[Flinx99]

Hi.  After much concern a few years back about internet radio being killed off, it seems to have survived in most respects.  Now, whether these sites are any good is up to individual listeners.  I gave up doing comprehensive searches because I couldn't find much at all worth listening to and actually found myself listening to only two sites most of the time.  I also subscribe to Tidal, so it's great to be able to be be able to bookmark an artist and then check them out further at a later time.

I did a quick search in this circle to make sure there weren't any similar threads, but didn't find anything.  I thought it would be interesting to see if anyone has found any jems worth checking. 

Please give these two a listen and if end up first hearing something you don't like, give them a chance. especially the first one.

Radio Paradise - www.radioparadise.com

Wide range of music and generally filed under "Eclectic" or something similar.  You will hear stuff from Ben Harper, John Coltrane, Zero 7, and Mozart.  You will not hear stuff that you hear booming from cars driving down the street, nor will you hear country unless it's an occasional Johnny Cash song or Willie Nelson tune from Stardust.  The site is run by two humans, so no algorithms at play.  I am almost convinced that the songs are chose for soundstage qualities----I have always been impressed by the station and even with the best equipment I've evey owned, the SQ still holds up. 

Go to the site for regular links, but for a 320kbps AAC stream, use this:

http://stream-uk1.radioparadise.com:80/aac-320


Radio Swiss Jazz - http://www.radioswissjazz.ch/en

I like Jazz, but I don't know it well enough to easily choose what I want to listen to.  I've given many Internet Jazz stations a chance, but found myself coming back to this one as the others just didn't sound good to me for extended listening.  It is probably cliche, but as I write this, "Take Five", by the Dave Brubeck Quartet is playing.

Go to the site to see standard links.

This is an Octoshape link, which requires a plug-in and is sort of peer-to-peer, so you become part of a larger network to help balance out bandwidth.  It's not listed on their site, but it is 192kbps and sounds surprisingly good.

http://127.0.0.1:6498/ms2/1425914868860/0MediaPlayer+0+/octoshape+h+EBU.MEDIAPORTAL.SSATR.swissjazz/EBUMEDIAPORTALSSATRswissjazz

You need to be "octoshape enabled" which you can manage by going here and downloading from the right side of the page:

https://support.octoshape.com/home

Thanks,

Jim

[milford3]

Soma FM.  Here's the link.


http://somafm.com/thetrip/songhistory.html

[mresseguie]

One of my favorite stations for Jazz (both old fashioned radio and internet) is KMHD.

http://www.opb.org/s/streams/kmhd.pls

[jk@home]

I've been enjoying Velvet Lounge Radio for a bit now. Chill out Lounge / ambient music, nice in the evenings with the light down low. Very few commercials, German station.

http://tunein.com/radio/Velvet-Lounge-Radio-s230739/

[Flinx99]

Soma FM.  Here's the link.


http://somafm.com/thetrip/songhistory.html

Thanks.  I've always appreciated the content of Soma, but the limited bit rates keep me from really appreciating the music.  I'm sorry---I've admittedly become a bit rate snob and generally don't like anything under 192kbps.  Even on a phone I don't like 128kbps streams and will only use them as a last resort.   

[Flinx99]

One of my favorite stations for Jazz (both old fashioned radio and internet) is KMHD.

http://www.opb.org/s/streams/kmhd.pls

Please give Radio Swizz Jazz a shot using the Octoshape stream----I think you will be pleasantly surprised.  Feel free to PM me if you have any issues.

[Flinx99]

I've been enjoying Velvet Lounge Radio for a bit now. Chill out Lounge / ambient music, nice in the evenings with the light down low. Very few commercials, German station.

http://tunein.com/radio/Velvet-Lounge-Radio-s230739/

I found the same issue with TuneIn that I came across with Soma----great music available, but at low bit rates.  Granted, it's sad to complain about it when it's free, but that is why I have ended up limiting myself to mainly two stations.  I've invested a serious amount of money (to me) in my audio equipment and brought this upon myself.  I can't stand listening to 128kbps downloads from iTunes, either, and my wife has a slew of those.  :  )  There are other sites out there with high bit rates, but in those cases, I didn't like the music or the playlists were extremely limited.  Believe me, I'd be psyched to have more choices.

[Quiet Earth]

http://www.somehowjazz.com

[Flinx99]

http://www.somehowjazz.com

Awesome.  Thanks. I really like music and the SQ on this station----I've been running the 320kbps for a while now today.  I definitely bookmarked it.

[jk@home]

I found the same issue with TuneIn that I came across with Soma----great music available, but at low bit rates.  Granted, it's sad to complain about it when it's free, but that is why I have ended up limiting myself to mainly two stations.  I've invested a serious amount of money (to me) in my audio equipment and brought this upon myself.  I can't stand listening to 128kbps downloads from iTunes, either, and my wife has a slew of those.  :  )  There are other sites out there with high bit rates, but in those cases, I didn't like the music or the playlists were extremely limited.  Believe me, I'd be psyched to have more choices.

