Hi,
I'm stupid, as you could probably see from the subject. I was looking for a tuner on ebay and i realised that I don't know anything about tuners. I was wondering if I could build a tuner? Cause some of them (i'm assuming they were the "good" ones) are very expensive.
What are some "good" tuners? Can any one point me in the right direction with a website?
I have a gainclone and 2-way speakers. So I know a little about those things, but not anything about tuners. If some can please, recommend a tuner for me. My cryteria is that i has to be cheap, but not suck, if that makes any sense.
Also are there any FM tuner pc cards that are good? Are there any at all, even; for pci?
I'm stupid, as you could probably see from the subject. I was looking for a tuner on ebay and i realised that I don't know anything about tuners. I was wondering if I could build a tuner? Cause some of them (i'm assuming they were the "good" ones) are very expensive.
What are some "good" tuners? Can any one point me in the right direction with a website?
I have a gainclone and 2-way speakers. So I know a little about those things, but not anything about tuners. If some can please, recommend a tuner for me. My cryteria is that i has to be cheap, but not suck, if that makes any sense.
Also are there any FM tuner pc cards that are good? Are there any at all, even; for pci?
I bought my son an old analog Denon TU-7. It's simply excellent and it cost $45 in a used record shop.
I would also suggest looking at satelite. If your taste is wide and varied, satelite is an excellent choice. I listen to the classical channels (3), bluegrass, NPR, some rock, and adult comedy. It's ten bucks a month. Some would argue that the "highs" are absent (>16kHz). For me, the benefit outweighs the detriment.
I would also suggest looking at satelite. If your taste is wide and varied, satelite is an excellent choice. I listen to the classical channels (3), bluegrass, NPR, some rock, and adult comedy. It's ten bucks a month. Some would argue that the "highs" are absent (>16kHz). For me, the benefit outweighs the detriment.
Look for a used one......
Most of the easy chips are no longer made, new ones need a micro to control the tuner/PLL. Then you have to source 10.7 MHz filters........etc.
And to listen to what? Most FM now is corporate dreck. Nope, I would not waste my effort on making one to listen to stuff that lousy. Maybe where you are, it may be a tad better than in most other urban markets. Look for a used one, only to be wonder why it sounds so bad..........the tuner or the source.
Jocko
Most of the easy chips are no longer made, new ones need a micro to control the tuner/PLL. Then you have to source 10.7 MHz filters........etc.
And to listen to what? Most FM now is corporate dreck. Nope, I would not waste my effort on making one to listen to stuff that lousy. Maybe where you are, it may be a tad better than in most other urban markets. Look for a used one, only to be wonder why it sounds so bad..........the tuner or the source.
Jocko
http://www.fmtunerinfo.com/
May be more information than you want to know...
I wouldn't want to tackle a DIY FM tuner without a lot
of research. I don't have the slightest idea of how
to design and build a decent RF front end, which is a
badly neglected subject. Years ago I was very
enthusiastic about it, but there are too many other
things I want to do now.
I did recently build a 'jpole' antenna for the FM band,
so I could have some sort of outdoor antenna; didn't
solve my multipath problems, though.
May be more information than you want to know...
I wouldn't want to tackle a DIY FM tuner without a lot
of research. I don't have the slightest idea of how
to design and build a decent RF front end, which is a
badly neglected subject. Years ago I was very
enthusiastic about it, but there are too many other
things I want to do now.
I did recently build a 'jpole' antenna for the FM band,
so I could have some sort of outdoor antenna; didn't
solve my multipath problems, though.
How about a Leak Troughline?
Many consider them among the best tuners ever made, and thy're still available fairly cheaply. I've owned a couple, and when they're well-aligned and used with a good antenna they live up to their reputation.
Go for a mark 1 or 2, and use an outboard stereo decoder for best results.
Many consider them among the best tuners ever made, and thy're still available fairly cheaply. I've owned a couple, and when they're well-aligned and used with a good antenna they live up to their reputation.
Go for a mark 1 or 2, and use an outboard stereo decoder for best results.
Hi,
I used a Sugden t48 for a couple of decades and now retired. It still plays superbly but the manual tuning buttons(no digital tuning here) have worn out. No spares available to repair. Inside, the case is jam packed all the way to the lid, not like your modern tuners.
