Bottlehead Forum
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Natural Sound on December 17, 2012, 06:28:31 AM
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I still maintain a Dynaco FM-3 in my audio rack. I even have a dedicated AntennaCraft FM6 yagi antenna up on the roof. But honestly, there isn
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While we listen to NPR news and Metropolitan Opera on WAMC and "Classical" music programing on WMHT here in the Albany NY area it tends to happen on a table radio or in the cars. There is a local college station, WRPI, that gets listened to rarely.
Most other broadcast FM stations seem to robot clones of central office programing with MP3 grade compressed sound.
I have a Scott 370 that is in need of alinement but I can't say I have a huge motivation to get it in shape.
My mind keeps wandering to a Web based solution - have not acted on it yet. Internet radio seems to be where the action is.
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I was never a huge fan of commercial FM and have listened to NPR and college based stations almost exclusively all my life.
For the most part, I've been lucky since only a couple of my the small stations I listen to have survived.
These are on my most listened to list for the SF Bay Area.
KCSM is just about the best jazz station I've ever heard with great regular programing and dj's (some of them are getting pretty old now but any of them would put my knowledge/experience to shame). They usually have a booth at the local audio events.
KFJC is about as "alternative" as it gets and while most of the staff cycles (like most college stations), the stuff the new folks play is well linked to their predecessors.
KPIG (which was KFAT) is still hangin in there even though a good bit of the staff was lost a few years back. It's always on the brink though.
I can't say that the sound quality from any of these stations is great. In fact, here in the hilly Bay area, I can't say I can receive all three of those stations in any given spot.
To me, a good radio program is like a friend that I visit with. As long as I can get the gist of what the musicians and dj's are trying communicate, I'm happy.
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NPR is about the only program worth tuning in. The rest are just horrible.
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Hope the BHDAC will improve the sound.
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I have to say no, hardly any FM anymore -- basically because there is generally nothing much to listen to. I was also spoiled by some excellent stations in places I used to live... I mostly listened to WPRB in Princeton -- the University's student run and managed radio station. Great station, diverse and alwys interesting musics, and fantastic hosts. Also the commercial station, WMMR in Philly had some late night and weekend shows that were well off their normal commercial paths and hosts like Michael Talbots and Ed Schiakey (spelling on both these guys) and especially a show called Crosscurrents. That's where I first heard Brian Eno (though wprb also played a lot of similar things), progressive jazz like Billy Cobham, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarret and many more.
Then in the later 80s when I moved to Upper Montclair, New Jersey, I was right over the hill from East Orange and WFM -- the most way out station I ever encountered. Plus some more good college stations like WFUV at Fordham Uniiversity, WFDU from Farleigh Dickinson and of course WNYC in Manhattan. Again, all kinds of things to listen to from alternative, folk, celtic, jazz and more. Then it was off to D.C. where I mostly listened to WAMU at Amercian University and mostly bluegrass and folk/celtic musics there. I don't recall what classical station I listened to there but it obviously didn't make much of an impression on me. Then in the mid 90s when I got to Denver, Kuvo was and is the jazz station but tends to get stuck in ruts and I can only take so much of it. Then there was the old, original KVOD classical -- simply the best classical station I ever came across, but it went under new management after a couple of years and it was never the same. KCFR was the denver npr station and played mostly classical, but truly unimaginative programming -- basically classical top 40, and now about the only station I can listen to for any length of time is the NPR station out of Greeley and originally the station for the University of Northern Colorado -- KUNC. They got bought out by colorado public radio in a somewhat bitter and hard fought batttle, or at least they tried. I don't recall the final outcome of that as local radio politics is way behind me now (I used to be on the board of KGNU -- an independent community station) but they seem to have held on to some of their better programming.
We also had a local, mobile pirate station in the area but not sure it still exists, which had a lot of, as you might imagine, amateurish programming, but occasionally some pretty good stuff.
Unfortunately, where I live now is mostly a dead zone and there is a 100kw am transmitter nearby that kind of plays havoc with things.
All that said, I do like variety and good, human programming and diversity and to that end I recently signed up for MOG and so far really like it and it always broadcasts in 320 kbps mp3, so the sound quality is quite good for a "radio". Their collection is pretty extensive and growing all the time and I've found a lot of music, especially world music, that I never thought I'd find from a streaming service.
Do any of you guys in the philly area who are of a certain age remember the station ID that Tom Waites did for WMMR?..." "A Leviticusly Dueteronomous station. Wmmr. Philadelphia P A."
-- Jim
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I gotta admit, radio was my first love for music and talk when I was young. There was little else here in northern Wyoming. Picking up KOMA on Saturday nights was cool just to hear the program called "Rapping" I could laugh for awhile as one stoner after another called in with the idea of legalizing pot. The music was pretty good too. One thing led to another, ending up here.
