Best way to listen to radio

[TwoEyedJack]

This might sound like a weird question, but I find it hard to incorporate a radio tuner in a modern day hifi system. How do you guys listen to radio if you only have a dac and an amp? Sure you can just stream it just like you on demand music streamer service via a pc or a smartphone with Bluetooth or wifi, but i just want a quick and easy way to listen to it without using a computer. If i wanted to include a radio tuner i would have to buy a source selector/preamp (for volume control) and place another volume control between my dac and amp.

Is there a better a way to do this that I am just missing?

 

[Doodski]

Use a receiver?

 

[JeffS7444]

Does it need to be part of your hifi system? If yes, than Sangean offers an AM/FM/HD tuner with SPDIF output.

 

[Doodski]

View attachment 286163
Does it need to be part of your hifi system? If yes, than Sangean offers an AM/FM/HD tuner with SPDIF output.

..and. It's a Panasonic. I like Matsushita gear it has always been good to me in both sales and repairing it. Great company I think with good gear.

 

[notsodeadlizard]

It's the true modern tuner:

Radio Garden

Explore live radio by rotating the globe.

radio.garden

Works well on PCs and gadgets both Apple and Android.

 

[TwoEyedJack]

View attachment 286163
Does it need to be part of your hifi system? If yes, than Sangean offers an AM/FM/HD tuner with SPDIF output.

ok so I am the only one with such a problem?

So tuners with digital out exist? and there are not even that expensive.

Wow, I didnt know "digital" radio was a thing. DAB+ ?

 

[JeffS7444]

ok so I am the only one with such a problem?

So tuners with digital out exist? and there are not even that expensive.

Wow, I didnt know "digital" radio was a thing. DAB+

You probably got a number of options which won't be so familiar to those of us living in North America, where HD Radio is the digital standard. I do own a Revo Superconnect, and it's very nice, but no MW/LW, just FM/DAB, and it's primary purpose is internet radio.

 

[RayDunzl]

How do you guys listen to radio if you only have a dac and an amp?

I have an HDRadio (USA) with digital outputs.

It will receive digital or analog programming and output either as digital or analog.

There's not much to them:

Power supply, a little circuit board, and the disply/buttons on front.

 

[radix]

I have one of those HD Radios (PM me if you want to buy). It works just fine and has memory presets. It will choose the HD option if available for your station. I use an inexpensive powered FM indoor antenna. That all said, I decided to buy a McIntosh MR73 AM/FM tuner, because I wanted an actual dial and simpler controls rather than having to punch a bunch of buttons. And it's so beautiful.

Join the mailing list over at https://www.fmtunerinfo.com/. They can recommend all sorts of vintage or later tuners to fit your budget and style.

Really, Internet radio is the best quality, but you need a computer for it, obviously. You can put Internet radio on your Volumio interface. The Naim muso2 has 5 presets you can program to different stations.

 

[Petevid]

Amazon Echo Dot, line out to line in on your amp. Then voice commands to ask it to play the radio station of your choice. It’s very cheap and pretty good quality.

 

[ThatM1key]

I don't know what there called but there "Internet Radio" turners that are standalone.

 

[Galliardist]

ok so I am the only one with such a problem?

So tuners with digital out exist? and there are not even that expensive.

Wow, I didnt know "digital" radio was a thing. DAB+ ?

DAB+ quality is dependent on the number of stations being multiplexed. In Sydney we have DAB+ but there are so many channels in use that they use low bitrate AAC with spectral replication - some awful results. They should never have allowed supermarkets onto the system, nor allocated space for “event” broadcasts at the expense of proper music broadcasting.

HD radio I have no experience of, but it broadcasts on adjacent frequencies to existing stations so quality is dependent on what that station puts out. In practice internet radio is likely to sound better than either format, and stations should really be upgrading from low bitrate MP3 now.

 

[Waxx]

I use a relative cheap Hama DIT2000 streamer that i bought back in 2007 for about 150€, trough the spdif out to my dac. The internal da convertors are crap, but this way it doesn't matter. I use it for DAB+ and webstreaming, and can operate it from my iphone (trough an ap) altough you also got the remote (that i never used, i even don't know where it is). It does the job perfectly I have to say. And altough it's a cheap and old design (i think from 2005) it still receives regular software updates and keeps working. It's also still for sale strangly enough. I get the streams and DAB+ over LAN/internet altough, i don't know how good the wifi module or bluetooth module is as i never used it.

