As someone who has listened to tubes pretty their entire life,I find that Sirius is unlistenable.It's shrill,compressed and tinny.Most stations clearly use compressed digital files,and the radios themselves sound like crap.But I guess it's OK if you gew up listening to music on an iPod or smart phone.
 
A good Victor 78 from 1929 played through tubes beats it all to hell.
 
Roger
 
> Date: Sun, 25 May 2014 00:15:18 -0400
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Public radio was Re: Future of CDs
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> I also like the ability to change genre of music with SiriusXM. The OTR
> station definitely isn't particularly enlightened, but given good fortune
> in the luck of the programming draw, it can sure help a long car trip be
> more enjoyable. I force my wife to negotiate with them every year to get a
> better rate. She out did herself this year-the full version for both of
> our cars for $100 a year each. I used to give more than that to the local
> FM Classical NPR station. I went over and manned a phone during pledge
> time. Now it seems like almost every week they take away the music so they
> can have a fund raising event. No doubt they are doing a Memorial Day fund
> raiser. They do Mother's Day and Valentine's Day and Christmas and
> Thanksgiving, and God knows what else. The scripted repetitive nonsense
> they broadcast during these events makes one assume they think we are all
> morons. If you added up all the regular full Monty fund drives, the
> special event fund drives and the 10 second commercials, there is far more
> down time, with little or no music, than any of the commercial stations.
> Both of the local NPR stations make you listen to 20 seconds of commercial
> every time you tune in the streaming version. I often wondered if the FM
> stations couldn't let me pay an annual fee, and then allow me to listen
> without the fundraising drivel. Maybe something that accesses the extra
> band width, like their service for the visually impaired. I have also
> wished that they would spend less money on their syndicated programming,
> and just play classical music, maybe from their own library, like they used
> to. Interesting to note that Robert Aubry Davis, one of the XM Sirius
> Symphony Hall announcers, used to be at our local station in upstate New
> York. I am very pessimistic about the future of classical FM in my area,
> and I guess I wouldn't miss them much. Too bad.
>
>
> On Sat, May 24, 2014 at 11:13 PM, Randy A. Riddle <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
>
> > I listened to public radio for many years. I think what happened was that
> > it lost track of its original vision to educate.
> >
> > The public radio stations in my area are basically running many of the same
> > talk or music series that have been around since the 1980s. There doesn't
> > seem to be anything there I've not heard before or seen around the
> > Internet.
> >
> > For me, public radio was at its best in the 1970s when it acted as a kind
> > of curator for the best or most interesting in what was happening in
> > serious music or the arts. It was the place you would turn to to hear new
> > classical works or new recordings of classical music, experiments in radio
> > drama, or what was happening in music scholarship.
> >
> > A good example is a weekly show I wish I could recall the name of that came
> > from one of the public radio networks and, each week, featured vintage jazz
> > and big band recordings - I recall one whole episode was just devoted to
> > V-Discs.
> >
> > At other times, my local public radio stations featured regular broadcasts
> > of classic Old Time Radio - Suspense, the Great Gildersleeve, Jack Benny
> > and other programs.
> >
> > Sure, much of this material is available now on the Internet or satellite
> > radio stations. Public radio could find its voice again by being a curator
> > and gateway into what's worth my time, rather than being either background
> > classical Muzak for a day at the office or offering the "comfort food" of
> > "Prairie Home Companion". It's just stale.
> >
> > I like Sirius XM because it allows me to sample genres of music that I
> > don't know much about or listen deeper into a genre catalogue to figure out
> > what I might like or not like - the same thing that public and college
> > radio used to do for me many years ago.
> >
> > The OTR channel is a little conservative for my taste, repeating many of
> > the same "war horses" that I've heard many times before, but at least it's
> > something.
> >
> > Randy
> >
> >
> --
> Frank B Strauss, DMD