Internet Radio on Audiophile Quality 2 Channel System

It would also be interesting  hear from the owners of both good streaming setup AND a proper FM tuner?

I have the FM tuner end covered(tubed Mac) but haven't heard a proper  streaming setup-only file playback.

Very satisfied with FM SQ, but streaming has the obvious-huge menu of choices. I only have Classical and Jazz on the NPR stations. All the commercial R&R/POP is awful, at least in SoCal.

If you have a higher resolution station like Radio Paradise there is nothing to not like. Lower res can be OK for some music but inferior for critical listening. Lower res may still be overkill for many devices people listen on, but for a good hifi it just means whatever is there you will hear.

I have good streaming and a Carver tx11a tuner which is pretty good and have had other good ones like Tandberg over the years. Radio is subject to noise and distortion and not many stations broadcasting with good quality these days. So radio is fine in the car but streaming rules at home and often in the car as well with Carplay, etc. As an old school kind of guy I still like radio though less so these days for music and hope it sticks around but I’m sure many younger folk could care less about music on the radio.

A good FM signal and station sounds pretty good. Streaming on the other hand is subject to whatever quality the "station" streams and the quality of the source it uses. 

I have FM tuners, a FM-HD tuner, and streaming radio. I only listen to the FM. The other 2 are like CD vs MP3 to my ears.

Radio Paradise delivers the good - FLAC quality streaming with no commercials.  I generally don't stream any "radio" sources for "critical listening", more for background music, but the sound quality of Radio Paradise certainly holds up for "critical listening".

I listen to a nice FM tuner (Magnum Dynalabs etude) all day while working, to a good quality NPR jazz station.  Sound quality is also excellent, but most of the time it is background music.

There are a number of lists of CD quality internet radio stations.  This looks like a good one - CD Quality Internet Radio - High Resolution Audio (hiresaudio.online)

I have a Mac MR-80 tuner and also stream audio with a Bryston BDP-3. As with so many things, quality depends on the source. There are great sounding stations on FM (though not like what once was) as well as on the Internet. There are bad examples, too.

@big_greg  nice article and list.  Thanks.

I like listening to local internet radio stations using Lumin T2s internet radio app, Tunein.  It helps to break up the monotony of listening to Tidal all day. I have a fully balanced system from the Lumin down to my mono amps, so analog is my only choice, so I was just wondering if anyone with the same like setup listens to internet radio digitally and what their thoughts are, especially if you also experienced listening through analog sound also...

Enjoying super stereo 2 very much as I type on my Cambridge Evo 150. 

I think it's a great idea.  From classical music to Jazz FM 91 from Toronto to listening to Lara Downs go over American classical composers I've never heard of.

I stream "Sector Radio - Classical" out of Russia occasionally & the sound quality is very good. It's on the list @big_greg linked above.    

KNKS streams jazz 7X24 at 256k. SQ is excellent. 

For critical listening, never. For casual background music, all day...every day. 

Also very useful in building playlists, keep the station's website open so you can identify a song that you like. Then add it to a playlist from your streaming service. 

Just using emmLabs NS1 streamer. Access to radio stations worldwide. In addition, you have all other streaming services and your own files. It will be hard to consider a tuner again.

I’m shocked at how good the Grace Digital Link sounds through my system. It not only provides internet radio, but also offers built in pandora, Iheart, Amazon music apps, and a few more...has a digital coax out which I connect to a v90 dac. For what I paid for it, $179, I cannot complain. Also use a 1970's Kenwood 4007 tuner, and yamaha T1 tuner, the sound is fantastic forcFM radio. Listen to mostly WCRB, a Boston classical music station. The transmitter is located in Lawrence Mass...some 70 miles away from me....however using my attic antenna, I'm getting a signal strength of 4.5 out of 5 on the Kenwood, no static or drift, unreal. 

Radio Paradise streams MQA, other than that if I want to listen to FM I use a good old tuner. 

I enjoy Internet radio a lot on all my systems. I only stream these days because living in a rural area there’s too much noise through a tuner kind of like the surface noise on LPs. What makes The experience pleasurable is the background information and context that the DJs on WRTI and WQXR provide.

