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Thread: FM vs MP3

  1. #1

    FM vs MP3

    For vintage tuner enthusiasts... (from https://www.quora.com/How-does-the-sound-quality-of-a-same-song-broadcasted-on-FM-Radio-compare-to-MP3-encoded-at-320kbps)


    How does the sound quality of a same song broadcasted on FM Radio compare to MP3 encoded at 320kbps?


    Scenario: I had an experience where I was listening to radio from an FM station with my stereo set up at home. I also had the same recording on MP3 format. The radio version sounded better over and over again while I was listening to the song on the same set up. The receiver was set to "stereo". Can there be any reality to this situation based on the technology described?

    Answer:

    Douglas Currens, eclectified
    Answered 1 Dec 2011


    I used to produce "The HiFi Show" on Pacifica's KPFT-FM (91.7 if you're keeping score) in Houston back in the 70s. I would regularly disable our Orban signal processor and sometimes even go entirely mono to eliminate the noise of the stereo modulator during my show. The sound quality was just amazing, but I had to watch the gain VERY carefully to not "splash" over our allotted frequency if I overmodulated (the FCC would not have been happy). I would even go out to make live uncompressed recordings or binaural recordings for special headphone shows. My point being that FM can sound great (especially with a great tuner on your end), but the process of making it "competitive" often ruins the fidelity, or at least alters it enough where "fidelity" is no longer the operative concept. PS, there's a great sounding cheesy-looking tiny plastic Sony HD tuner, the XDR-F1HD if you're into trying for "good" FM. HD radio, BTW, does not mean High Definition, but rather Hybrid Digital, essentially different subchannels of digital audio of varying number and quality buried in the frequency bandwidth of an FM analog station. Anyway, this little black box has a very good sounding tuner and analog audio stage for whatever the engineering reason if you're unhappy with your stereo's FM tuner. And it does add all those HD subchannels as part of the bargain.
    One last addition to the above good comments. When the word "compression" is used in conjunction with MP3 or AAC formats, it means DATA compression (which is to say file size), not DYNAMIC compression (similar to automatic level control or ALC in cheap recorders), which has traditionally been used by FM stations in the "loudness wars" to keep the average signal level nice and loud, and is still depressingly used even recently in remastering CDs. There was some justification in FM use, as many tuners had (and still have) mediocre sensitivity and barely adequate signal to noise ratios, so you were "helping" the listener by boosting the softer musical portions above the "hiss" of the tuner, and also boosting the apparent average loudness of your station's signal in the process. Anyway, google "loudness wars" and you'll get an "earful" about the terrible things currently being done to CDs with very wide dynamic range potential, where sometimes a newly remastered CD is FAR more dynamically compressed than older CD pressings, or even 30 or 40-year-old LPs! So dynamic range compression in broadcasting and CD mastering is used as a tool to make the music seem louder. Psychoacoustic "lossy" compression in music player codecs is designed to throw out what is considered "inaudible" information, but should have no actual effect on the dynamic range of the music being encoded, just some of the fine detail (how "fine" depends on the bit rate). Two different types of compression for two different goals. I'll take a 320k AAC or MP3 over an FM signal for maintaining dynamic range and not screwing around with other parts of the music as much as broadcast processors, no matter how expensive.
    But shame on record companies who take a potentially reasonable (if not ideal) format like 44.1/16 CD and find a way to make it worse than it has to be!


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  2. #2
    Senior Member
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    Re: FM vs MP3

    These days where radio uses mp3 opposed to CD or LP like back in the day, it's a toss up with my guess being the mp3 played directly into your system sounding better opposed to a mp3 further polluted by all the stuff mentioned in your post.

    We're currently using a rental car, my wife's phone plugged into the USB sounds better than any of the stations we have here, sad.
    Aurender ACS10 w/Audioquest Diamond USB, Esoteric N05xd
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  3. #3
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    Re: FM vs MP3

    I use a bel canto fm 1 tuner , the space and holographics from fm far outway any from mp3 source

  4. #4
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    Re: FM vs MP3

    I use Tac Mc Laren T32R....Living sound !
    Marantz SA7S1/GRIMM AUDIO CC1/MARK LEVINSON 360S+TECHNICS SL1210 MKII/ORTOFON X1-MC/VPI CLASSIC 3 in rosewood/Audio-Technica ART-9/ESOTERIC E03+TAG MC LAREN T32R+JEFF ROWLAND CORUS+JEFF ROWLAND MODEL 625+Magnepan 3.7i+Cables line: all Furutech lineflux+power cord DIY

  5. #5
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    Re: FM vs MP3

    I have not listened to FM in a bit but many moons ago (in a different house) had a modded Sansui TU-717. Not long after that I got (but no longer have) a Squeezebox Touch. I also had HD Radio available. For me, I preferred the 320kbps stations I listened to (largely Linn Jazz and Classical). I sold the Sansui with maybe 10 hours on it after the mods. It was a combination of what was available FM wise where I was and what was available in 320kbps. I have not listened to ether in quite a while (probably almost 3 years since I sold my Squeezebox Touch) and just got a Lumin U1 and will at some point listen to internet radio again. Also what is a factor is that I have a very large music library (there's even a considerable amount of files, I've barely listened to or not listened at all). I had FM hooked up to a few receivers in the current house but have since disconnected all but one (and I just haven't gotten to that one) as there really isn't any good FM content where I am now (worse than the old place - the old place had a couple of decent stations). So it is a question of what is available in your market (for my current one I can't even take FM in the car that long and have a thumb drive with mainly 320kbps files and some WMA).
    Main System - Lumin U2, Modwright LS36.5 DM Preamp, VTV Purifi 1ET-7040SA with tube buffer, EMM Labs DAC 2X (ver. 2), Torus RM-20, Thiel CS 3.7s, 2 Rel S/812 subs
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FM vs MP3

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