I'm a tuner snob - and specifically an AM tuner snob. I still enjoy radio very much and there is such a thing as a great AM and FM tuner. I own a Kenwood "holy grail" FM tuner that is an outstanding piece of audio electronics. Yes, I actually get great audio quality out of it.
I own several standalone AM/FM tuners. Analog units made in the 60's and 70's, plus one Grundig digital unit that is outstanding. All my Kenwood analogs (4 of them) have outstanding AM tuners in them - and good to outstanding FM tuners too.
I also own a Select-a-tenna from CC Radio that's an AM antenna booster that zones in on specific frequencies and removes the clutter of other surrounding stations. It's fantastic for low power local stations in daytime. I can sometimes pull in KXNO using it and the Grundig.
Here in CR, I can reach as far as these with the CC Radio gizmo and any of my standalone tuners...
650 Nashville
670 Chicago
700 Cincinnati
720 Chicago
740 Toronto
750 Atlanta
760 Detroit
780 Chicago
820 Ft. Worth
830 Minneapolis
840 Louisville
850 Denver
860 Toronto
870 New Orleans
890 Chicago
990 Winnipeg
1000 Chicago
1010 Toronto
1020 Pittsburgh
1100 Cleveland
1120 St. Louis
1140 Richmond
1200 San Antonio
1210 Philadelphia
1500 Washington
What's interesting is I cannot ever pull in 1110 out of Omaha...as well as a handful of stations in Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas. Seems like that's a dead spot for eastern Iowa. I think 1110 gets stomped on by 1100 and 1120 being as strong as they are. I get much better reception to the east/northeast than I do west, southwest and southeast.