Is The FM tuner obsolete?

I foresee the day that the FM tuner will not be included in product offerings.

Most radio stations have a streaming service and services like tunein offer this as well and have a much better quality to boot.

Thoughts?

vanson110-12-2021 12:28am

Showing 3 responses by akg_ca

akg_ca Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 2,178 posts 10-12-2021 at 11:51am Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete Nope …no worries FM broadcasts over-the-air is alive and well as evidenced by both (I) the auto industry and OTA station broadcasts in major centres here in NA and (2) also more so in Europe. The DAB broadcast format in the UK is great … a shame it was a stillborn broadcast platform here in NA. With a quality external FM antenna feeding a high-end FM tuner with a good broadcast FM signal , I get CD / near-CD uncompressed audio quality FM reception that comparatively smokes compressed format free streaming . I have a $7k digital streamer/DAC/digital player as part of a $60K system but I will still cheerfully default to an OTA FM broadcast with a fully rebuilt and upgraded top FM tuner (… see https://www.fmtunerinfo.com ) whenever possible.
akg_ca Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 2,178 posts 10-12-2021 at 05:00pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete @cleeds “ …. The DAB broadcast format in the UK is great … a shame it was a stillborn broadcast platform here in NA….. The US has never had DAB. We do have IBOC (so-called "HD radio") but that’s not the same thing.…” I used “North America (NA) “ in my prior post reference to DAB. I stand corrected that the reference should have been limited to Canada and digital radio policy in Canada in the period 1995 to 2005. Here in Canada it was the attempt to implement the Eureka-147 Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) standard as the replacement technology for analog AM and FM broadcasting. Canada was an early adopter of the system, but unfavourable conditions led it to largely abandon the approach in favour of a multiplatform system. The interaction between industry, government regulation, and broadcasting policy around digital radio reveals a complex situation of competing interests. Despite extensive regulatory intervention to protect Canadian interests, the pace of technological change and the dominant influence of U.S. interests killed that transitional path to digital radio Without prejudice to the largely useless history lesson above, my upgraded, fully rebuilt ,and modded PHILIPS 673 fm tuner was a clear upgrade to my prior MAGNUM DYNALAB FT 101a Etude fm tuner. With a clear FM signal from an external antenna, and an extensive bevy of quality local free FM broadcast stations here in Toronto, it certainly matches (and usually beats …) the audio performance in hi-rez streaming audio in TIDAL or QOBUZ through my streamer / DAC As pointed out by numerous posters, one’s bespoke FM signal strength matters, and having a local broad menu of available quality fm stations will predicate one’s stroll down the Yellow Brick Road to FM Audio OZ.
akg_ca Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 2,178 posts 10-12-2021 at 08:48pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete @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.

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