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Originally Posted by Clark2
I just found out my local classical station "uses the Extended Hybrid Mode for HD Radio ... " This must be the worst case for cramping the bandwidth of the analog channel and is almost certainly killing my old tuner with "HD self noise."
I'm looking for guidance on two questions:
1) Is it even possible to get really good sound from the analog channel of such a station?
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Yes, it is.
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If so, what are the best tuners for the job? I'd guess the IF band-pass would have to have very steep edges -- a digital tuner might be indicated -- but doesn't this imply higher distortion? Other factors?
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I'm not sure that a digital tuner offers any automatic advantage here. W9TR's suggestion of the McIntosh MR80 is a good one, and the MR80 is very much an analog tuner even though it has a digital readout. My MR80 still sounds great after all these years.
But having a strong adjacent channel with HD isn't imo the biggest problem, because the HD on your desired signal is likely to be just as big a problem.
Quality FM reception has always hinged a lot on location and the antennas, and that's still true. The better the receiving antenna, the higher the gain. The higher the gain, the less you'll notice the distortion inherent in a higher selectivity tuner.