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AUDIO FORUMS >> General Discussion and Support >> Radio??
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Message started by Donnie on 10/19/24 at 03:32:21

Title: Radio??
Post by Donnie on 10/19/24 at 03:32:21

I was wondering if anyone listened to the radio anymore?

I got thinking about it after my car was returned back from service with the radio on and I thought to myself that I had never used the FM in my car. I plugged a USB drive in it as soon as I bought it and never looked back.

Well then I got thinking that the only radio receiver I have is in my "garage stereo", a Yamaha A/V receiver that my former employer gave me as a retirement gift.
It is hooked up to a computer in my garage that is stuffed full of music, so no need to play the radio.

I truly think that the last time I listened to a radio with any kind of regularity is probably in the early '00's when I last worked in the "shop" in a Pattern shop.

I suppose most people just stream their music in both car and homes now.
I know that there are a lot of CD and LP fans here and I am a big time computer stored music freak.

So anyway, does anyone listen to the radio with any regularity?

Title: Re: Radio??
Post by Kahuna Jack on 10/19/24 at 04:30:46

I left a am/fm tuner plugged into a ipod dock player on all night to sleep to up until about a year ago. I had a great oldies station but then they sold and switched formats so that ended.

I like the bold fat sound of FM . I use it often when testing and playing with newly found used gear. FM radio can make average sounding vintage speakers sound really good.

Ive got a local FM station that reminds me of 70's FM hey day but it barley comes in so....... if there were FM stations playing better music Id listen to it more often.

Title: Re: Radio??
Post by Lon on 10/19/24 at 09:36:33

I listen to the radio in the car--I don't drive much though any longer, used to drive about four to six hours a week more when my Dad was alive and I would visit him two or three times a week (he lived almost exactly an hour away door to door). Mostly I listen to NPR.

I do have a tuner that goes in and out of my main system. . .there is a great non-profit classical radio station that comes in and sounds great. What turned me off to radio decades was the repitition of a playlist of rock songs over and over (not my cup of tea any longer and I did not have control of the dial) and the ads and constant blater. Ugh!

Title: Re: Radio??
Post by Gilf on 10/19/24 at 11:01:32

I used a Dynaco FM3 tuner for decades. Beautiful sounding tube tuner and mine was heavily hot rodded - but they do sound fantastic stock as long as the tuning eye tube is good and the quad cap is newer. I sold it just last year when work moved me somewhere without any decent radio stations.

I still listen to “radio” daily though, streaming Santa Fe’s KSFR or Seattle’s KEXP. I stick to music and switch it off if news comes on. KSFR has fantastic evening and weekend programs - Jazz, Latin, Indigenous, and reggae. KEXP is my soul on rainy days or whenever I need my PNW vibe.

Everything KSFR plays sounds better than the same music from my own source- I imagine they use heavy compression or some kind of magic radio box…. a Manley vari-mu perhaps. Everything KEXP plays is worse than of if I had the same CD, or from my streaming service, yet their YouTube studio performances always sound amazing. Weird.

Title: Re: Radio??
Post by Geno on 10/19/24 at 15:45:38

Gilf,

KEXP is one of my saved channels on YouTube. I’ve heard LOTS of good stuff there over the years.

Title: Re: Radio??
Post by JD on 10/19/24 at 17:02:20

I actually listen to the radio a lot, WUMB here in Boston is a great channel for Americana, Irish/World music on Sunday and some other great programs like highway 60 on Sat morning. WERS is also a great station out of Emerson.
Just bought a new car and it came with Sirius. Listen to a station called Bakersfield that plays a lot of country western and honkytonk. Other station called Willie's Roadhouse something plays a lot of old school country, wanda jackson, merle haggard ...awesome tunes.

JD

Title: Re: Radio??
Post by Doug on 10/20/24 at 02:30:11

Yes, daily--both FM and AM.

Title: Re: Radio??
Post by The other Lon on 10/20/24 at 16:24:03

At times in the car; either WXRV or WCRB, both out of Boston. Rarely at home although I do stream the JazzGroove, however that would not be straight up radio.

Title: Re: Radio??
Post by Steve Deckert on 10/25/24 at 02:08:03

Used to listen to the local collage jazz station in the late 90's. In 2010 I got the idea to try that again. Got a good tube tuner set it up and discovered all our radio stations are broadcasting MP3's from the internet. Sound quality is gone. Gave up. Bought a large console tape machine from a radio station and a years worth of Radio Station tapes from the 60's ~ 80's. No issues since.

All analog all the time.

Last year I installed a broadcast amplifier on the tape machine so I could hear it on my tuner. It works well, and I was struck at hearing the same sound I did as a kid. It's a combination of tape, and the stations transmitter's compressor/limiter section and how much output you set the transmitter to relative to where you have the compressor/limiting set. This explains why some radio stations sounded like crap and some didn't. Nothing has changed in 50 years except everything has gotten a lot worse. I am sure in the big cities there are some vintage stations that have managed to keep the sound quality but around here it sounds like sandpaper through a meat grinder.

Still the point of this message is that the vintage sound I used to love was in part from fairly high levels of peak limiting that made the sound 'kind' no matter what you listened to. I can sit in my driveway in the old 72 monte and listen to my tapes on the car radio with my 6 x 9's in the rear window and giant trunk taking the -3dB bass roll off to 28Hz. It's a real time machine. It's a time machine that's real. I have to consider it one of my listening rooms because it creates a reference of exactly what I was hearing in the 1970's. Same car, same speakers, same radio, same tape machine and same broadcast tapes.

Steve

Title: Re: Radio??
Post by letch on 10/27/24 at 23:43:17

I don't own a car, but rent cars when I travel. I have tinnitus and find that the listening to radio hurts my ears in the car. Which I found odd because my memories of ye olde days was a warmer sound. Thanks for posting this. I wonder if my problem is related to what you outline here. I used to support transcription systems and faxing for my hospital and from working with the telephony team, I found that moving from pots systems to tcp/ip definitely degraded the voice quality. Tech made it cheaper but not necessarily better.

Wow, I had not thought of broadcast tapes. That's genius. What I would give to listen to those FM stations I grew up with in the 70's! That might entice me into reel to reel...