 

[Nordling]

I use the Argon Audio Stream 3. It has FM tuner, DAB/DAB+, Internet Radio and Bluetooth. Output is analog and digital optical Toslink. The device is relatively small and I'm very happy with it.

 

[egellings]

This might sound like a weird question, but I find it hard to incorporate a radio tuner in a modern day hifi system. How do you guys listen to radio if you only have a dac and an amp? Sure you can just stream it just like you on demand music streamer service via a pc or a smartphone with Bluetooth or wifi, but i just want a quick and easy way to listen to it without using a computer. If i wanted to include a radio tuner i would have to buy a source selector/preamp (for volume control) and place another volume control between my dac and amp.

Is there a better a way to do this that I am just missing?

I have a little table radio I use for that, and then it's mostly for public radio voice broadcasts, not music. Musically, commercial radio is a vast wasteland for excessive advertising of products I likely don't even use. And then, a song will play on commercial radio and an ad is started before the song ends. Nope. Advertising has gotten way too invasive for me to tolerate commercial radio anymore. And AM is mostly talk radio broadcasting BS opinions I have no interest in hearing.

 

[onethreetwowaitthatswrong]

I use the Argon Audio Stream 3. It has FM tuner, DAB/DAB+, Internet Radio and Bluetooth. Output is analog and digital optical Toslink. The device is relatively small and I'm very happy with it.

Hey, really glad I found you answer. Had the same want and interrogation as OP, and this product seemed like the cheaper option. Current amp has internet radio via Vtuner, but quality is AAC at best, and it's a considerable pain to configure, and slow to boot. The only other one I found that filled the required functions is the Tangent Tuner II, and it's considerably more expensive (at least as expensive as the only Waxx's Hama DIT2000 I managed to find with a quick search, 175-200€ area ; and whose screen seems way to small to be agreeable or usable from a distance).
So I have a question about it, besides whether you're still happy with it : can you set up an extinction/sleep mode on it ? Like 15/20/30mn for example ? My case use would be plugging it into a Dx3pro+ via optical, into an amp, two devices that automatically shutdown after a certain time of inactivity.


Edit : I mixed up the devices, between the Audio Stream 3 and the DAB+ Adapter 3 MK2. The latter only has the Dab+ radio functions and is less expensive. Not by that much though, considering all the additional functions (dac, aptX BT, webradios, FM, spotify, control app...). Hmm I'm in a bit of a pinch now... Seems like the right choice to go for only the wanted functions for a cheaper price, but the Stream 3 openly specifies it has a sleep timer. It's not as advertised with the DAB+ Adapter, but it seems present too in its manual, right ? Only thing is that it's the previous version, with a different remote from the new model it seems, and it's hard to figure out what's on the buttons with the angle of the picture of the MK2 version . Second from left on top rank indicates sleep, you're seeing the same thing as me ?

 

[beeface]

Fidelity-wise, is there a clear winner between FM, DAB and Internet? I'm guessing it might depend on the quality of the Internet stream, right?

 

[mhardy6647]

Use a receiver?

I mean, yeah, def. an option.



or... you know... a tuner.

 

[Waxx]

I worked for a few radiostations, i still do actually. DAB+ depend a lot on the source. In Belgium the radiostation i listen to send out in 320kps mp3 or AAC, but a lot a way lower in bitrate, and most in the world are. FM quality depends on how strong the signal is, and where i live (rather remote) it's not good. The FM antenna's need to be on a high location, so they are not often close to the studio's and a lot of broadcasters use the dab+ singal to feed their FM antenna's now, so it's often worse than DAB+.

 

[Waxx]

Fidelity-wise, is there a clear winner between FM, DAB and Internet? I'm guessing it might depend on the quality of the Internet stream, right?

I worked for a few radiostations, i still do actually.

DAB+ depend a lot on the source. In Belgium the radiostation i listen to send out in 320kps mp3 or AAC, but a lot a way lower in bitrate, and most in the world are. FM quality depends on how strong the signal is, and where i live (rather remote) it's not good. The FM antenna's need to be on a high location, so they are not often close to the studio's and a lot of broadcasters use the dab+ singal to feed their FM antenna's now, so it's often worse than DAB+.