What can I expect to hear from a decent analog FM Tuner?

I have a cabin in the mountains in Colorado. No internet so at the mercy of the airwaves. We have several great public and community stations in the NoCo area. Love listening to FM all day long via a tuner


At home have 2 McIntosh tube tuners but have recently switched to streaming ( especially WWOZ) via a macbook. Does it sound as good? it sounds digital, not quite as rich at the tuners but much easy to deal with and can listen to a wider variety including some hi res stations

It's kind of fun to stream radio stations over the internet, but the majority are streaming poor quality signals and will sound very "digital".  Radio Paradise sounds really good and some interfaces will let you sort by quality of the stream.

I listen to the jazz station in Seattle on my Magnum Dynalab Etude tuner while working.  It's about 50 miles away and sounds better than most internet stations, kind of "tubey", great detail, no static at all.

The main complaint I'd have on FM vs. streaming is that, on classical music, FM will compress the signal on the most dynamic parts.  Pop music is usually compressed to begin with, so it's not as big a problem with that genre.  But one nice thing about FM is, while you're at the mercy of the programming, some of it is quite good and may introduce you to really good music you might not otherwise hear or choose.

I have a McIntosh tuner in each of my 2 systems and listen to FM radio a lot and mostly because I am lazy. It works for me. 

FWIW, I have a couple of excellent vintage tuners and a local college. This AM I was listening to some classical music on my inexpensive Yamaha T-85. The audio was as good, or at least nearly as good, and either of my CDP's. Your main limitation on  FM radio is the quality of your station(s) and your preference for their program.