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I guess I'm lucky to live in north western NC. We have 89.9 WDAV which is an excellent all classical station in Davidson NC. And my favorite rock station is 95.7 WXRC the ride in Hickory NC. It is an independent station and dosen't just play the top 50 classic rock songs. They do play the hits, but they also give equal time to the deeper cuts. The sound is much better than other stations. I think their tag line "Anologue and proud of it" is the secret to their sound. Anyway I enjoy my Sansui TU-717 tuner as much as my other sources.
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Of course a lot of these stations have an internet stream these days too. Eileen will put the stream of KPLU on her computer in the lobby and then put the radio signal on in the packing room. The lag of the stream vs. the radio will make you slowly crazy if you stand in the hallway in between. But check out John Kessler's blues show stream on Saturday and Sunday from 6-12 PM. John has become a friend and has great taste in blues...
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Dan, I agree that John's "All Blues" show is great. John used to live across the street from us in Ballard.
The KPLU echo also happens if you have a tuner tuned to their main station and another tuner tuned to one of their "repeater" transmitters on adjacent frequencies. I could receive a few of the stations when I lived in Ballard.
John
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Ironbut, I
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Hi,
I have a NAD Monitor Series 4300 FM/AM tuner. I've had that tuner for probably 25 years. It actually sounds great. I live in Gig Harbor, WA and I listen to 98.1 King for classical and 88.5 KPLU for Jazz and Blues. I can't imagine not have it in my system. ;D
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I listen to the Seattle station KEXP often... usually 9 hours at a time to get me through another day on the shop floor at work. Often I'll even come home and tune in to listen to some more! It's technically a part of the University of Washington but it is run by a huge staff of professional DJ's 24/7 and financed by listener contributions. Most of their hosts have excellent choice of music, and the station is extremely eclectic mix. Some of my favorite shows happen in the 6-9pm PST weekday time slots. Each day has a different host with different theme - Wednesday is the Roadhouse (roots rock, blues, soul) , Thursday is Swingin' Doors ("country, honky tonk, country boogie, western swing, hardcore twang"). I love listening to these shows, hearing some song, and thinking - why have I never heard that before? That was great!
If interested and you're out of the broadcast area they have a high quality internet stream available.
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I have to agree with Doc regarding internet radio taking over my listening... I can listen to KSJO in san jose like i did in my college days here in Indonesia... I can listen to all the talk radio stations that I did before also.. It is just too awesome for me to ignore... Since I listen mostly to talk stations, sound quality isnt that important... So in short, I sold my EXCELLENT sounding Scott 350B and my extremely rare and sought after Pioneer F-26 about 4 years ago (for real good money) and havent regretted it... I wonder if the days of someones Marantz 10B selling for 4k are numbered.... Nothing beats listening to your own source material anyway... So , to me, radio is just great for information only and so sound quality is not a priority... and GREAT it is for information and entertainment!!
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I wonder if one of those tube buffer devices like musical fidelity's X10D (years back) would help the sound of an internet radio....
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In my experience, yes, the buffer seems to help quite a bit. I have branched out from the Musical fidelity X10 V3 model, and made a much higher quality model. Included was a volume control and room for three additional inputs, allowing the use of this device for more than one source at a time. Look at my post, 'Ceegar box' to get an idea.
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I listen to internet radio through my Pure Music player. Be sure and check the stations web sites since many have a choice of stream quality (use the higher rez url).
One of the things I like about the PM player is the ability to insert digital plug-ins. There are tons of these plugins that are modeled after analog consoles, tape machines and just about any other signal processing mankind has ever used. Some are free but they can also be kinda expensive.
I have hundreds of processing plug ins for use with mixing etc. but not all will work with the PM player (only Audio Unit, not VST or AAX and not ones with complicated latency compensation).
Most can be adjusted to be super subtle since they are often used in multiple instances like one on every track of a 50+ track project.
So, if you have a media player that has plug in inserts, search around for free plug ins for something like "tube" or "tape" saturation plug-in.
I have a couple of "user presets" loaded for certain types of music and the system I'm listening on.
BTW most plug ins have a bypass button (or A/B switch) so you can click back and forth from processed to flat as you adjust the settings.
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Thanks guys!! 4krow, I will check it out for sure... :)
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Every day, up here in Canada. Mostly CBC Radio One...A lot of stuff you never hear on the MSM...Have a couple of Fisher KM-60 tuners (with upgrades, of course) that get a lot of use...
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Yeah Baby!!!! Go Seahawks!!!! FM radio is still pertinent yes, however, the ability for me to listen to Dori Monson and the postgame sports chat via internet radio here in south east asia is absolutely miraculous!!!...
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Over the atlantic there's a funny little island that uses something called DAB. Its horrible - it sounds like mp3. Fm still exists and with an aerial it is beautiful but fewer and fewer people agree with me so DAB is the future. In Germany, apparently, the adopted a version of DAB which is superior and worthwhile. They would wouldn't they...