FM Radio as a Hi Fi Source

[TheDecameron]

I listen to a lot of radio and particularly relish any live performances on Radio 3 or Radio 2. I have recently had some work done on redirecting my FM aerial(to Holme Moss) and had a DAB aerial fitted for a UnitiQute located in a kitchen living room. The Uniti also has internet radio .

While I have no major criticisms of DAB and internet radio can be very impressive, I still gravitate to listening on FM-maybe its just being used to the sound it produces though it seems to me less veiled and more open than the digital offerings. I also note on Radio 3 hi definition I have to crank up the volume to get a reasonable listening level not sure if this is quirk of the BBC or not.

I am using an Audiolab 8000T in my main system and the as already stated I have the little Naim box which is very good-though again I think the FM offering on it is certainly superior to the DAB and I do listen to the internet stations and find sound quality good and of course there is access to such a variety of content.

Any thoughts? Anyone got any particularly good internet stations that they would recommend for content? How long has FM got left-be a shame if it were switched off!

FM through a good tuner is a real pleasure. I instinctively go to it over the digital sources like DAB, free view/freesat.
TheAudiolab is a cracking tuner-sonically a cut above the pack and with good facilities like the highly accurate signal strength meter.

I haven't tried R3 website HD feed through the Hugo (other than headphones)yet, so that's an experiment for when I'm back home.

 

[Mike Reed]

Radioistas, can I beg your advice?

Having regretted selling my Onix BWD-1 some time ago, I find myself with another. However I also sold my Magnum Dynalab aerial booster thingy, and I have no aerial fitted to my house.

What should I get to put me on for the last days of FM. Any old bit of pink wire from Maplins, or something better?

I think where you are geographically should be good for signal (assuming you're not in a valley or obscured position). Suggest a cheapish 4 or 6 element antenna, pick up an ally mast and decent co-ax. Assuming you can access a decent height on your house; chimney, bargeboard, whatever. If you want to get the best out of any tuner, scrimping on signal won't do it, Andrew.

 

[martin clark]

Radioistas, can I beg your advice?

Having regretted selling my Onix BWD-1 some time ago, I find myself with another. However I also sold my Magnum Dynalab aerial booster thingy, and I have no aerial fitted to my house.

What should I get to put me on for the last days of FM. Any old bit of pink wire from Maplins, or something better?

Go to FMscan.org, here:
http://fmscan.org/findpos4.php

Click through to find your own location, go to expert mode. You'll get a detailed listing of all the likely, even possible, FM signals in your location.

Click on the dBuV heading to sort by that parameter - anything above c.50dBuV you can pretty much pick up usefully with wet string. A DIY dipole is more than good enough ( about 3m of wire, cut in two halves, connect each to shield and core of a length of 75ohm coax to hook it to the back of the tuner).

If that's not enough, a square loop of 3.2m of enamelled / magnet wire in a square (800mm per side) with the coax hooked off one corner will give you a /slightly/ stronger signal / less hissy audio on stereo if it can be conveniently be placed orthogonal to your transmitter - cheap and easy to try. It's what I use, hidden in my book cupboard indoors through 2ft of stone - but then I'm barely a couple of miles from my local 86w transmitter, though no line-of-sight. But just that is enough to drive my BWD1 into full quieting, inky-black stereo for 95% of the year/weather acros the band.

Have a play!

PS don't forget the Onix has a built-in RF attenuator -12dB pad next to the aerial inputs - you want it 'button out' for no attenuation.

 

[Elephantears]

Excellent, thanks Mike and Martin. In Forest Hill I'm less than 2 miles from Crystal Palace and about 20 from Wrotham. According to the fmscan I will get 88 dBuV from Crystal Palace and 75 from Wrotham on Radio 3 and 4. So that sounds promising.

Looking at the Pdir and Pmax - which I understand are the 'power towards receiver location' and 'maximum effective power in main direction' - Wrotham has a massively higher number here. But I don't really know what this means.

I think I'll start off with a cheap dipole ribbon and then if I find I'm listening a lot I'll take Mike's advice about the 4 or 6 element.

The snag in this plan is that I intend to sell my Onix 24/601 and they need the SOAP2! Wanted ad for DIY psu coming soon.

 

[martin clark]

Those are strong FM signal levels and a dipole ribbon well placed should be a fine start.

