[Chinchy]

Just curious. A local San Francisco radio station (Alice 97.3) recently started streaming their radio station over the Internet.

I've been listening, and what I've noticed is that through my work rig (Laptop -> M-Audio Audiophile USB -> Meta42 -> Grado SR-100), it sounds remarkably good. A lot better than anything I get from my radio, in my car, etc. So I'm just curious if anyone would like to take the challenge and verify whether or not my ears are betraying me...

Two ways of getting there:
Direct link (works for me): http://www.radiomat.com/radiomat_player.php?aff=kllcfm

Or go directly to the Alice web site: http://www.radioalice.com and then click on the "Listen Live" link in the upper left.

But then again, I don't listen to much streaming music, so I dunno. Anyways, just curious as to your opinions.

 

[Steve Coal]

Internet radio streams can provide much higher quality than regular radio (I don't know this for fact actually, but it's what I assume). I don't know the actual quality of normal radio signals, but over the internet it can vary drastically. Different internet radio stations on Shoutcast (http://www.shoutcast.com/) vary their quality from a bitrate of 32 to 320. A bitrate of 32 would be very low quality while a bitrate of 320 would be high quality. Of course, the higher the bitrate the faster the required connection would be to maintain a constant stream.

- Steve

 

[RockinOut]

My 2 cents: It's not your ears fooling you at all.

A good quality source file/stream is important. To my ears, I prefer lossless files to 320K MP3/AAC or 192K WMA, but there's definitely something to be said about a HeadFi rig improving a poorer quality stream or source file.

Regarding streams, I use Rhapsody.com streaming music at 160K and Internet Radio Streams at 128K, and with my current rig, it sounds A LOT better then through my integrated sound card or FM radio. With each upgrade to my rig, I could here a subsequent improvement to mediocre files and streams.

Having a transportable, battery-powered rig is nice because as long as Wi-Fi is available I can listen to my Internet music and radio in most places.

So from my similar experience, I'd say you're ears aren't fooling you at all.

 

[purplesun]

I use these:-

This AAC+ portal site. The 64kbit/s quality is amazing:
http://www.tuner2.com/

Internet record label that provides free full album streams. Lame-encoded 128kbit/s MP3s.
http://www.magnatune.com/

IMHO, 128kbits/s MP3s needs to have good source encoding. Or else it will sound pretty bad coming out of any sound equipment higher grade than computer speakers.

 

[Sycraft]

FM is pretty much a ****** transmission medium. It does not have a good SNR or frequency response. There's no MP3 artifacts, of course, but that doesn't really matter. Also, it's entirely possible the Internet mix goes out preprocesing. See FM stations compress and limit the hell out of their music. They squeze every bit of dynamic range out to make it as loud as possible all the time. This is ok for crummy listening environment, but sounds much worse on good gear.

 

[Chinchy]

So has anyone who replied actually clicked on the link? Just curious...

 

[brokenwallet]

It's an average net radio quality IMO, from task manager's network bandwidth i'm guessing it's about a 100-128kbps stream. There's better stations out there (160-192kbps streams). You can tune in to shoutcast stations through foobar, much better quality than just using winamp. One station i really like is FREQUENCE3, 192kbps. Other good quality stations i like are the 3VOOR12 stations (they have different stations for different genres, 160kbps), and Rock'One La Webradio (also 192kbps).

I've been listening to strictly net radios for the past 4 years or so. I no longer listen to the radio when i drive, the song/station selections in small US towns are so dissapointing (outside of metro areas). Not to mention actual radio interference, which is a non issue with streams. There's always syndicated radio that have net streams too, but there's enough independent stations that make it worthwhile (or the non US syndications that doesn't play the same songs/artists).

 

[Girlsound]

The internet stream is generally the same one sent to the transmitter. FM is very GOOD, actually. The frequency response is limited to 15khz unfortunately due to silly standards. But the mp3 crowd probably wouldn't notice anyway.

The perceived lack of FM quality is due to the vulgar processing techniques used and inferior tuners used nowadays.

 

[purplesun]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chinchy So has anyone who replied actually clicked on the link? Just curious...

Heh, guilty as charged. Just listening right now.
Sounds like typical 128kbit MP3 station. Not much digital artifacts but clips a little when the content gets loud (probably encoding volume was pushed too high).

 

[cook]

Unless you have a very nice car with premium sound system most headphones and 192k mp3 will sound *much* better. Mostly due to the poor quality of the standard car speakers.

 

[Chinchy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brokenwallet It's an average net radio quality IMO, from task manager's network bandwidth i'm guessing it's about a 100-128kbps stream. There's better stations out there (160-192kbps streams). You can tune in to shoutcast stations through foobar, much better quality than just using winamp. One station i really like is FREQUENCE3, 192kbps. Other good quality stations i like are the 3VOOR12 stations (they have different stations for different genres, 160kbps), and Rock'One La Webradio (also 192kbps). I've been listening to strictly net radios for the past 4 years or so. I no longer listen to the radio when i drive, the song/station selections in small US towns are so dissapointing (outside of metro areas). Not to mention actual radio interference, which is a non issue with streams. There's always syndicated radio that have net streams too, but there's enough independent stations that make it worthwhile (or the non US syndications that doesn't play the same songs/artists).

Cool, thanks brokenwallet. I'm checking out the Frequence3 shoutcast station right now. France huh?

Man you guys are good at detecting bitrate.. For me, it's a little harder to tell encoding quality with dance music... Cuz any distortion may be intentional haha! But I like it all the same...

 

[purplesun]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chinchy For me, it's a little harder to tell encoding quality with dance music... Cuz any distortion may be intentional haha! But I like it all the same...

If it's dance music you want, try http://www.di.fm/

Their dance material is really first rate. The encoding for free streaming could be a bit better - but if it doesn't bother you; you will probably enjoy this site.

 

[Slogra]

Are there any internet radio stations that don't use clippression?

 

[Oski]

Alice is a great station, it's like what Live 105 used to be back in the 80s and early 90s (great music new and old). Thanks for the link!

Also I find that radio if through a very nice stand alone tuner can sound pretty good actually (Magnum Dynalab, Day Sequerra, even some of the NAD, etc.), better than most people would believe since people are accustomed to listening to the radio in a car, alarm clock, crappy receivers, etc.

 

[Way]

KEXP has a free 1.4 mbit/s stream.Any other good ones?I found Radio Paradise alright, but a little hit and miss for my tastes.