The later Quads are quite good, I have an FM4 (it is digital). but only 7 presets + manual.
I agree the Leak but not the stereofetic. Again manual tuning only and not at all sensitive. Needs a good aerial.
A lot of the digital tuners cannot compete with analogue in sound quality.
Finally, here in Britain FM sound is as good as it gets if you choose your stations, a live broadcast is unbeatable. Certainly better than DAB and possibly a little better than Nicam. All these signals are transmitted around the country by digital comms so it must be the pre & post processing that ruins the perfomance.
I think I hear a few arguments coming!!
regards Andrew T.
I used a Sugden t48 for a couple of decades and now retired. It still plays superbly but the manual tuning buttons(no digital tuning here) have worn out. No spares available to repair. Inside, the case is jam packed all the way to the lid, not like your modern tuners.
The later Quads are quite good, I have an FM4 (it is digital). but only 7 presets + manual.
I agree the Leak but not the stereofetic. Again manual tuning only and not at all sensitive. Needs a good aerial.
A lot of the digital tuners cannot compete with analogue in sound quality.
Finally, here in Britain FM sound is as good as it gets if you choose your stations, a live broadcast is unbeatable. Certainly better than DAB and possibly a little better than Nicam. All these signals are transmitted around the country by digital comms so it must be the pre & post processing that ruins the perfomance.
I think I hear a few arguments coming!!
regards Andrew T.
Another option is to look to internet radio: most radio stations worth listening to have streaming audio feeds, often at higher quality that you're likely to get over the air. Right now I'm listening to this and enjoying it more than almost anything I could get locally. Of course, that just trades the "good FM tuner" problem for the "good PC soundcard" problem...
Re: Look for a used one......
Wanna build a home-brew FM tuner ? I would grab an old Dynakit, Heathkit or Eico and tinker around. There is a huge body of knowledge in old RCA handbooks, or in the manuals you can purchase form www.w7fg.com and elsewhere. You will need an FM signal generator, scope and good voltmeter to align an FM tuner.
Before building a tuner a better iniitial investment is in a decent antenna -- and these you can homebuilt for next to nothing.
wrt Jocko's comment: Here in the NYC area we now have a classical wasteland as WQXR is chock-a-block with commercials, WNYC has limited it's classical repetoire -- only WBGO (Jazz) and WFUV (Blues, Jazz, New Age etc.,) so I agree -- most of my classical listening is on the web.
Jocko Homo said:
Wanna build a home-brew FM tuner ? I would grab an old Dynakit, Heathkit or Eico and tinker around. There is a huge body of knowledge in old RCA handbooks, or in the manuals you can purchase form www.w7fg.com and elsewhere. You will need an FM signal generator, scope and good voltmeter to align an FM tuner.
Before building a tuner a better iniitial investment is in a decent antenna -- and these you can homebuilt for next to nothing.
wrt Jocko's comment: Here in the NYC area we now have a classical wasteland as WQXR is chock-a-block with commercials, WNYC has limited it's classical repetoire -- only WBGO (Jazz) and WFUV (Blues, Jazz, New Age etc.,) so I agree -- most of my classical listening is on the web.
Tierra del Fuego
Yes the web is great..
KPLU for Jazz
Great classical out of Sweden
Acoustic Sunrise on KFOG on Sunday..
And you can even tune in
Tierra del Fuego
http://www.airelibre.com.ar/
just like the tuner on the Firesign Theater abum.
rt
Yes the web is great..
KPLU for Jazz
Great classical out of Sweden
Acoustic Sunrise on KFOG on Sunday..
And you can even tune in
Tierra del Fuego
http://www.airelibre.com.ar/
just like the tuner on the Firesign Theater abum.
rt
I spoke earlier in this post about satelite radio... XM in this case. I indicated that it is pretty decent but lacks the "highs".
I was testing some speakers last night... basicly rewiring an array of 24 tweeters series/parallel (a real cluster^#%). I flipped on the amp with the sat as source. They sure are missing even when compared to a CD. Still like it for the variety though.
I was testing some speakers last night... basicly rewiring an array of 24 tweeters series/parallel (a real cluster^#%). I flipped on the amp with the sat as source. They sure are missing even when compared to a CD. Still like it for the variety though.
