[Johnythree]

This is yet another myth:

The "Woolyness" of AM broadcast (at least in America) is due to the stations purposefully tailoring their audio processing to suit typical cheap AM receivers. And this in turn is because designers of cheap AM receivers fit narrow filters instead of using noise reduction techniques, eg a good outside antenna.

There was a period (in the rest of the world) where high quality AM receivers had a narrow/wide switch to give better audio response to stronger signals.

The good news is that modern SDR receivers usually have selectable bandwidth on AM so as to derive the full transmitted audio. And many of these have AM stereo decoders as well.

If you listen to a good quality AM broadcast (eg Gov AM stations in Australia) you will hear audio which are very hard to tell from FM audio.

Go back and read the many high-quality AM tuner articles in the electronic hobby magazines from the past.

[elzbardico]

Yes, when I was a kid I used to listen to a few AM radios in a Marantz receiver from my dad (not in the US). Well, it was not as good as FM, but basically it was usable as a source of music.

Now, from time to time I buy a cheap portable AM radio, mostly out of nostalgia, but with the excuse of being good emergency preparedness, and the sound is annoyingly bad even with decent headphones.