why don't mp3 players included AM tuners?

[iamme]

i noticed many recent mp3 players that have FM tuners don't have AM. my tv tuner card for my desktop also has FM, but no AM.

is AM difficult or costly to include? or is it just because they think no one listens to AM?

i'd love to be able to listen to my local AM sports radio on a portable player.

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: iamme
i noticed many recent mp3 players that have FM tuners don't have AM. my tv tuner card for my desktop also has FM, but no AM.

is AM difficult or costly to include? or is it just because they think no one listens to AM?

i'd love to be able to listen to my local AM sports radio on a portable player.

You're not the only one. 90% of the time I listen to AM rather than FM

 

[Looney]

Probably because one of the appeals of mp3 players are their small size.

 

[djNickb]

I think (not 100% on this) that FM is a higher fidelity audio broadcasting format. I could be wrong too but isn't AM radio mono too?

 

[vtqanh]

Originally posted by: djNickb
I think (not 100% on this) that FM is a higher fidelity audio broadcasting format. I could be wrong too but isn't AM radio mono too?

yep, AM is mono

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: vtqanh

Originally posted by: djNickb
I think (not 100% on this) that FM is a higher fidelity audio broadcasting format. I could be wrong too but isn't AM radio mono too?

yep, AM is mono

But it has all the best Sports and talk radio shows. FM is nothing but recycled ClearChannel refuse

 

[spaceman]

Originally posted by: Nitemare

Originally posted by: vtqanh

Originally posted by: djNickb
I think (not 100% on this) that FM is a higher fidelity audio broadcasting format. I could be wrong too but isn't AM radio mono too?

yep, AM is mono

But it has all the best Sports and talk radio shows. FM is nothing but recycled ClearChannel refuse

AM is grossly underrated.

 

[iamme]

Originally posted by: Nitemare

Originally posted by: vtqanh

Originally posted by: djNickb
I think (not 100% on this) that FM is a higher fidelity audio broadcasting format. I could be wrong too but isn't AM radio mono too?

yep, AM is mono

But it has all the best Sports and talk radio shows. FM is nothing but recycled ClearChannel refuse

yep

from a technical aspect, do they need to add alot more hardware for AM support?

i was looking at the iPod's FM transmitter....why couldn't they add AM to that?

 

[iamme]

 

[iamme]

 

[conjur]

Originally posted by: djNickb
I think (not 100% on this) that FM is a higher fidelity audio broadcasting format. I could be wrong too but isn't AM radio mono too?

AM has stereo, too

I remember years ago here when WHAS-AM started touting they were in AM Stereo. Although, I don't know if any car radios support AM Stereo

Hmm...apparently there are several!

 

[new2AMD]

Originally posted by: ncircle

Originally posted by: Nitemare

Originally posted by: vtqanh

Originally posted by: djNickb
I think (not 100% on this) that FM is a higher fidelity audio broadcasting format. I could be wrong too but isn't AM radio mono too?

yep, AM is mono

But it has all the best Sports and talk radio shows. FM is nothing but recycled ClearChannel refuse

AM is grossly underrated.

agreed

 

[fr]

Yeah, it would be nice so that I wouldn't have to carry an extra radio to listen to the ball game.

 

[hans007]

its because,

if you use FM, you can use the heaphone cord as the antenna, whereas AM needs a seperate antenna built into the unit.


at least from my understanding that is why most small small walkmen only have FM. i am not sure exactly why the reasons are, hopefully some EE can explain.

 

[hans007]

its because,

if you use FM, you can use the heaphone cord as the antenna, whereas AM needs a seperate antenna built into the unit.


at least from my understanding that is why most small small walkmen only have FM. i am not sure exactly why the reasons are, hopefully some EE can explain.

 

[Gerbil333]

My only guess is that MP3 players are designed for listening to music. Around here, AM is purely news/talk/sports stuff. I suppose they figured people who bought a device for listening to music wouldn't bother with the non-music stations.

Personally, I never listen to AM. Sports aren't that interesting, I get enough news and talk from the FM music stations I listen.

 

[Corporate Thug]

nobody cares about talk radio

 

[iamme]

^^

 

[ryzmah]

I would guess it has to do with the difference in wavelength between an FM and AM signal. An antenna's length has to be one of a set of fractions of the signal wavelength to be effective - I know .25*wavelength works well, but there are many others. Presumably, because the wavelength for AM is much larger than that for FM, the small antenna used by MP3 players would need to be obnoxiously long to pick up AM as well.

 

[johnjbruin]

mine has fm/am and no external antenna... so i dunno why most dont have it.

 

[iamme]

Originally posted by: johnjbruin
mine has fm/am and no external antenna... so i dunno why most dont have it.

i was looking at this mp3 player and dimissed it because it didn't mention AM in the specs

so, how's the AM reception?