Radio from circa 1990 which claimed to make AM sound as good as FM?

[Ai4i]

There were two settings on the radio, alright, one for Kahn and one for the other four.

And if the switch was in the wrong position, you would hear false stereo like the channels would go out of phase, at least if it was off one way, maybe not the other. This early receiver must not have sensed a subaudible tone to enable the decoder. Later ones, like my (I think it was a) Clarion, did.

 

[mimo]

I bought a TM 152 from Radio Shack in Suburban Richmond, B.C. back in 1987. CJVB 1470 had the best separation of any stereo station I had ever heard at the time. It was just after AM 1040 (calls were CIOF at the time) had switched from AC to top 40 to compete against LG 73. CKLG ran the Harris system and was not compatible with the TM 152, but 1040 was, so I almost never tuned into LG 73 again while living in B.C. I found AM stereo to have better treble but not as much bass as my non stereo tuners. To be honest I've never liked the sound of FM radio and found the highs to be too high. Even today I turn the treble completely down when listening to FM or watching tv. It's a by-product of my Asperger's...it's made me sensitive to sounds over a certain point. Today's AM radios could use a higher frequency response, in my opinion, but that would really reduce the selectivity. 2 to 3 khz doesn't cut it. My old boom box in the 80's had AM response out to 8 khz.

 

[charlestondxman]

I thought AM stereo was so fascinating in the mid 80's.

I had gotten my Sony AM Stereo Walkman a little while before I moved down to Florida and I couldn't get enough of hearing WNBC in stereo and the local WFIL when they had a short run as an oldies station.

At night, WLS came in great in stereo and I remember they had a different system for stereo than did WFIL and WNBC. There were two settings on the radio for the two methods being used.

When I was in Florida, it was interesting hearing WNBC in stereo at that distance and WLS which was a lot stronger. DXing at night took on a whole new meaning, as there were many AM stations to be heard in stereo.

The local 1380 in Tampa/St. Pete was stereo and a simulcast of WRBQ 104.7 FM

I actually thought AM Stereo sounded better than FM because I was able to compare hearing the same thing switching between both stations on AM and FM.

AM stereo had a more 'solid' sound to it and after listening to it for a while, FM sounded too high pitched.

I guess AM stereo was an attempt to save top 40 on the AM band and it's a shame it wasn't successful.

I remember WLS was AM stereo until very recently. I think they still are. I remember hearing WLS in Georgia in stereo around 2006 or so. HD sounds pretty good on the few stations that carry the HD signals (not 1 AM in our market). But AM stereo was much easier to get. WNMB 900 in North Myrtle Beach was AM stereo until a few months ago.

 

[Ai4i]

AM stereo seemed to have great stereo separation because of the way it was processed.
It really had more separation than the original source material would, and this is not natural.

BTW...I also had a shortwave receiver which incorporated a Kahn-Hazeltine chip as a cheap
way to get synchronous detection and separate the lower sideband from the upper sideband.
It also made the audio quality jump to life.

 

[gar hi]

I remember WLS was AM stereo until very recently. I think they still are. I remember hearing WLS in Georgia in stereo around 2006 or so. HD sounds pretty good on the few stations that carry the HD signals (not 1 AM in our market). But AM stereo was much easier to get. WNMB 900 in North Myrtle Beach was AM stereo until a few months ago.

I remember KYW used to broadcast in AM stereo but that was after the peak of the AM stereo boom in the mid 80's.

Their famous teletype machine sound in the background sounded interesting in stereo.

 

[cyberdad]

I had a 1992 Jeep Grand Cherokee that I bought brand new and had AM stereo. I was excited about that at first, but the fact turned out to be that it sounded pretty lousy. Regular mono AM sounded better. That said, I've heard other AM stereo (primarily rental cars) that sounded quite good.

 

[awsherrill]

Denon used to sell an AM-FM tuner (TU-680NAB) that was AMAX certified. It was available circa mid-90s, and I was wondering if that was what the OP had in mind, although it was a component receiver and not a stand-alone radio.

The AM station where I worked ended up buying one, and it did sound very good. We were running the old Unistar "AM Only" format at the time with C-QUAM stereo.

 

[billmich]

The closest I ever heard to FM sound on an AM station was when CKLW was in AM Stereo. CKLW didn't have the 15 kHz cutoff restriction that US stations had. I listened on a Sony SRF-A100 with Sony headphones and also plugged it into amplifiers. It had a 32 Ohm output as I recall, which didn't give a perfect match on many amplifiers. Seems like CKLW used the Harris system, and changed the exciter to the Motorola Pilot, etc. when it became the de facto standard. I listened to CKLW and other stations also with the Sony SRF-A100. When in the wide bandwidth position, the thing seemed like FM in locking in on a Stereo signal like in the days of AFC. Another AM signal that sounded great in Motorola AM Stereo within a few miles of the transmitter was WSAM Saginaw. Leonard Kahn wanted me to call CKLW and try to talk them into changing to the Kahn system. But CKLW sounded really good with Harris with the Motorola modification.

What years were these? By the time I had an AM stereo decoder in 1984 I believe CKLW has gone back to mono

 

[billmich]

Denon used to sell an AM-FM tuner (TU-680NAB) that was AMAX certified. It was available circa mid-90s, and I was wondering if that was what the OP had in mind, although it was a component receiver and not a stand-alone radio.

The AM station where I worked ended up buying one, and it did sound very good. We were running the old Unistar "AM Only" format at the time with C-QUAM stereo.

I have this tuner, it was (and still probably is) the gold standard for AM/FM tuners in it's day.
AM stereo on this unit was magnificent....(Still get CFCO in stereo on it)

 

[Ai4i]

When the only transmission platforms are digital, the tuners will only matter with respect to dropouts. As for audio quality, the only things that will matter are the bandwidth allotted to them on the source end and the amplifier and speakers on the destination end.