Author Topic: HQ radio stream recommendations?  (Read 7352 times)

sveakul

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I use MusicBee about 60% of the time for listening to online radio streams.  I'm finding that really HQ streams--FLAC, 192+k MP3, Opus over 96k, etc--are not easy to find.  Does anyone have radio station URLs they could recommend in this regard?  Particularly interested in prog rock, vocal chillout (not trance), alternative, folk metal, gothic--Gentle Giant, U.K., Zero 7, Renaissance, Rain Fell Within.  That kind of thing.  Thanks for any help!
Last Edit: June 02, 2018, 05:26:19 AM by sveakul

sveakul

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In case this helps anybody, here are some working links to the Sector Radio 160k Ogg and FLAC streams.  Unfortunately the FLAC streams do not send playing song metadata, but the Ogg ones do.  "Next" is an unbalanced mix of house/dance, "Space" is normally ambient electronic, "Progressive" is an unpredictable mix of ambient/sort-of-prog/dance.

http://89.223.45.5:8000/next-flac
http://89.223.45.5:8000/next-160

http://89.223.45.5:8000/space-flac
http://89.223.45.5:8000/space-160

http://89.223.45.5:8000/progressive-flac
http://89.223.45.5:8000/progressive-160

The icy-br headers on the FLAC streams mis-identify the bitrate as 128k or 320k, which are then reported as such in MusicBee which relies on these headers;  these are actually 890k-1100k FLAC streams, confirmed as such by players that do their own radio stream rate sampling (Foobar/AIMP). NOTE-updated 5/28/2018: the Sector Radio FLAC streams may give an "unable to connect" result in MusicBee if tried first due to their lack of a suffix/extension;  this has been fixed in MusicBee versions 3.2.6722+

If anybody knows of more working FLAC streams from any genre, please let me know.
Last Edit: June 02, 2018, 05:22:23 AM by sveakul

sveakul

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This student station RADIOM has an all-over-the-place genre mix, no metadata, sends 320k OPUS; how clean it sounds depends on who is setting their compressor at any given time slot but sounding pretty good at the moment:

http://live.radiom.fr:80/live600.opus

Here is an "outrageously HQ" FLAC stream that uses a 192kHz sample rate (they must be doing their own upsampling so not that outrageous!) and an approx. 3700kbs bit rate:

JB Radio-2 (Indie, rock, alternative)  http://199.189.87.9:10999/flac.m3u

They also run a 320kbs MP3 stream that sends track metadata (the FLAC one does not):

http://cristina.torontocast.com:8007/mp3-320

The only FLAC station I know that streams in 24-bit (around 1400kbs) is Intense Radio, a dance/house/electro mix but a very nice signal.  MusicBee doesn't show bit depth on FLAC streams but this image is from XMPlay's log window:



At http://secure.live-streams.nl/flac.flac

Any additions are welcome.

(revised 05-28-2018)
Last Edit: June 02, 2018, 05:23:52 AM by sveakul

sveakul

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For Classical music fans:

Rondo Classic Klasu (FLAC 868K, but seems to send no playing track metadata)
http://rondo.iradio.fi:8000/klasu.flac
Bitrate displays as "128k Radio Stream" in MB due to erroneous icy-br header in server log metadata

Sveriges Radio Klassiskt (AAC-LC 192k, metadata can be on or off)
http://http-live.sr.se/srklassiskt-aac-192

---------------------------------

Higher bitrate Chillout:

The Club Chillout (MP3 320k, sends metadata)
http://192.95.46.220:9780/stream

DI Radio Digital Impulse (MP3 320k, sends metadata)
http://5.39.71.159:8994/stream

JR FM Chill (MP3 320k, sends metadata)
http://149.56.157.81:5104/stream/

Magyarzene FM Chillout (MP3 192k, sends metadata)
http://158.69.180.201:9344

Radio Record Chillout (MP3 320k, sends metadata)
http://air.radiorecord.ru:8102/chil_320

Sochi Lounge Main Channel (only MP3 128k but good selections/quality, sends metadata)
http://s1.sochilounge.ru:8004/nonstop

Chillout - Proudbeats Audio (MP3 320k sends metadata)
http://radio.proudbeats.com:80/chillout_music_hi

Radio Kamchatka Chillout (MP3 192k sends metadata)
http://radio.kamchatkalive.ru:8100/chillout

As always, your additions would be most welcome!  BTW, if a mod thinks this thread might be useful to "stick", I'd agree with that  ;)   It's always a relief when users can point out HQ URL's of any genre to avoid sifting through the maze of online radio directories where active stations come and go without notice.

(revised 2018-05-14)
Last Edit: May 17, 2018, 03:47:39 AM by sveakul

sveakul

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Here is a nice thread in another forum that covers/swaps FLAC Internet radio station news and IPs:

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/internet-radio-flac-stations-swap-meet/42327
Last Edit: May 26, 2018, 06:20:50 AM by sveakul

sveakul

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Found a FLAC station that actually sends artist/title metadata, AND an accurate bitrate for MusicBee!:

https://stream.and-stuff.nl:8443/live-riverside-flac

A variety of contemporary stuff, and only the second FLAC station I've found that sends at 24-bit.

Also, a second Rondo Classic Klasu FLAC stream that sends alternate programming to the one cited in a previous post, for classical music fans:

http://rondo.iradio.fi:8000/klasupro.flac

Note that MusicBee may display a totally inaccurate bitrate on FLAC stations like Klasu due to the fact that it uses the icy-br field from the server header for that info, which for some reason IS often totally inaccurate ("128k", etc.).  You can check a stream in e.g. Foobar/AIMP to get the actual bitrate in case you think I'm joshin' ya  ;)
Last Edit: August 20, 2018, 04:26:17 AM by sveakul


sveakul

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