"Chuck Ritola" wrote in message news:SxZnf.6065
since FM cannot support the entire audible range in stereo, you
get some lower fidelity. The modulation/demodulation processes at the
transmitter and receiver pretty much finish off any chance. ):

Sorry to rain on the parade, but radio's a nasty thing to music.

and if it weren't for radio, you wouldn't hear any new music
or even know that it existed, no ?

Maybe you might hear the odd new tune at a club,
but you woulkdn't necessarily know what or who it was.

a.m. radio is even worse for fidelity, but many ( most )
listeners are tuning into that for music. so in your
estimation then, a.m. radio is an abomination is it ?

use radio for what it is, it has it's strengths and
waeknesses, like everything else. I can't carry
100s of diamond hand-cut vinyl discs, and a
personal DJ in the back of the car, or on the
train or the bus.

listen.

make a note of artist / song.

buy a CD or vinyl disc later.

if you must, record the radio,
and process away to your
heart's content !

just be aware that to get the best
quality legally you MUST BUY.

if you are prepared to put up with
less than the "best", and many are,
then carry on regardless.

;-)

............. Lloyd George

You make some points, but:

a.m. radio is even worse for fidelity, but many ( most )
listeners are tuning into that for music. so in your
estimation then, a.m. radio is an abomination is it ?

Just out of curiosity, what part of the world are you in? There's virtually
no music on AM in the USA. Is there still a good bit in Britain?

Actually, rather high-fidelity AM is possible, though rare. At the
transmitter end, you need to demodulate the transmitted signal and include
it in the audio feedback loop, so you're controlling what actually goes out
on the air rather than just what goes to the modulator. At the receiver
end, you need wide bandwidth, much wider than we normally have. An AM radio
can be aligned for high fidelity by first doing a conventional alignment,
and then tuning alternate IF transformers somewhat high and low. The signal
gets weaker but has a lot more treble.

Fifty years ago, hi-fi AM enthusiasts used TRF rather than superheterodyne
tuners (and could only get strong local signals, but they sounded very
good). If there were music on the local AM stations, I'd experiment with
that myself.

One big reason hi-fi AM hasn't caught on is that AM is noise-prone. FM can
exclude noise; AM can't.

BTW, what ever became of AM stereo?

mc wrote:

snip

BTW, what ever became of AM stereo?

It is still another proof that one cannot polish a turd.

--
================================================== ======================
Michael Kesti | "And like, one and one don't make
| two, one and one make one."
mrkesti at comcast dot net | - The Who, Bargain

"Michael R. Kesti" wrote in message
...
mc wrote:

snip

BTW, what ever became of AM stereo?

It is still another proof that one cannot polish a turd.

I disagree with that statement. When I was a broadcast engineer, one of the
stations I worked for was AM. The entire transmitting system was capable of
15KHz audio. It sounded just like monophonic FM on the modulation monitor.
Unfortunately, radios that can adequately demodulate hi-fi AM are more
expensive, so there seems to be little market demand for them. Hi-fi stereo
AM is technically feasible, but its time is probably past. Most AM
broadcasters in the US have gone to all-talk formats, where hi-fi and stereo
are relatively unimportant.

Karl Uppiano wrote:

"Michael R. Kesti" wrote in message
...
mc wrote:

snip

BTW, what ever became of AM stereo?

It is still another proof that one cannot polish a turd.

I disagree with that statement. When I was a broadcast engineer, one of the
stations I worked for was AM. The entire transmitting system was capable of
15KHz audio. It sounded just like monophonic FM on the modulation monitor.

Was this station in the USA? What is/was its call sign?

snip

--
================================================== ======================
Michael Kesti | "And like, one and one don't make
| two, one and one make one."
mrkesti at comcast dot net | - The Who, Bargain

"Michael R. Kesti" wrote in message
...
Karl Uppiano wrote:

"Michael R. Kesti" wrote in message
...
mc wrote:

snip

BTW, what ever became of AM stereo?

It is still another proof that one cannot polish a turd.

I disagree with that statement. When I was a broadcast engineer, one of
the
stations I worked for was AM. The entire transmitting system was capable
of
15KHz audio. It sounded just like monophonic FM on the modulation monitor.

Was this station in the USA? What is/was its call sign?

The station was KCID AM in Caldwell, ID. 1490KHz/1KW. I worked there from
1978 to 1986. I don't think it's there anymore. When I took it over, the
studio-transmitter link was 5KHz telephone lines. One of my first projects
was to install a microwave STL which gave us 15KHz bandwidth end-to-end.
Then I spent considerable effort bringing the entire audio chain up to FM
specs. My goal was to pass an FM audio proof of performance on an AM
station, and the management at the time supported this goal. We met this
goal for all of the parameters that were applicable to AM. Noise and
distortion were the most difficult parameters to keep in spec.

Karl Uppiano wrote:

The station was KCID AM in Caldwell, ID. 1490KHz/1KW. I worked there from
1978 to 1986. I don't think it's there anymore.

Google indicates otherwise, unless the pages it finds are out of date.

When I took it over, the
studio-transmitter link was 5KHz telephone lines. One of my first projects
was to install a microwave STL which gave us 15KHz bandwidth end-to-end.
Then I spent considerable effort bringing the entire audio chain up to FM
specs. My goal was to pass an FM audio proof of performance on an AM
station, and the management at the time supported this goal. We met this
goal for all of the parameters that were applicable to AM. Noise and
distortion were the most difficult parameters to keep in spec.

AM stations in the standard broadcast band are limited to 10 Khz modulation
bandwidth and therefore to 5 Khz audio bandwidth. It would seem, then, that
your station was in violation of bandwidth limitations.

--
================================================== ======================
Michael Kesti | "And like, one and one don't make
| two, one and one make one."
mrkesti at comcast dot net | - The Who, Bargain

"mc" wrote in message
...

BTW, what ever became of AM stereo?

Last heard of in South Africa & Zimbabwe AFAIK
the left and right channels had seperate carriers,
and you needed either a fancy, double tuner
radio reciever ( for your living room setup )
or you could just tune in two transistor radios
( one for each channel ).

.......... Lloyd