Stereo receiver reception

[Weiserguy]

Unfortunately, with Voltair devices and other things crappifying many FM signals, high-quality equipment mercilessly exposes deficiencies in today's FM stations' audio chains. iHeart in particular makes analog broadcasts sound as bad, if not worse, than their bit-starved digital equivalents.

Is it any wonder that the generations who still have most of their hearing have largely abandoned over-the-air radio? They may not be able to quantify why they dislike it, but at some level they understand that FM generally sounds like crap and AM sounds like an old telephone landline.

 

[TheBigA]

Is it any wonder that the generations who still have most of their hearing have largely abandoned over-the-air radio? They may not be able to quantify why they dislike it, but at some level they understand that FM generally sounds like crap and AM sounds like an old telephone landline.

But they mainly listen to music on earbuds or other lo-fi devices. The era of massive home stereos ended a long time ago.

 

[yeoldeschool]

Unfortunately, with Voltair devices and other things crappifying many FM signals, high-quality equipment mercilessly exposes deficiencies in today's FM stations' audio chains. iHeart in particular makes analog broadcasts sound as bad, if not worse, than their bit-starved digital equivalents.

I remember when the first small businesses restoring vintage gear started showing their wares on Youtube, and some of the best, most sought-after makes/models were only in the hundreds of dollars. Now they're in the multiple thousands. And I never went for any of it because Voltar made the Los Angeles dial mostly unlistenable to me. OP, consider yourself lucky if you are in a diary market.

Incidentally, Voltair is plenty audible to me on all the Audacy stations here, Mark. The iHeart outlets only edge it out slightly. Perhaps that's just a Los Angeles thing though. There are a few sub-92 MHz stations I don't hear it on at all, and one or two independents up above. Strangely, it is very difficult for me to hear on 105.9. That surprises me because they're a big operation and have competition -- which would make me expect they'd dial it through the roof. Perhaps someone in KPWR's upper ranks has taste.

 

[Mark Roberts]

I remember when the first small businesses restoring vintage gear started showing their wares on Youtube, and some of the best, most sought-after makes/models were only in the hundreds of dollars. Now they're in the multiple thousands. And I never went for any of it because Voltar made the Los Angeles dial mostly unlistenable to me. OP, consider yourself lucky if you are in a diary market.

One of my tuners probably should be refurbished...so I'll check it out.

Incidentally, Voltair is plenty audible to me on all the Audacy stations here, Mark. The iHeart outlets only edge it out slightly. Perhaps that's just a Los Angeles thing though. There are a few sub-92 MHz stations I don't hear it on at all, and one or two independents up above. Strangely, it is very difficult for me to hear on 105.9. That surprises me because they're a big operation and have competition -- which would make me expect they'd dial it through the roof. Perhaps someone in KPWR's upper ranks has taste.

Concerning Bay Area Audacy stations, the Voltair effect was only slightly there at worst. For example, post-"Dave" KITS sounded OK. But it was really strong on KCBS/KFRC-FM, so much so that I first thought they were using a digital STL or Internet connection with severe data compression, comparable to 48 kbps mp3. I don't hear it on the Audacy Denver stations at all, but I'll admit that the only Denver Audacy station I listen to regularly is KQMT.

 

[Mark Roberts]

Is it any wonder that the generations who still have most of their hearing have largely abandoned over-the-air radio? They may not be able to quantify why they dislike it, but at some level they understand that FM generally sounds like crap and AM sounds like an old telephone landline.

Looking back, we can see that the period 1970-2000, más o menos, was the exception to the general rule of radio sounding obtrusively unnatural. That's when FM took over from AM and, while some FM stations could torture their audio to sound LOUD and fatiguing, many others took a reasonable approach to processing, sacrificing some dynamic range but still managing to sound fairly natural. Before 1970, AM radio predominated with FM being a niche market. You put up with AM because that's what you had. In the 1970s, FM became increasingly mass-appeal; in the 1980s and beyond, FM was dominant. Around 2000 with Napster, et al., people started listening to music through data compression algorithms that had a different sort of unnatural sound, at least to some people. The purpose of going back through all this is to point out that you and I were socialized to the sound of FM radio. It wasn't always perfect but it could be pretty good in the right hands. Then file-sharing and streaming came along, socializing subsequent generations to sound that's been filtered through data compression algorithms. The generations that once put up with some of the defects of FM radio - hiss, occasional static in stereo, multipath distortion - have made way for generations who have traded off those defects for the defects of audio data compression algorithms. As bandwidth becomes ever more available, look for the next frontier in streaming to be lossless algorithms...for a price, no doubt.

Of course, the other major defect of FM radio is programming. People came to FM for the music and tolerated commercials as the price. Post-2000-ish, they don't have to do that. It's a structural defect. Format labels and implementation trivia no longer matter. Radio's survival will depend upon finding new business models and approaches. Program directors who are stuck in repeating what worked in 1985 or 1995 are probably not going to have the answer to that challenge.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Around 2000 with Napster, et al., people started listening to music through data compression algorithms that had a different sort of unnatural sound, at least to some people.

After I missed some Paul Harvey "Rest of the Story" stories, I found out they were online and I listened. But it sounded like it was under water. That made me not want to listen to music that way until my America's Best Music affiliate (which had Paul Harvey when he was still alive) changed to oldies. And at that time my Internet at home wasn't much better than dial-up, but I found a streaming ABM station with poor sound quality.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

As bandwidth becomes ever more available, look for the next frontier in streaming to be lossless algorithms...for a price, no doubt.

Apple disrupted that expectation by adding lossless streaming to Apple Music in 2021 at no extra charge. Spotify, which had been expected to charge a premium for lossless streaming when it launched, surprised everyone by following Apple's lead when they finally introduced it this September at no extra charge.

 

[Mark Roberts]

Along with the extra battery I purchased an external charger as well. Charges faster and I always have a charged battery available.

Do you have a recommendation for a charger? I looked into this some time ago and found the range of what's available to be somewhat bewildering. So I didn't get one.

 

[DXingRadio]

Do you have a recommendation for a charger? I looked into this some time ago and found the range of what's available to be somewhat bewildering. So I didn't get one.

I went with a Sevenka D2 battery charger, so far works well.

 

[Mark Roberts]

I went with a Sevenka D2 battery charger, so far works well.

Thanks! I just ordered one.