tuners, the red headed stepchild?


Why don't tuners get more respect? Talk about a passive component, just turn them on and walk away. They're the easiest way to get hours of uninterrupted music, yet compared to other sources, they are an afterthought.
garn509
The nature of radio is changing, making analog tuners redundant IMHO. Digital, web-based streams have opened up the world of live broadcasting. I sold my tuner a few years ago soon after buying a Squeezebox. Many, if not most stations these days have web-based broadcasts that come in without interference and sound as good as most mid-fi tuners once processed through a good DAC. All the local stations I would ever listen to on a tuner, I can now get via web, plus thousands of other stations from all over the world. Why would I ever go back?
The only good station here is NPR (National Public Radio). It has a nice variety of music including classical, jazz, blues and blue grass. There is an old fashioned radio show with interesting stories and characters, world news and interviews with musical groups performing their new recordings.
And the sound quality is good too.
I've traditionally been a regular tuner user.

However, since acquiring the Roku networked music players and putting in a music server, I hardly use the tuner at all anymore.

I can program my own preferences into randomly generated playlists using the Roku and my own music library on the server, plus I have access to hundreds of good sounding internet stations. Not to mention a backlog of vinyl to listen to when I can.

My backlog of things to listen to is magnitudes larger than ever before these days.

I do listen to FM a lot in the car though still these days.

"The times they are a changing..."