Your thoughts and experience with getting the best FM reception/signal?
Yup, (or is that yep?) I can buy the best of tuners from what is available...but what about the signal? Cable and the like can be a mess and many of us cannot do a vintage Finco FM-5 with a rotor on the roof as the building we are in is not ours...so, that means an indoor antenna and the possibility of an antenna amp.
If you are in the know or have experience/expertise.....let us know the best way(s) to get a quality FM signal. If possible if you thoughts could include if you are in an urban area with many stations or in a rural area with few stations that are a distance away.
If you want to include signals available on cable, etc. feel free, but my experience with that has not been very good quality. Thanks
A devoted tuner disciple has a rooftop antennae. No tuner does its magic without it. Staying home more, I can't imagine being without my 65 Mac MR71. At the very least get the MD ST-2 https://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=MDST2 Wanna get the "best"? Get this http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/roadtour7/hero_precedent.jpg REL Precedent inspired Saul Marantz's 10B and the others during the heyday. https://pitchperfectaudio.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/setting-a-precedent/ Arguably, nothing since has surpassed it. There's one listed right now. Open your wallet |
In the UK digital stations through a television seem to be better than those heavily compressed ones through DAB. Whilst DAB is no doubt a great system the neverending pressure to squeeze in more stations and thereby reducing bandwidth even further works against sound quality. FM broadcast seems to now have a limited shelf life. Besides, for me, it has always seemed impossible to get good reception on all stations. Radio 2 (88.3FM) is especially tricky where I live. Classic FM (99 - 101FM) is not so bad. A rotator mast might be the way to go for those who can accommodate one. I do t think any wire will help much unless you only listen to 1 station. "The BBC Research & Development department states that at least 192 kbit/s is necessary for a high fidelity stereo broadcast :
When the BBC in July 2006 reduced the bit-rate of transmission of its classical music station Radio 3 from 192 kbit/s to 160 kbit/s, the resulting degradation of audio quality prompted a number of complaints to the Corporation.[19] The BBC later announced that following this testing of new equipment, it would resume the previous practice of transmitting Radio 3 at 192 kbit/s whenever there were no other demands on bandwidth. (For comparison, BBC Radio 3 and all other BBC radio stations are now streamed using AAC at 320 kbit/s, described as ’HD’, on BBC Radio iPlayer after a period when it was available at two different bit rates.)" |