Internet radio stations that sound really good

KWVA Eugene

http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~kwva/

Great college radio streaming at 224K MP3

I tried the Roku Radio Snooper while listening to the internet radio on Winamp and it didn't pick up any of the streams, so I'm not at all interested in the product. Winamp is important because there are some streams that are only listed at Shoutcast.com and therefore only playable on Winamp or foobar2000, and then there's a subscription stream I have that I can only play on Winamp.

Although I have not tried it, the Linksys WMB54G installs a virtual soundcard on your computer and you get reception by changing the audio output device int the Windows control panel. Some people complain that this is too complicated for them, but the benefit is that you can play back any audio that you want. And of course it has coaxial and Toslink connectors.

Live 365 is a Internet Radio clearinghouse of sorts. For a reasonable monthly fee you get access to thouands of reliable internet radio stations organized by Genre, they are commercial free, and you can see what quality sound level they are broadcasting in. The quality is rated as AM, FM, CD, etc, and tells you the bit rate as well.

iTunes radio gives you bit rate info too. Folk Alley is a great station for content and good sound.

The highest bit rate at live365 is 96 kbps and everything uses the mp3pro codec, which just doesn't cut it. 96 kbps AAC+ sounds very listenable, but not mp3pro. And I can't bookmark a live365 stream in Winamp.

Yeah, I would rate the sound as good on Live365 but not great. When I have it on it is usually background and not for sessions in the sweet spot. The attraction is the organization, variety, commercial-free, and the fact that they are all legitimate stations.