How is online radio so transparent?


I listen to Radio International Jazz streaming on the internet at my office. I have a Philips Mini system for this. It's a very good sounding mini system but is truly lo fi. It's connected via rca to mini plugs to my Dell desktop. In this very cheap setup the speakers play with extreme transparency, midrange detail and clarity, midbass too. This little system really cooks. To my ears this kind of performance is right up there in the upper mid-fi. How is this kind of quality possible with these electronics and speakers?
foster_9

Showing 2 responses by mapman

I have a couple of CDs I have ripped to my current music server and listened to that I recorded from the realmusic service (mp3 quality I believe even) back early on a couple years back when I first ran my PC laptops analog audio output into my old Carver pre-amp and recorded the disc using my Denon recorder.

This is pop/rock stuff, not classical or even high end source material, but I must say when these tunes come on interspersed with my other similar cuts that I have ripped from various digital and analog sources, that they sound perfectly fine and even quite good in many cases versus other ripped tracks. Same true when comparing against the better internet stations I listen to in real time via my Rokus.

The quality in comparison similarly way exceeded what I expected when I first connected my computers analog output to my system, even in terms of background noise (virtually none). Sometimes, things just happen to come together nicely even when least expected....

BTW I also have downloaded a few mp3 pop/rock tracks that I listen to regularly. For this kind of music at least, the mp3s are not bad at all. I have a few tracks also ripped in lossless .wav from CD for comparison. I have not done a detailed a/b comparison between the two, but both sound very good.

BTW I have heard some of the tracks on my music server on others reference systems as well for comparison. To my ears, the best tracks on my music server are very close to the best I have heard anywhere.
I have a $50 Philips stereo clock radio with CD that does not sound bad and does its job just fine. You just have to scale down expectations somewhat to fit the scale of the device, as Al alluded to. Sounds very nice indeed with a pair of decent high efficiency stereo headphones!I saved a lot of money at the time by not splurging for the Bose Waveradio or other touted tabletop radios instead!

I also have an $80 Sangean table top mono radio that is the cats meow for what it is!