Best radio source?

[Kevin Stephens]

Hopefuly a clear cut answer for best way to enjoy Radio 3 etc?

[*] Quality analogue tuner (Musical Fidelity Electra E50) with good roof mounted ariel, analogue output to amplifier
[*]Virgin media cable box (ie fibre optic to house) routing digital radio via analogue outputs to amp
[*]Virgin media cable box SPDIF optical output to optical input of DAC or CD player (eg Azur 840C)

Thanks for any help

 

[daveh75]

optrion 3 for it's consistency,FM can be excellent but you need a good tuner,decent aerial/strong signal and can vary quite a bit from station to station.

 

[Anonymous]

Its a very obvious question and almost anyone will tell you the same. With a good enough ariel and a good enough analogue tuner you'd be listening to the best source available.

 

[Anonymous]

Not many people have discovered yet just how excellent Freeview is for quality.
Not played through the TV of course but with the signal passed through a Freeview tuner direct to the AV amp it is 5 stars.

I have a Sony 970 RDR linked by HDMI to the Onkyo 875. The amp has its own FM tuner, but this is much better.

 

[gregory]

Leak troughline with an outdoor mounted aerial, magical.

 

[chebby]

For just BBC R3 and R4 (and sometimes R2 when they have eased off on the 'popcompress' lever) then FM - with good reception area and a decent professionally installed roof aerial.

However, choice of FM stations is limited (depending on your area) and the local Advertising/Gold 500/Radio Safe style stations are just too dire to listen to (the content I mean).

Just a pico-scintilla behind good FM is Freeview (espeically connected via optical digital and a DAC.) This applies to Sky/Virgin too.

Next is internet radio with variable quality - but often suprisingly good - and thousands of 'stations'. The better ones have minimal ads and no egotistical, overpaid, cretin DJs or their imbecilic so-called posse's. BBC iPlayer is very handy for replaying all the radio you have missed and sounds pretty good (AAC+) through a DAC.

Down the bottom of the heap is DAB with it's low bit rates and MP2 format. Obviously being the worst sounding format, the Government are backing it to the hilt!

 

[Kevin Stephens]

Well!

I bought an optical lead today and I'm sat listening to Radio 3's World Music alternating between my analogue tuner and cable box routed through my Dacmagic 2 (1995)

The results are fascinating. The quality if the digital source is outstanding, as is that from the analogue tuner. The difference reflects the different characters of the Dacmagic (detailed, precise but a tad bright/harsh) and the tuner (nice and rounded but a little too laid back and lacking in clarity)

This back to back comparison of the same music is helping me to understand what I'm looking for in my CD upgrade (see my other thread) - unfortunately I may have to spend a lot more on a seperate drive/dac combo so that I can get the most out of radio as well as CD. However it also seems the top end harshness I had attributed to my speakers may be due to the DAC and I may get away with keeping my speakers for a while....

 

[Anonymous]

I was looking forward to hearing freeview radio through my dacmagic but my topfield doesn't want to let me.

 

[JoelSim]

trevor79:Not many people have discovered yet just how excellent Freeview is for quality.Not played through the TV of course but with the signal passed through a Freeview tuner direct to the AV amp it is 5 stars.I have a Sony 970 RDR linked by HDMI to the Onkyo 875. The amp has its own FM tuner, but this is much better.

Surely everything is dependent on the signal. And given most freeview is through a roof-mounted aerial...

ÿ

 

[chebby]

JoelSim:Surely everything is dependent on the signal. And given most freeview is through a roof-mounted aerial...

Yes.

I have both aerials on the roof. Had new ones including both FM and DTV installed last year. If I had realised back then how good Freeview radio is I could have saved money and not bothered with the FM aerial. (I used it with my old Arcam Solo-MIni's FM tuner.)

However, given the excellence of Freeview radio (and the better choice of stations), it makes sense. Saves on the cost of a tuner and an FM aerial.

Connected via optical from the Freeview tuner (or DVD/HDD recorder in this case) to the DAC it is even better.

In my case, I have the advantage of being able to 'record' something from a Freeview radio station (radio play, concert or whatever) to the HDD in the Panasonic whilst watching or listening to something else on TV (the TV has it's own built in freeview tuner too) or even watch a DVD at the same time

(Or while I am out, using a timed recording.)