Is it worthwhile to use an FM Tuner?

[DomT]

Hello everyone

I realise that there are internet radio stations and streaming services but I like radio stations where there is talk and music.

So I am wondering from a pure sound quality perspective if FM is better quality (if a decent tuner and ariel is used) than an internet radio station played via an Auralic or Innuos streamer? I like turntables so I don’t agree necessarily that some digital is always better.

It’s a serious question as I haven’t owned a tuner for maybe 30 years. FM used to be very good. And I happen to own a tuner that’s currently in storage in another country. So my decision is to keep it or sell it. It’s a Quad FM4 one owner from new in mint and fully working condition.

 

[lazycat]

I gave up using my lovely Sony tuner (ST-J75) because the sound quality was just as good from the internet.
And internet is quiet and has more choice. The latter being important.

I do wish the BBC would use FLAC streams, rather than AAC, but they sound pretty good even so.

I admit I didnt have the best aerial but the Sony can pick up a decent signal from wet string - and it was hardly noisy.

 

[garn63]

Hi Dom. Surely that is a rabbit hole not worth diving down ? If you had an old favourite lying around..yes.
Internet radio is bloody great.
Here's a link to a very useful site. https://www.radio-browser.info/

 

[Ian]

There's always another perspective, here's mine. Maybe think of it like records, lovely to have and to hold, but perhaps seemingly foolish in the age of streaming. But what will you get for it, £140 ? Think of it as a plugged in object of beauty.

On which, I know a wammer who has a Quad 303 as a 'bookend' for his records !

 

[It Cost How Much!?!]

Not really worth it, but you can get some really nice tuners for pocket money now. The Quad is OK, not especially great (check the rechargeable battery hasn't leaked and melted the board). The Quad will definitely need a roof aerial.

The best tuner I had at home was a Naim NAT01, simply lovely rich sound, sold it as I didn't use it enough and use internet radio now. I still have a Hitachi FT-5500 and a FT-4500, which sound good. Also an Arcam manual FM/AM tuner witch sounds nearly as good as the Naim.

 

[rdale]

I use my Magnum Dynalab FT101A to listen to RNE Radio 3 here in Spain. The internet version is only at 64 kps and sounds crap. The Tuner sounds a lot better, and recently it took a big jump up when I added a pair of subs. I think there must be a lot of information I was missing in the 30-40 hz range, and the bass from the Dynalab is now really tight, clear and clean and never heard it sound better, although the signal is a bit noisy.

 

[DomT]

Hi Dom. Surely that is a rabbit hole not worth diving down ? If you had an old favourite lying around..yes.
Internet radio is bloody great.
Here's a link to a very useful site. https://www.radio-browser.info/

Well Mark I do have the matching 44 Preamp that I love! It’s a design icon.

I realise that there is a whole world of internet radio as I listen to it all of the time. Maybe FM sounds better? Maybe not? I have no idea. I already have internet radio but because the Quad FM4 is mint I don’t want to sell it if it will do a good job. But, and it’s a big but, if the sound quality was worse than internet radio (how could that be?) then I would sell it.

In the new house I will have a studio and a music room so there is plenty of room for bits of HiFi!

 

[Andy Stephenson]

If it's just music radio you listen to, internet radio should be all you need.

If it's talk radio, I not knowledgeable enough to say whether there are alternatives to BBC R4

I also listen to R4 extra and, occasionally, R5 sports extra, but then I do have a DAB tuner!

Andy

 

[lazycat]

In the new house I will have a studio and a music room so there is plenty of room for bits of HiFi!

Buy a decent aerial and try it.

I'm not saying the internet is better or worse, but it is quiet. TBH my Sony sounded great, well it was Sony's best c.1980, would've been even better with a proper aerial.

But I listen to 6 music a lot so the net won out.

 

[bobovox]

Radio makes up probably 75% of my listening; it always has.

I've done back to back SQ comparisons between FM and the 320kb/s AAC BBC stream and the latter was better by some distance.

The tuners were a Rotel T11, Denon TU-1800 & Technics ST-G70, fed from a loft aerial with a decent signal. Streamers were a pi + Arcam D33 DAC and a Cambridge CXN v2.

So my "radio" listening is now largely over the internet when at home. I still have a tuner in my system but it's mainly there for sentimental reasons now.

