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Cleanest/best sounding radio station in your area?

9

97chris

I am not sure if this is where i should post this at but what is the cleanest/best sounding radio station in your area?

I live near Dallas and alot of people say and i also think KBFB and KZMJ (Both owned by Radio One) are the cleanest/best sounding stations in Dallas on FM, but their internet streams are horrible with a choice of a 32k AAC or a 64k MP3 on their internet streams.
 
Living in central NH....I can safely say that NONE of the commercial stations have decent audio -- they're all caught up in the "loudness war" game again!!:(
That said.....non-commercial New Hampshire Public Radio has about the cleanest sound in the state.....after this, you have to go SOUTH to Massachusetts to find another station with audio that won't give you a headache after 5 minutes of listening!
WCRB 99.5 (formally 102.5) has a classical music format; if they're running ANY compression, it's hard to tell!! Although classical isn't really my "thing", there's no denying their audio QUALITY is second to none!
There are at least FOUR commercial FM (music format) stations within 30 miles of my home (east of Concord, NH) that are a nightmare!! Measured on an Inovonics 531 mod monitor, ALL are blasting over 125% CONSTANTLY!
3 of the four stations have 19 kHz pilot injection LESS THAN 8% (in one case, barely 7%!!).....the fourth station has PI at nearly 11%!!
Makes me wonder....is this the "sound" they WANT to broadcast??? Or....don't they care???!!!:mad:
 
The only station recently to blow my socks off with the sound is KBAQ (classical) in Phoenix. however, it is not in my area so I can't speak for it recently. Both the analog and digital are clean with next to no compression. Transition between analog and digital was flawless.
 
WTMX/Chicago is one of the best I've heard.

Here in Houston, KKBQ (Cox) sounds great, as does KVST (local owner, New Wavo). On the other end of the spectrum, CBS stations are among the worst... overmodulated, pitched up, very headache-inducing.
 
Oldie919 said:
Living in central NH....I can safely say that NONE of the commercial stations have decent audio -- they're all caught up in the "loudness war" game again!!:(
That said.....
Makes me wonder....is this the "sound" they WANT to broadcast??? Or....don't they care???!!!:mad:
Click to expand...
So then, I guess you are not crazy about the Nashua oldies station on 900, with its rich processing? P=)
 
Uncle Kaimbridge said:
So then, I guess you are not crazy about the Nashua oldies station on 900, with its rich processing? P=)
Click to expand...

Can't get them at my house...i must admit I haven't listened to 900 since they were WOTW....and owned by Sam Bronstein (Eastminster Broadcasting Co.), complete with the "legendary" EBC Direct Line News.....!!!:eek:
 
K6JHU said:
The only station recently to blow my socks off with the sound is KBAQ (classical) in Phoenix. however, it is not in my area so I can't speak for it recently. Both the analog and digital are clean with next to no compression. Transition between analog and digital was flawless.
Click to expand...

KSLX BY FAR has the best audio in the Phoenix market, especially in HD. KBAQ isn't bad too, but what do you expect, classical listeners are discerning. The worst audio from the full market stations has got to be KMVP-FM, (sports talk, but when they do remote broadcasts and air ESPN Radio programming, the audio sounds metallic).

As for streams, I've never heard a great-sounding Securenet/Cirrus stream, no matter how good the over-the-air signal sounds.
 
The low bit rate "Metallic" sounding audio is a pet peeve of mine. I just can't listen to it. Most of the commercial stations are all in the loudness war. They all sound like the VU meters are all in the red. WTWZ 1120 in Clinton, MS has a very nice rich sound with their bluegrass format. They just added a translator, so I hope they don't let the AM go to pot like so many other stations that have added an FM have. Mississippi Public Radio used to sound good when it was classical, but It's hard to tell because they seldom play music anymore. The HD2 still plays classical music, but I know of no one that can pick it up. They simulcast the HD feed on their TV stations and it sounds OK when played through the home theater. But most of the FM stations in Jackson, MS are so compressed, I can't stand to listen but for a few minutes. If you play them on a decent stereo, they blast loud and boomy and no amount adjusting can fix the audio. Your better off using a pocket transistor. and least you don't get blasted out of you chair and get an earache.
 
Denver has some pretty good sounding stations, but I think 97.3 KBCO sounds the best. 99.5 The Mountain is also good and 106.7 The Bull and 93.3 KTCL.
 
Here in San Antonio I would have to say that KSYM 90.1, owned by a local college, sounds great with the processing, as there's not a lot of compression. KRTU 91.7 FM, owned by another school, sounds good too.

Here's how my part 15 FM sounds when it's on the air. I'm using Stereo Tool on my PC for the processing, but the transmitter isn't that good hence the somewhat muffled sound. But it sounds okay at least.
https://www.sendspace.com/file/f2wuxh
 
Still tweaking my Optimod 8100A1 on my Part 15 here......there's some compromise since I'm only on 8 hours a week - 4 on Saturday, 4 on Sunday - and Saturday's format is '50s and '60s oldies,
while Sunday it's news and public affairs stuff....
If I figure out how to upload a sample of my audio, I'll let others decide just how it sounds....but i dare say -- it's gotta be better than MOST of the commercial stations within 35 miles of my location!!
I REFUSE to fight in the "loudness war"!!!
 
Oldie I used a Sandisk portable MP3 player to record my station. Most of them have recording features. If you don't have an MP3 player hook up a radio into your computer and use Audacity to record.
https://www.audacityteam.org/

I used SendSpace to upload my file and share it, but there are tons of file sharing services out there you can use once you have your MP3 or whatever.
 
Any...
Thanks for the info.....I actually have an iPod Nano that hasn't seen much use lately.....Guess it's time to charge it up and put it to use (again....)!
 
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