Hugh M said:
I was leaning towards getting one at a pawn shop somewhere for $10. Or local junkyard, where people throw away working tuners. Then again, I would like a somewhat nice one. But I'm not willing to spend much (less than $100). That limits me to eBay, pawn shops, and yardsales as far as I know.
I decided that I would like a digital one since it can store radio stations. Maybe analog can do this somehow, I don't know. Also I would like to use a remote with it. So I'm still looking, slowly like a turtle
Re: Look for a used one......
We put an ungodly amount of work into designs just to keep the sound quality as good as possible... And almost everything you find at a FM broadcast site nowadays is super high quality. Station engineers are *obsessed* with sound quality.
Once the "nurr uh-huh gangsta bling bling" garbage comes out of the music archive at the studio, it's processed by racks of the best equipment available. Everything is 24/96 or better from the studio, piped into the transmitter site at amazing quality, fed through obscenely expensive AES cables ("omg omg gotta be gold plated neutriks and brilliance cable, none of that switchcraft $!%#, it sounds like $@&*" -- direct quote from an engineer) into their audio processor.
...which clips, AGCs, dynamically-EQs and completely destroys the audio they're broadcasting, just to make the station loud and give it a signature sound...
And then the signal comes out of the audio processor at 24/96 or better and goes into our FM gear, and gets modulated using a brutal amount of DSP/FPGA resources to keep the quality as good as possible.
... because ultimately, for the listener who's driving their car in heavy traffic and only half-listening to the nonsense that's on the radio anyway, quality is paramount.
sigh.
I design FM broadcasting equipment for a living.Jocko Homo said:
We put an ungodly amount of work into designs just to keep the sound quality as good as possible... And almost everything you find at a FM broadcast site nowadays is super high quality. Station engineers are *obsessed* with sound quality.
Once the "nurr uh-huh gangsta bling bling" garbage comes out of the music archive at the studio, it's processed by racks of the best equipment available. Everything is 24/96 or better from the studio, piped into the transmitter site at amazing quality, fed through obscenely expensive AES cables ("omg omg gotta be gold plated neutriks and brilliance cable, none of that switchcraft $!%#, it sounds like $@&*" -- direct quote from an engineer) into their audio processor.
...which clips, AGCs, dynamically-EQs and completely destroys the audio they're broadcasting, just to make the station loud and give it a signature sound...
And then the signal comes out of the audio processor at 24/96 or better and goes into our FM gear, and gets modulated using a brutal amount of DSP/FPGA resources to keep the quality as good as possible.
... because ultimately, for the listener who's driving their car in heavy traffic and only half-listening to the nonsense that's on the radio anyway, quality is paramount.
sigh.
Yup, used to start
With stations, especially rock/trance/dance/hip-hop so over processing the audio, why bother designing in sound quality? Especially hip-hop, why even bother designing something for these guys with any response over 300Hz?
I agree to a point... Sound quality transmitted usually far exceeds the quality of the receiver. I listen to Classical a lot from CBC, no compression, processing, nothing on their studio programmes. It sounds great off-the-air through my AT-2400 tuner (tubified audio chain ). Bonus for us. But then listening to it through cable (I live in the boonies), the junk Shaw does to the signal is disgusting. The sidebands are compressed and there's a heck of a lot of noise riding on the L-R subcarrier, making only mono listening practical.
Moral of my story, there's so much to go wrong with the signal in between, few people, other than audiophiles, could tell the difference between a $10 tuner and a $1,000 one. So yeah, go for a used tuner
gmarsh said:
With stations, especially rock/trance/dance/hip-hop so over processing the audio, why bother designing in sound quality? Especially hip-hop, why even bother designing something for these guys with any response over 300Hz?
I agree to a point... Sound quality transmitted usually far exceeds the quality of the receiver. I listen to Classical a lot from CBC, no compression, processing, nothing on their studio programmes. It sounds great off-the-air through my AT-2400 tuner (tubified audio chain
). Bonus for us. But then listening to it through cable (I live in the boonies), the junk Shaw does to the signal is disgusting. The sidebands are compressed and there's a heck of a lot of noise riding on the L-R subcarrier, making only mono listening practical.Moral of my story, there's so much to go wrong with the signal in between, few people, other than audiophiles, could tell the difference between a $10 tuner and a $1,000 one. So yeah, go for a used tuner
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