Analog Tuner Existence.....


Hi Everyone,

Have any of you heard whether or not analog FM broadcasting will still be around or not for a few years? I want to buy a fairly good tuner for listening to my public radio station, but heard rumor FM broadcast days might be numbered by digital's taking over. Any of you know or heard? Thanks! -Brian.
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I have owned a lot of hi-end tuners from the McIntosh MR-71, 77, 78 and 80. I have owned the Tandberg 3001A and the Yamaha CT7000 along with a few T2's. I love tuners, but got tired of the limited broadcast content and quality of the signal. My favorite independent stations and University /College based broadcast are no longer. I had given up on "radio" until a friend turned me onto the Logitech Squeezebox products and it has opened up the entire world of internet radio to my main system. I have the Squeezebox attached to an external DAC and listen to stations from around the world. The broadcast quality is from okay to very good, but the content available is absolutely stunning. The addition of the Squeezebox has been the best single addition to my system and has introduced me to music that I am not sure how I would have discovered in the past. I have sold ALL of my tuners and have absolutely no regret and would not consider a tuner purchase again unless it was a wireless internet based system upgrade to the Squeezebox.
Have to completely agree with Armstrod's take on Televisions reasoning for HD. Its about money and profits period. FM broadcasts will be here for a long time to come as Armstrod stated they just cannot loose the audience. Its that, that drives their revenues through advertisment and the amount of listeners they have that drives advertisers to them. Unlike TV where if you own a TV your at their mercy. I,m lucky however , in my area their are still plenty of excellant stations and variety as well to choose from. I still use an expensive tuner in a Magnum Dynlab MD 108 and love it. If it goes HD I bet Larry at Magnum can make it sound as best as it could with some form of mod or something. You can still though for very reasonable cash get a descent tuner and " tune in and relax ". Cheers
digital FM is just another subcarrier riding / sucking up bandwidth on the main analog carrier which will always be there. There's nothing HD about it. If you compromise buying a cheap tuner you get what you pay for. Invest in a quality product & enjoy the full benefits available. You'll not regret the quality of a classic design either; most of them were built better than what's available now. Grab that Mac while you still can!
An FM tuner been in my system literally for decades. Currently I thoroughly enjoy an Accuphase T-100.

I have no quams spending hundreds for modifications to further enjoy my favourite FM broadcast.
Perhaps digital radio will produce decent stereo. Except in strong signal areas the difference signal that is combined with the mono (sum) signal to derive stereo is so noisy that it is often best to switch to mono reception.