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#1
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BEST sounding FM stations in your area
Criteria are good dynamic range(not over-compressing), limited or no
use of EQ and special fx(echo, verb, stereo expanders). I'm in Stamford, CT, so the best sounding stations I pick up are 95.1 WRKI up in Brookfield, CT, 96.3WQXR classical - NYC, 99.1 PLR in New Haven, Q104.3 from NYC, and 106.7light FM, Lon GIsland. The above stations prove that FM can sound good, and they also play their music at the correct speed, in stereo, and without editing out good bridges and solos from songs. Their volume is a little softer than, say, Z100 or KTU, because they don't compress near as much as those two stations. But their true fidelity makes them worth cranking up. -CC |
#2
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I'm in Stamford, CT, so the best sounding stations I pick up are 95.1
WRKI up in Brookfield, CT, 96.3WQXR classical - NYC, 99.1 PLR in New Haven, Q104.3 from NYC, and 106.7light FM, Lon GIsland. 106.7 "Lite FM" WLTW has commendable dynamic range for a major-market AC station, but their audio quality is let down by the horrible digital compression artifacts in their music, which is stored as low-quality 192 kbps MP2 files on their computer system. Especially on songs with intense treble content, the "gritty", "sizzly", "twinkly" artifacts are prominent enough that you can even hear them on a clock radio with a 3-inch speaker. On a hi-fi stereo system, WLTW sounds even worse, as the low-end "grunge" and distortion typical of a clipping-happy Optimod or Omnia become obvious. Of course, commercials sound the worst on just about all radio stations these days, because of the multiple digital compression schemes they are put through. By the time they get on the air, some sound as bad as a 32 kbps MP3 or WMA file. Stations that play their music direct from CD and their liners and commercials from carts (yes, I said CARTS), and who don't use any digitally compression in the link between their studio and their transmitter, generally have the CAPABILITY to sound the best, as long as their audio processing is up to par and was adjusted by somebody with an ear for crisp, clear, dynamic sound with accurate stereo, no distortion, and no clipping "grunge". Of course, there's no reason why *AM* stations can't sound great, either, as long as you're using a high-quality radio, such as the popular GE Superadio III or one of the many car radios with AM Stereo. A well-designed, well-processed AM Stereo signal can easily meet or exceed all of the performance specifications of typical FM stations, and many listeners consider it to sound even better than FM because of the different type of processing that AM Stereo stations use. The CRL "Amigo AM" is the best-sounding AM Stereo audio processor, with the older CRL units a close second. The Optimod 9100 series is also very good for AM Stereo, but tends to lean towards maximum loudness instead of maximum quality. Here's a little MP3 sample of an AM Stereo station using well-configured CRL processing, as received on a $29.99 Sony AM Stereo Walkman. You may laugh, but I think you'll find the sound to be surprisingly crisp and clear, with good Stereo imaging: http://tinyurl.com/hmtm Even better are some of the powerful AM Stereo stations in JAPAN, such as 100,000-watt JOLF on 1242 kHz in Tokyo: ftp://ftp.amstereoradio.com/aircheck...n/jolfclip.mp3 Of course, AM and FM's audio quality both pale in comparison to *TV* audio, which at least with all-analog broadcast signals, can sound much better, because there's generally no "loudness wars" on TV. If you have a stereo TV or VCR hooked up to a good stereo system, you'll be amazed by just how good it can sound, particularly for music. TV audio also gives you Dolby Surround Sound from many programs, which is virtually unheard of on the radio (the closest thing were the few "Quadraphonic" FM stations in the '70s). |
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#4
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PS you mean http://tinyurl.com/hmtm to be http://tinyurl.com/htm ,
right? No. TinyURL abbreviates long URLs into four-letter codes. For example, the URL used by Google to let me post this message is: http://posting.google.com/post?cmd=p...m% 26rnum%3D4 Feeding that mess into TinyURL resulted in the creation of this shortcut: http://tinyurl.com/i0b6 |
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