his stream sounds particularly good. He said he has worked hard on that, though I do not know what tools they have to tweak their sound. The good ones, in my opinion, sound warmer and fuller, the poor ones are either muffled or fatiguing. I too listen to Radio Paradise, it is one of the good ones, and you can get full FLAC, but even their lesser streams sound good.
Internet radio
Why are so many internet stations broadcasting with high bit rates yet the audio quality is so poor? For example I recently came across WQOK AM 1440 in Greenvile SC that is broadcasting at 256bps mp3 yet the quality of it’s stream did not seem very clean. I recorded a song off the station and quickly discovered that the stream is compressed. The same song recorded of WCSY FM (COSY FM) in South Haven that broadcasts at 96bps mp3 sounded far cleaner. A quick test of the dynamic range of both recordings, South City Mifdnight Lady by the Doobie Brothers, showed a big difference in audio quality. WQOK was 10.5 while WCSY was a 13.5. The same song recorded of the actual album with my Linn Sondek is a 14. My question is why compress a signal then broadcast it at a high bit rate when they could broadcast an uncompressed stream at a far lower bit rate that would sound so much better and maybe save the station a few bucks in the process. Am I missing something?