• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Best sound quality that you, technically, can get from an FM radio signal is..?

sergeauckland

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 16, 2016
Messages
3,440
Likes
9,100
Location
Suffolk UK
FM radio is severely limited by the characteristics of the transmission, not the receivers.

Your numbers are very pessimistic and plenty of tuners, from many brands left such specs in the weeds in the 1980s.

Here's an excerpt from the service manual of one of my 'better' tuners:
View attachment 158472
Those specs are pretty exceptional, few tuners of the 1970s & '80s did as well as that, but in any event, specs like those were considerable overkill when the limitations were on the transmission side. I also wonder how well those tuners did, especially separation and distortion, after some years' use unless realigned.

FM was great in the 1970s, before heavy processing, and when listeners were expected to be using decent equipment, and portable and in-car radios were mostly AM. When portable and car radios started offering FM, and radio stations started processing for loudness, it all went to rat-shit.

S
 

DSJR

Major Contributor
Joined
Jan 27, 2020
Messages
3,312
Likes
4,425
Location
Suffolk Coastal, UK
Idea!

Let it be said that what you say is true. Buy an old analog tuner instead of expensive tube amplifier. Get tube kind of sound with it and a transistor amplifier.Whatever "tube sound" is. If it even exists. A colored little distortion sound perhaps?

Just kidding now. But well what do I know..If there is now a little coloring of the sound you are looking for.

Supermodern top-performing DAC, lossless streaming with modern amplifier / speakers and when the urge falls on switch to the old vintage analog tuner.:)
When DAB was introduced all those years ago now, I remember a HiFi News article. I never collected HFN so can't tell you the year or month issue said article was in, but it must have been late 90's (1998 or so?).
 

anmpr1

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Oct 11, 2018
Messages
3,722
Likes
6,405
Seriously, we need to bring to the table extensive testing of vintage gear, especially comparing historic technical reviews with examples that are now many decades old. Especially the classics from the past and legendary products.
The problem is that for the review to be meaningful, the device under question has to be working properly. Unless the goal is to show how gear deteriorates over four or five decades. That might be important to know.

For example, I'm a fan of 'xraytonyb' U Toob channel. He takes (often cosmetically perfect) old gear and then goes through the process of restoration. It is not a trivial task on some of the items. Unless one has a bench full of test gear, they might not even know the unit in question is not working to spec. And trying to find replacement parts (Pioneer F28, CTF-1250, Carver 9T etc.) can take weeks or even months of searching.

Look at the recent ASR Otari review, or the Dyna ST-70, or Nakamichi cassette deck. What is the takeaway of those reviews? That the old stuff isn't working well, forty, fifty or sixty years on? Who would have guessed that? At least with a Dyna amp (which was not stock when ASR did the testing, by the way) you can replace all the parts, or try one of the mods. I think comparing mods would be interesting.

If anyone wants to know how these old pieces were when new, it's better to slum the test pages of Stereo Review or Audio. Unless the gear under ASR test can be certified as working properly.
 
OP
DanielT

DanielT

Major Contributor
Joined
Oct 10, 2020
Messages
4,750
Likes
4,631
Location
Sweden - Слава Україні
It would be very interesting if Amir measured a vintage model of amplifier. A fully serviced and recapad vs an original. Does not matter brand / model. Some vintage amplifier that is common in the United States.

Then it is probably not the easiest thing to know in what condition it is in the original, if its performance is representative of that amplifier model (how much time, hours palyed it has, how it has been stored through the decades for example) but it would be an interesting comparison.:)
 

Willem

Major Contributor
Joined
Jan 8, 2019
Messages
3,654
Likes
5,276
To be honest I am not interested in vintage gear that has not been restored and brought up to spec. Other than that, I am in fact using vintage power amplifiers, a Quad 606-2 in the main system and a Quad 405-2 in my desktop system, but both have been fully refurbished. I would be interested to see how they measure, however.
 

Willem

Major Contributor
Joined
Jan 8, 2019
Messages
3,654
Likes
5,276
And to return to the original question, for FM the most important question would be the quality limitations of the signal rather than the quality of the tuner. In the meantime, I am all in favour of internet radio if at decent bit rates.
 
Top Bottom