Lowering the noise floor

willemj

No it is not. FM has serious limitations, even if internet radio has as well,

Most of FM's "serious limitations" aren't inherent - they exist because of the execution. Internet radio is much the same. That’s why it’s silly to argue that:

there is nothing really you can do to get it close to the quality that can now be achieved by e.g. internet radio.

There’s no argument that Internet radio can sound very, very good, btw.

You can do wonders with spread spectrum communications. Noise disappears out of the equation. 

Some reading material: https://www.quora.com/How-does-the-sound-quality-of-a-same-song-broadcasted-on-FM-Radio-compare-to-M...

I agree with the goal of reducing background noise to allow your system to be at its best. I tried a DSP product last month but rejected it for several reasons. One, it significantly increased the noise floor hum. This might have been related to the fact that my preamp output voltage was over the recommended input limit of the DSP. I’m not blaming the DSP per se, just that it was not suitable for my system.

My goal of late is to minimize the ringing in the room in the low frequency range. I put this in the same category as noise because the music signal is fighting to be heard thru this unwanted sound overhang. To the extent I’m able to improve the decay time, the music becomes clearer. And it’s amazing how changing the location of a minor piece of furniture (basket full of magazines) alters the decay rate. I would not have believed it if I hadn’t seen the waterfall measurements.

I am going off topic now, but that level incompatibility could have been cured with a very simple set of inline attenuators.
And I fully agree with your desire to reduce room modes, even if I would not classify them as noise but as a deviation from the ideal frequency response. I have been very succesful with an Antimode 8033 room eq.