A BWD1 psu is dead easy - it only needs a single quiet, 'linear' supply of at least 20VDC at 300mA - a regular 24Vdc, 300 or 500mA regulated wallwart works fine, with a suitable 6-pin DIN plug fitted (I'll happily make-up a DC-socket to BWD1 input adaptor gratis if it helps - only 2 pins of the 6pin din are used).

A dab of RC (rf) filtering is useful IME on the supply but further elaboration isn't really necessary because the BWD1 uses internal (discrete) regulators on the rails for everything. Such filtering is easily added in a dc-wallwart-socket to DIN plug pigtail

[ETA: there's no point going beyond 24vC because it only gets wasted as heat - and a 24v regulated supply is a common, widely-available thing. BWD1 actually works fully down to about 19vDC input - the internal regs have 15v output and simply need a 3-4v overhead for best performance.]

 

[jonclancy]

...At the moment I am listening to my Leak Troughline stereo With TdP stereo decoder. Tidied up & realigned yesterday by Mark the Ming. No hiss & sounds so much better than any DAB set up I have heard so far.

Mark the Ming? I have a few nice tuners that could benefit from a little look over!

 

[Richard Kimber]

Any thoughts? Anyone got any particularly good internet stations that they would recommend for content?

Venice Classic Radio
http://www.veniceclassicradio.eu/en/

- no adverts
- few station identification messages
- usually play the entire piece not just excerpts
- quality sounds pretty good on my MDAC/Quad system
- they mainly cover the baroque, classical, and romantic periods and they play quite a lot of music by lesser known composers; I've certainly learnt a lot from the station. As I write, the last 6 composers were:
Naderman
Beethoven
Mahler
Cherubini
Doppler
Baguer

- Richard.

 

[davidjt]

I will move to my flat in Shenzhen next month. The flat is on the 16th floor, I will mount a FM aerial on the balcony which is southwest facing towards the Hong Kong radio transmitter.

The FM frequency is the same as UK, but I am afriad the UK trasnmitter is thousands miles away from my flat

Do the Chinese block all internet radio? Because Radio3 HD into a good DAC is more enjoyable than FM on my 8000T, apparently due to the absence of compression.
The excellent tuner (second/third hand on eBay) doesn't need a big external yagi to bring in weak signals, but it's been relegated to the bedroom because it simply can't compete with HD.

 

[Julf]

FM through a good tuner is a real pleasure. I instinctively go to it over the digital sources like DAB, free view/freesat.

You could get one of those car stereo FM modulators that would allow you to listen to any digital source through your tuner...

 

[moo-fi]

While I am the opposite, I have a Naim 01 and a Ron Smith Galaxy aerial but tend to use internet radio more usually through a Linn Accurate. I have done some back to back tests and all I came up with is that they sound different, not necessarily helpful I know.

 

[TheDecameron]

You could get one of those car stereo FM modulators that would allow you to listen to any digital source through your tuner...

I have a processor that adds surface noise and the occasional scratch to CD listening. When the CD is finished, it adds the serial thunk of stylus in the run out groove.

 

[Julf]

I have a processor that adds surface noise and the occasional scratch to CD listening. When the CD is finished, it adds the serial thunk of stylus in the run out groove.

iZotope Vinyl?

 

[TheDecameron]

Yeahbut, can it add the smell of damp cardboard to SACD listening?

 

[adamdea]

Venice Classic Radio
http://www.veniceclassicradio.eu/en/

- no adverts
- few station identification messages
- usually play the entire piece not just excerpts
- quality sounds pretty good on my MDAC/Quad system
- they mainly cover the baroque, classical, and romantic periods and they play quite a lot of music by lesser known composers; I've certainly learnt a lot from the station. As I write, the last 6 composers were:
Naderman
Beethoven
Mahler
Cherubini
Doppler
Baguer

- Richard.

I've not heard that before. Sounds interesting and I like the website.

 

[Richard Kimber]

I've not heard that before. Sounds interesting and I like the website.

I hope you like it. I should add that I've bought a lot of CDs on the basis of hearing music on Venice CR that I've never heard before. My only criticism is that if you listen a lot then some pieces seem to be repeated just a little too often.

- Richard.

 

[davidjt]

I have done some back to back tests and all I came up with is that they sound different, not necessarily helpful I know.

Listening to CD Review this morning, they are very similar; the difference I hear is in live concert broadcasts, which have more clarity and presence.
Any compressed source sounds rather flat by comparison, until I get used to it again.