 

[Rayymondo]

I still use FM in my main system, but mostly just for things like Loose Ends and Desert Island Discs.
As for quality I think DAB / Internet it's easier to get a good signal without hiss or distortion due to poor signal strength or using a cheap aerial as I do. Personally I won't be putting an aerial on the roof but this is probably the way to go if you were serious about FM. I did recently have a T+A media player that incorporated a DAB tuner and that did sound better than my old Kenwood tuner, but that said if you can get a good signal where you live and have at least a couple of stations available that interest you it might be worth a try, and as others have said they are generally quite cheap nowadays, I have bought a Japanese Kenwood and a Linn one recently and both were under £100. There are some top models out there from companies like https://www.magnumdynalab.com/ that hold there price but still much cheaper than they were a few years ago.

 

[DomT]

Some very useful comments about sound quality so thanks very much everyone. It seems that even with a good fm tuner a high quality internet station can sound better and vice versa.

That helps me do some investigating about local radio stations on FM vs internet here in Portugal.

 

[bigrod]

If you’re going to do FM you need an aerial on the roof .. then imo it’s unbeatable

 

[Barbour81]

I bought a Musical Fidelity A5 DAB from this very here forum a couple of years ago. The sound through it's internal DAC when hooked up to a simple Argos internal aerial is incredible. Prefer it to the Bel Canto 3.5 DAC that I use for my cd transport.

 

[TIU]

Late at night dial through LW and SW, then you have started another Waters/Floyd album.

 

[on the rocks]

I have a Musical Fidelity A5 tuner with a good roof mounted aerial. I use it mainly for BBC Radios 3 and 4 and Classic FM and listen to it for a few hours a day, especially while my CD is away for repair. Radio 6 on DAB is also quiet good with the tuner’s upsampling DAC and valve output stage. I think the MF A5 is one of the best tuners out there, there are currently a few on eBay at around £300. I often consider streaming but the cost of a streamer and DAC (my CD player doesn’t have a digital input) with comparable or better sound quality would be considerable, also I’m not convinced the user interface would be as simple. However I will probably catch up with the times at some point.

 

[newlash09]

Hello everyone

I realise that there are internet radio stations and streaming services but I like radio stations where there is talk and music.

So I am wondering from a pure sound quality perspective if FM is better quality (if a decent tuner and ariel is used) than an internet radio station played via an Auralic or Innuos streamer? I like turntables so I don’t agree necessarily that some digital is always better.

It’s a serious question as I haven’t owned a tuner for maybe 30 years. FM used to be very good. And I happen to own a tuner that’s currently in storage in another country. So my decision is to keep it or sell it. It’s a Quad FM4 one owner from new in mint and fully working condition.

I bought a sugden bijou FM master from a member of this parish, after pestering him to part with it. When I tried at home, I realised that my building had very poor coverage. So I sold it to a friend.

He rigged up an antenna on his terrace and ran a dedicated signal line to it. I went on his invitation a month later for a listen. And found it very very enjoyable. We both listen to old local language music. And it sounded miles ahead of the streaming radio broadcasts.

I think that music from that era is being played via records. And radio is probably still fully analogue when a tuner is used. Maybe why I found the sound more live and real, very similar to the difference I find between digital and vinyl. If I had coverage at my place, I would definitely buy a tuner for my day time back ground listening and skip digital sounding radio paradise

P. S : But please bear in mind that a good external antenna is a must sir.

Edit : I keep drooling over the vintage gear on this UK site. Especially the tuners with lights and VU meters.

https://hifivintage.co.uk/

 

[griffo104]

I used to have a Magnum Dynalab tuner. It had VU meters which glowed orange, so therefore better than anything on the internet.

 

[Jules_S]

I used to have a Magnum Dynalab tuner. It had VU meters which glowed orange, so therefore better than anything on the internet.

VU meters are the ultimate in cool. Except....

....those Marantz tuners with the built-in oscilloscope - that's a top-trump right there! (no idea if they sound any good, but just having one sat in your rack, glowing away, got to be the best thing ever!)

Edit: just found that there were a load of models with a 'scope, like this one I found a picture of. #idontneedatunerbutiwantthis

 

[Burdy]

VU meters are the ultimate in cool. Except....

....those Marantz tuners with the built-in oscilloscope - that's a top-trump right there! (no idea if they sound any good, but just having one sat in your rack, glowing away, got to be the best thing ever!)

Edit: just found that there were a load of models with a 'scope, like this one I found a picture of. #idontneedatunerbutiwantthis

Not to forget the operation of that tuning wheel ohhhh!