Why is FM so good?

I reckon my Tag Mclaren T32R is clearly the best source I've got, given a good clean signal and a decent broadcast.
My CD is also a Tag, a DVD32R, and it sounds fine, just not as good as the radio. As has been said, given the low-Fi broadcast chain to the transmitter, that's surprising.

 

I find my tuner is very broadcast dependent. I have a strong signal, but some broadcasts sound as poor as the worst CD's, others are superb. I assume it is all down to how the BBC are transmitting the signal.

DAB is hideous, trying to get a decent signal is hopeless, and you are never more than 15 minutes from the boiling mud sound effects, and if a moped goes past the house the signal goes altogether, (as does the digital TV signal).
________
Glass bong

 

...or live broadcasts can be surprisingly good on some tuners despite specs telling us what can't be?;-)

 

A pair of really good but easy to drive and sensitive speakers can sound superb driven by something as 'lowly' as a big name £300-500 all in compact system from the likes of Denon, Kenwood, JVC etc.

That tells me that when you take TTs out of the loop, the performance bar technically can be quite low to get great results. We often demand more in terms of performance than we actually need - mostly because we are told that we need it!

 

I've gotten very good results with inexpensive receivers fueled by a good cd player and cheap-but-excellent speakers. Some of the CD players were as cheap as 250 bucks and my all-time favorite cheap speaker to this day -Boston Acoustics A-40 series 1. Retail in the states was $150/pair.

Must agree regarding cheap TTs. I much prefer inexpensive Japanese CD players as a whole vs TTs in the same price range. If we remove the cap on available funds, I still prefer CDPs.

 

In one form or another I have R3 playing pretty much all day.

Right now, at work, it's the iPlayer stream (which for some reason has dropped to 48 kbps) via a USB DAC.

At home over breakfast it was via a big 70s Pioneer tuner. That same system also has a Freesat box with a digi out to a Beresford DAC which may well sound better than the tuner - but I don't use it for radio.

It's more boxes to turn on and for me radio still means an illuminated tuning dial with a nicely weighted needle that moves up and down and some more needles for signal strength and such.

 

Why is F.M. so good.

I wish that mine was.
Having read the question yesterday afternoon I decided to revisit my tuner and see if anything had changed since my last opinion on F.M. transmissions was formed. I use either a Quad FM4 or a Denon tuner that I bought specifically because it's got a D.A.B. section.
Switching on Radio 3 between F.M. and DAB there really was not enough difference to be able to identify which was selected if you had just walked into the room and one was playing.I listened to the news and the lunchtime concert.As soon as the studio microphone was switched on the usual background noise leaped out of the Tannoys .The speech sounded dead and lifeless .I can only liken it to someone talking at the end of a well lagged sewer pipe,( no actual experience of this,just what I imagine).The concert music failed completely to involve me.
Next I switched to some L.Ps.
I played mono L.Ps.that I bought over 50 years ago,I played stereo ones and some recorded in stereo compatible S.Q.( from my 4 channel days in the 1970s).
I played classical,country,brass band and plenty with vocals. I set the room alight with classical,I was involved and had the best seat in the hall.I listened to Richard Burton on War of the worlds and Millie Jackson and Isaac Hayes and Karen Carpenter.They could have been in the room with me.To round it off I went on a Night Flight To Venus with Boney M,fantastic.
My conclusion after this great afternoon was that my opinion of F.M. had not changed.
Somehow it seems to be engineered for the use in the car.Be it radio3/4,Classic FM or Magic,in the car it sounds great.Played through the HI-FI it has too many short comings to be really enjoyable.Maybe I have been unlucky and just haven't chanced upon the right programme where it reaches its full potential.Or maybe it is transmitted
in a format that is more geared towards the vast majority of people who listen to it on smaller radios and in their cars .I reckon that people who listen to the radio on their HI-FI are a very small minority compared to other listeners so I would not be surprised if the broadcasts are tailored for their benefit and not mine.

 

I think R3 dab is 192kbs and other BBC stations are 128kbs or less.
So R3 sounds pretty good on dab.

 

Test via headphones today with the R3 Live proms FM Beethoven was a heck of a lot smoother than my Sky satellite (no external dac )

my signal strength on FM is reasonable but nowhere near maximum & I have the additional options of Wide, Narrow & Very Narrow

 

The DACs inside Sky and Virgin Cable Boxes are pretty poor - the ones I have used anyway, Take the optical out to a decent DAC and the sound is transformed.

 

Yes probably, but the last thing I want is another box & more expense although it would be interesting to try

My FM system is in my office where I do my listening so I would only use that DAC for TV .. .. so I'll put the money towards a new stylus & get lots more value from that

 

Excellent Dr Who themed Prom tonight on R3.
Really highlighted falling standards at the BBC though.
Spoken voice in the Albert Hall sounded excellent and perfectly natural but every cut back to the studio revealed horrid boomy voices - the microphones are either wrong types or the EQ was all wrong.

Wouldn't have happened 20 years ago.

 

Forget the quality of FM sound its totally irrelevant. They have replaced Ross with Patrick Kielty for 10 weeks & then we have ..... Graham Norton.

Oh joy of joys.

Bring back Uncle Sandy