Quote:
Originally Posted by radiotvnut
I'll add that AM sounds much better to me on a tube radio than on most modern consumer grade stuff. It seems that most of the newer stuff is designed just to pass a signal on AM and that's about it. Even the AM section in my mid '70's Kenwood receiver has poor sensitivity and fidelity. A basic 5 tube radio from the '60's has better fidelity and sensitivity than my Kenwood receiver. I was listening this afternoon on a '50's Zenith Bakelite case AM/FM with good results. The AM sounds almost as good as the FM on that radio.
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The older sets had wider bandwidth because the AM band wasn't as crowded when they were made. As the band filled up with more and more stations, manufacturers had to narrow the bandwith and increase selectivity to seperate closely spaced stations, thus reducing overall fidelity. A few sets have selectable bandwidth to take advantage of better fidelity, but usually only can be used for strong local stations or clear channel stations, which there are few of these days.