Yes as bad as Velvet can get sometimes, the local FM stations I listen to (say in the car), playing on the internet are just horrid.

[Flinx99]

Yes as bad as Velvet can get sometimes, the local FM stations I listen to (say in the car), playing on the internet are just horrid.

I have an Android phone and use an app called XIIA Live Pro, which lets you enter custom URLs.  I just hook up my phone through the aux jack in my car stereo and listen to Radio Paradise in the car using the 192kbps Ogg Vorbis stream (the site is also good that when you are listening to a tune your wife doesn't like, you didn't put in on.  The station has enough variety that both my wife and daughter are fine with it in the car, so it's a great compromise).  The pay version of the app lets you increase the prebuffer and buffer, so if your signal cuts out for a little bit, the music doesn't stop.  I'm guessing that there is packet retransmission in this type of streaming.  If you have enough data on your plan you will have no need to ever use FM again.  All I hit is NPR, pretty much.  Give the 320 kbps stream I linked above a shot when you are home----when I tried Velvet earlier, Air was playing, which is also played on Radio Paradise.

[Odal3]

I have been playing many of the czech stations. Heres a list I just found that shows bitrates for each station. I havent tried it yet myself but it looks promising.

http://radiobit.50webs.com

[jk@home]

  Give the 320 kbps stream I linked above a shot when you are home----when I tried Velvet earlier, Air was playing, which is also played on Radio Paradise.

Thanks. I use an old Squeezebox Classic for internet radio, and Radio Paradise is already on the Favorites list. I'll check out the others, as I'm a big fan of internet radio too!

 

[Flinx99]

Thanks. I use an old Squeezebox Classic for internet radio, and Radio Paradise is already on the Favorites list. I'll check out the others, as I'm a big fan of internet radio too!

You can do custom URLs on the Squeezebox, right?  I'm willing to bet that the one you pick from the menu is 128kbps, 192kbps, tops.  The link I provided is a Naim exclusive, so shouldn't be included with other services.

[Flinx99]

I have been playing many of the czech stations. Heres a list I just found that shows bitrates for each station. I havent tried it yet myself but it looks promising.

http://radiobit.50webs.com

Thanks----I'll keep trying.  Some won't play in US.

[jk@home]

You can do custom URLs on the Squeezebox, right?  I'm willing to bet that the one you pick from the menu is 128kbps, 192kbps, tops.  The link I provided is a Naim exclusive, so shouldn't be included with other services.

Yes, it is the 128bps version. I cut and pasted your link and saved that to favorites. Definite improvement in sound quality, thanks!

[Flinx99]

Yes, it is the 128bps version. I cut and pasted your link and saved that to favorites. Definite improvement in sound quality, thanks!

Sure.  I'm glad the link worked with your setup.

[dB Cooper]

I'm going to do this by genre.

Classical:
Audiophile Classical


This tip was posted here in audio circle by Frank Van Alstine: Audiophile Classical (it's from Greece, who knows how much longer they might be able to stay on the air). Turned out to be a good tip partly because they also have a jazz station amongst others. What sets them apart is the 320k bit rate. Very good audio quality. However, In relation to that, one of my apps occasionally shows the stream as 256k. Some of the songs show 'buy in iTunes' buttons, and this may be why (those may in fact be 256K). Here is their landing page: http://stream.psychomed.gr/ You will find a link to the streams there.

KWAX

Out of Oregon. Even better sound quality than Audiophile Classical perhaps partly because they use the more modern AAC codec (the advocates of which claim that the sound quality equals MP3 at double the bit rate.) Whether that is true or not, the sound quality is impressive. Programming is the best I heard on any classical station; not just the old standbys that dominate the playlist of my local FM classical station wide variety of programs focusing on different genres, eras, instruments etc. Highly recommended. You can find downloadable stream links on this page

JAZZ
I don't listen that much to jazz stations because I subscribe to jazz radio.com and do most of my jazz listening there. They do have a lower bit rate available for free but I pay a few bucks a month to get the 256K "premium" feed. They too have a lot of streams that specialize in certain instruments, eras, styles and so forth. Worth a listen. And you can find the 'Audiophile Jazz' stream starting from the same page listed above for audiophile classical. And NRK Jazz is a good station too although they top out at 192K. Wide variety although I do check elsewhere when they do the occasional dip into fusion which I've never cared for very much.

[G Georgopoulos]

internet radio link www.internet-radio.com   

[Flinx99]

Thanks for all the suggestions.  I think it would be cool to keep this thread going, but rather than link to sites with lists, how about linking to streams themselves?  At least then we can just copy the link and drop into our own media players.  We also know the links are still valid this way.

Here's a Baroque stream running at 320kbps:

http://50.7.173.162:8010/

Thanks,

Jim