OK, so for all of you who are still laughing because I reported that my tube H. H. Scott tube tuner (mono) sounded great, here we go with the latest and greatest thing.

THE SONY XDRF1HD HD Radio Tuner and C. Crane FM antenna combination from Amazon.com. HOLY SAMOLIES !!!

I have listened to the great FM tuners of all times, the McIntosh M78, top of the line Kenwood, the drop dead gorgeous Pioneer something or other, but this $99 tuner in analog mode is a close match to these iconic tuners.

If you have a decent FM station in your area GRAB ONE OF THESE and forget whatever is integrated in your receiver. You will never turn back and never regret buying one of these tuners.

Just my 2 Shekels.

A lttle more before I move on with my Sunday.

Sitting here listening to the Sony FM tuner pumped by the Kenwood KA9100 running the Dahlquists (axiom made speakers go in these afternoon). 88.1 KKJZ California State University at Long Beach's wonderful jazz station. The cymbols ringy clash, shimmer, and hiss, the sax blooms big, drum hits have slam and crispiness,the vibes fill the room with smiles ... boys and girls, this is a TUNA (New York to English Translation: "tuner")

I'll have to check that out.

We have some great radio stations here in Atlanta.

WRAS is a 100,000 watt college station. It's the most powerful college radio station in the US and I think, the world.

And WREK is Georgia Tech's station and it is mindblowingly great.

WCLK is Clark University and they play some of the best jazz in the world, 24/7.

How does the FM HD signal sound? I've yet to hear HD radio.

To my ear, the HD signal sounds compressed and somewhere between MP3 and CD.

The analog signal sounds great, I mean, really great.

I'd like to take this time to once again point out the HD radio does not stand for High Definition, but Hybrid Digital. It's lossy compressed, and in many cases doesn't sound as good as plain old FM.

Then that probably means it will be embraced by the general public!

Sad but true, as most will think the HD does mean High Def.

Yeah, Jay; one of our local bad music stations incessantly trumpets "Broadcasting in crystal clear High Definition!"

That is too funny.