Tuner - FM over the air - suggestions

Over the air FM sounds so much better where I live than streaming. I am currently listening to a classic rock station on a refurbished Accuphase T-101 tuner and I am just blown away at how good it sounds. I was thinking that is is almost as good as CD.

At 9AM - 12PM I switch to the incredible KCRW(,com) on my Magnum Dynalab 108T tuner. That is also incredible and KILLS the same steam of that stations broadcast. This station likes to play albums when available. One time a DJ on KCRW stopped a song half way and apologized to say he was playing a bad version and he had a better vinyl pressing to play instead. These guys love music.

FM streaming is awful compared to what I hear over the airways.

I have 2 cheaper tuners (not really used at the moment) that are not too expensive. A modified $500 Sony XDR tuner (Welcome - About - Contact (xdrguy.com)). You need a very good RCA interconnect to really bring this to life.

The other tuner is a Sansui 9090 tuner I got for $750. It was refurbished and sounds really good. Not as good as the Accuphase and MD 108T but damn fine for the price.

@dpop I understood the issue you brought up previously since I have always been a fan of FM radio and had been very disappointed in the last 2 decades with the state of radio.

When I moved down to Southern Cal and discovered KCRW my faith in radio and new music was restored. I bought a FM HD radio to hear what that stream sounded like on the Sony XDR tuner I mentioned previously (it is both HD and FM). The over the air HD stream of the broadcast was awful and the over the air FM great.

So maybe my listening experience is reflective of the KCRW HD stream quality that could be also what is sent via the internet.

In the past when streaming was first starting up I jumped all over internet radio but I thought it sounded awful. Today, I am all in again on radio, with 4 tuners, because I have 2 stations that sound great on the tuners.

Since I had not listened to the KCRW stream for ages. I added the stream to my ROON client just now and played it from my Musetec 005 DAC. I A/B with my tuner. The DAC is connected by XLR to my preamp and the tuner is by RCA, so the advantage is to the DAC (the way I hear RCA vs XLR).

The stream sounds a little dead and flat to me. The top end is MIA on the stream compared to the on air FM. You maybe correct about the sound volume boost on the on air FM, since my RCA source (tuner) is louder than the streamed to DAC XLR source. However, the sound coming out of the speakers when adjusted for volume favors the on air FM to my ears.

Anyways, this is just one station and maybe others are different, but this station is the only one that matters to me. I have 4 tuners to give me great music from this station. So the story ends well for me.

@phish_tacos What do you think of the quality of the KCRW on air signal? I love it. Have you compared it to the KCRW stream, I dislike it. The KCRW HD stream is awful.

Mind you I am getting the signal from a re-transmitter from Santa Barbara and we have the ocean on 1 side and mountains on the other. Not too many LEDs in these parts.