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My understanding is that a number of traditional Radio Stations broadcast both via FM/AM, and digital through the internet. Assuming you have a good Tuner verses a digital system with a decent DAC, how do the two compare in sound quality? Ignoring endless online options, ability to select genre, simply audio comparison.
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Ultimately the quality of either is going to come down to the formats and bitrates used from the studio to the final destination; as well as what they're sourcing music from.
Typically the analog signal will sound better, but with STLs (Studio-Transmitter Links) moving digital using all kinds of crazy IP over various physical methods. I've never bothered to ask the broadcast engineers I know what formats their STL's are running; I've only heard about the transmitter sites still on traditional phone lines running crazy low bitrates for STL. The internet streams will vary as to where the stream is encoded from and how many times it's been re-encoded. Most of the online-streams I've heard sound like they've undergone compression a few times or are using a stupid low bitrate codec with SBR.
I've been paying attention to the difference signal since I started playing around with software defined radios. I often see tell-tale signs of lossy compression somewhere in the chain from the analog signal. Some stations though sound really fantastic; like I've never heard WETA in DC sound any better than from my SDR.
It's really hard to say which will sound better than the other since there are so many variables that can happen to each from the time it leaves the studio to the time it gets to your ears.
I can tell Alexa to play any iHeartRadio or Tunein station (and others too I suppose) and it plays. I can barely tune in WBGO from Newark here in Brooklyn. Guess which I listen to now?
In the past I owned a couple of nice tuners and enjoyed them but with the variety of music available on the internet with streams of 192, 256, & 320kbps,...internet has won me over.
I had the Sony HAP Z in for a trial run a few years ago and was very impressed with the internet radio software it had.
Currently I have something similar through an Aurender N100 which plays all at 24bit 44.1kHZ, feed through my dac,..very enjoyable.
Try:
https://stream.psychomed.gr/
It has 5 different streams by genre at 320kbps.
or
jazzgroove.org
Jazz 24, KNKX in Seattle/Tacoma even with the best tuner I would have a problem getting reception in NY. No talking over the music and when they talk between tracks it's a pleasure because they know jazz. Sound quality, high bit rate maybe 320 kps maybe not but it sounds great to me. My vote is for internet radio.
Edits: 07/23/17
Location of FM tower, quality of transmitted signal (along with the source) vs. bitrate and quality of source for internet radio. Too many variables to rank.
Best to just listen to the music.
PeterZ
There is no easy one-shot answer for this. Such a comparison depends upon the standard of the FM transmission ( which can be hugely variable) and that of the internet transmission which can vary by codec technology, data rate streamed and DSP employed.Once the above factors have been settled then the ability of the FM tuner and its antenna used in the test have to be accounted for ( are we comparing a state of the art tuner with the internet broadcast or a table radio? ) and the computer set up and , very importantly, the DAC.
There is just no way you can answer your question. In theory FM should be best as it has the least loss of data. However this often not the result as a broadcaster may impose significant levels of compression to enable intelligibilty on e.g. table radios where use of a wide dynamic range would simply cause complaints from the average listener. However the same broadcaster may not compress his internet feed as much thus giving a theoretically inferior , say MP3 broadcast, an advantage.
Here is an example of one single station. BBC radio 3. Tonight in the UK I can listen to the same live concert by FM via my excellent tuner : very good sound, but some compression. By "standard" internet ( 128Kb/s I don't know the codec), much better sound than the figures may suggest but clearly not the first choice for classical music. By DAB ( Digital Audio Broadcasting - not by internet) which uses Musicam @ 192 KB/s - good sound with less compression. By internet using BBC HD sound which is AAC @ 320 KB/S. Very good sound indeed. By lossless FLAC as part of a BBC experiment called " Concert Sound" , I guess as good sound as one can reasonably expect for a broadcast in 2017 and way better than FM. Though you will see other inmates saying that for them FM is superior - which in their particular circumstances it may well be.
That is just one station on one evening! There are thousands of other stations out there some doing it as succesfully as Radio 3 ( OK with huge resources behind it) and others maybe not as well.
The only thing you can do is decide what station or stations you want to listen to and compare for yourself . Your answer may not be the same as anyone else's but it will be right for you. After all if you have a computer and a DAC already then it is a free experiment to do.
Edits: 07/21/17
Some internet radio stations broadcast a high quality stream, mostly 192kbps MP3 but some up to 320k. But 128k streams are kind of the norm.
I used to have an Accuphase tuner and rooftop FM yagi on a rotator, which I put up specifically for WGBH out of Boston. Back when WGBH was a music station, they used to have very good broadcast quality and I was enjoying sound quality up there with some of the best internet radio stations. Unfortunately, they changed their programming to talk.
The big commercial FM stations in my area are not that great. They all use way too much compression, and some use stereo expanders. College radio stations are better, but they don't have the equipment to be really good, and every time I find a good DJ/program I really like, the student graduates or leaves shortly thereafter.
So I don't bother with FM anymore except for listening to news on NPR. There's too much variety out there in internet radio, and I have Tidal.
I can tell you that the Russian Jazz Stations that I listen to, that stream at 192kbps are superior in audio quality to any FM station I've listened to. Don't know if they broadcast FM over in Russia however.I did find this link and it says that it takes 300kbps for streaming to sound better.... But this would be 'Lab conditions' which neither FM or Streaming does... It does mention that 160-192kbps would be better for less critical listening environments.
Cut-Throat
Edits: 07/21/17 07/21/17
The thing about internet radio is the amazing variety from all over the world.
With my IMac and Dragonfly Red outputting 24/96 ( with internal playback set to 24/96 ), the quality is good enough, and through the Sony HAP Z1, internet radio sounds excellent to me.
Many are low-rate mp3, some are higher, but listening to it in 24/96 works just fine.
The Sony upsamples it to DSD 128, with other DSP applied.
The Sony is awesome!
And NO FM noise or distortion w/int radio!
In my experience standard analog FM sounds better than the same stations streaming over the internet.
But my experience is based on what I heard a few years ago. I no longer listen to radio stations that stream over the internet (except some talk radio) and the only time I listen to FM is in the car, very rarely.
I have had the same experience, although I tried about a dozen tuners before I found one I really liked. And as mentioned, it is station specific.
Fortunately the DAC's have gotten better and you do get lower noise floor and better dynamic range with digital, but at least with KBAQ here in Phoenix I prefer air waves.
Yes, it really depends a lot on the station as well. Some stream at higher bit-rates than others. Some use MP3 encoding while others use AAC. I find that AAC streams sound better at a given bit-rate.
As an example, some stations offer the listener a choice between 64Kbps AAC and 64Kbps MP3. The AAC stream will sound better. Some stations stream at higher bit-rates that can approach FM broadcast quality but to my ears they're not quite there. Unfortunately though, most are not too concerned with streaming audio quality so they use lower bit-rates to conserve bandwidth.
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