Even though I am aware that the ultimate sound quality is not there it is amazing how much I can enjoy the music when I just focus on the music and not the sound quality.

Are you in love with the music or in love with you system? I myself am in love with the music and will listen to and enjoy it any way I can consume it. Yes there are many way it can be delivered and they all sound different but in the end it is still music. I stream Austin Blues Radio direct from their web site. Does it sound like my tt no. Does it sound really good yes. I have found that after the fm bandwidth auction that sold off the government the signal changed and old fm tunes just can deliver or render the new signal. I have not researched or heard an new fm tuners of one’s that can decode hd outside my car radio. It does sound ok but very fatiguing. I’m my car I use my iPhone for source going through a iFI hip dac and this is a game changer for car ride. Enjoy the journey and move the music first.

I have only tried a couple internet radio stations, but so far it seems they have all the sound quality of a MP3 file.

I only listen to Internet radio with my phone over a Bluetooth speaker when I’m working outside. Indoors, I have a SiriusXM radio that I use to tune in the Grateful Dead channel, connected to my vintage Yamaha CR-820 receiver (headphone jack to RCA line-level input) and it sounds OK. Most of my listening is with the Yamaha’s  FM tuner - listener-sponsored KRVM 91.9 in Eugene, Oregon, which plays fantastic music-only programming. That sounds pretty good audio-wise, and yes, the music and the magic of radio matter more to me than bleeding edge audio excellence most of the time. I do have a dedicated listening room-inside-a-room that I am tricking out with vintage gear - my old Sansui G-5700, a Nakamichi RX-202 cassette deck, a California Audio Labs CL-25 disk player, my old Dual 622 turntable, and two pair of Paradigm speakers that sound great *to me*. Will be doing some room treatment and psychedelic lighting and decor for full immersion in the 60s and 70s - Keep On Truckin’, and Not Fade Away!

 "the music and the magic of radio matter more to me than bleeding edge audio"

flevitan-profound 1st post. I think I get over nostalgic about FM listenining.

Comforting to see I'm not alone.

Listening to my 67 year old,13 tube daily driver Mac.

Radio Paradise works well for me. My Node is hardwired to my router, fwiw.

"The Pittsburgh Jazz Channel" aka wzum.org is a great station with wonderful high quality content for all day every day listening.

Music plays here almost all day and internet radio is fine and dandy.  I still mostly listen to CD’s and some vinyl, but when I’m not looking for someone in particular, I plink around the interwebs.

Been giving the “Super Stereo” hi res stations a spin via my Cambridge Evo 150. My first fling with high res. Very nice! 96khz 24 bit FLAC. 

Another fan of Radio Paradise for sound as well as content. 4 choices as well, lately I find myself listening to the world eclectic version the most. Listen on a Bluesound Node 2i in my living room and on Audirvana Studio and Jriver in my office room.

@big_greg 

Great list! 
Thanks for the tip.

All the best.

JD

Two of my favorite stations are WDR 3 Köln and France Musique Paris but the resolution is not for serious listening which is unfortunate. I just listen to them through a Dragonfly DAC to a Yamaha soundbar, whenever I'm working at home. I really do wish internet radio could stream with CD quality.

Radio Venice streams at 128 but always seems to be near CD quality to me…

@mahler123 how are you streaming this Venice station? I find anything around MP3 quality to be thin and artificial.

@goofyfoot 

 Radio Venice through a variety of streamers, Cambridge Audio CXN 60 in my main  2 channel and Bluesound Node2 in a mid fi system.  I used to have a Bryston BDP3 in the 2 channel and the Venice stream on that player was the best yet.

  Perhaps I was hyperbolic in saying it is CD quality, but it is the best sounding station in my experience, and I was surprised when I learned it only streams at 128 bps

@boxcarman I discovered that my Auralic app (Lightning DS) which came with my player, that is, a free download (my player is an original Aries) can trick my DAC (a Schiit Yggdrasil) into upsampling the MP3 (x4), to the point that it sounds better than my CDs, or at least as good as. I enjoy streaming by genre from around the world.