Car FM Tuner for Home

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Pano

Pano

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Joined 2004
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Got a quick question that I can't find answered in previous posts.

Can anyone recommend an CAR version head unit for home use? It's the FM tuner I want.
Why? Well I put away all my receivers that were serving as FM tuners and want just a small, good quality FM tuner. Looking around at what's available in home FM tuners, they all seem large and expensive.

So I thought a car unit might serve well. Car radios often have better RF tuners than home radios, they have to. Small, too. Just feed it 12V and it's all good.

So what is a good radio unit? I don't care about the CD part, won't use it even if it has it. What I need is a good, small FM tuner. Any ideas?

Thanks guys!
 
B

Bama Slamma

Member
Joined 2006
An older Sony XPLOD is good. I have one myself. It will ultimately be installed on a boat my dad and I are building. The tuner is very sensitive so all stations come in as clear as a bell. They SAY it's 50 watts per channel, but I don't believe them. All you need is a 12 VDC power supply, antenna, and speakers and you're good to go. A 10 VAC transformer rectified and filtered will give you 14 VDC which is what automotive electrical systems run at with the motor running. Use a transformer of at least 50 VA for two speakers.
 
Pano

Pano

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Joined 2004
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Hi Bama - thanks for the fast answer.

Bama Slamma said:
The tuner is very sensitive so all stations come in as clear as a bell.
Click to expand...

That's the kind of info I'm looking for, great! Forgot to mention that I will not be using the amplifier. Just want to run the preamp outs to my power amp and speakers at home. So it should be easy.

And good suggestion on the power supply and transfomers. Got plenty lying around here. Shouldn't even need much power if I don't use the amp.
 
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Bama Slamma

Member
Joined 2006
You could use a 120 VAC to 12 volt DC "wall wart" as a power supply if you don't use the built in power amp. About 1/2 to 1 ampere output should be good. The radio draws only a few mA. Then again a wall wart's output may have a lot of 60 Hz hum in it. They probably can't fit a very big filter cap in there. I don't know how familiar you are with car stereo wiring harnesses so I'll give a rundown

Black Wire: Negative (grounded to car chassis)
Red: Main power (wired thru car's key switch)
Yellow: Battery lead (wired to a constant 12V source)
Gray, Purple, Green, White: Speaker Leads
Blue: Triggers any power antenna.

Just twist the red and yellow wires together and hook them to the positive of your supply. Connect the black to negative. You won't use any of the other wires. Be sure you hook up an antenna. Without one all you'll hear is static.
 
D

djQUAN

Member
Joined 2004
quan-diy.com
Bama Slamma said:
You could use a 120 VAC to 12 volt DC "wall wart" as a power supply if you don't use the built in power amp. About 1/2 to 1 ampere output should be good. The radio draws only a few mA. Then again a wall wart's output may have a lot of 60 Hz hum in it. They probably can't fit a very big filter cap in there. I don't know how familiar you are with car stereo wiring harnesses so I'll give a rundown

Black Wire: Negative (grounded to car chassis)
Red: Main power (wired thru car's key switch)
Yellow: Battery lead (wired to a constant 12V source)
Gray, Purple, Green, White: Speaker Leads
Blue: Triggers any power antenna.

Just twist the red and yellow wires together and hook them to the positive of your supply. Connect the black to negative. You won't use any of the other wires. Be sure you hook up an antenna. Without one all you'll hear is static.
Click to expand...



take note that the continuous 12V on the yellow wire serves as memory so all settings are stored. no continuous power here means that things go back to factory settings everytime the unit is turned off.

blue - remote turn on (has 12VDC when the radio is on)
blue with white stripe - power antenna line (has 12V only when the tuner is on. has 0V when you switch to CD, tape etc.

also, the speaker leads are:
white - front left
grey - front right
green - rear left
violet - rear right

the positive wire is the solid color. the wire with the black stripe is speaker negative.
 
T

TheMG

Member
Joined 2008
mg3000.net
How about a DIY fm tuner?

Get one of those TEA5757-based tuner modules, a PIC mcu, an LCD display and some buttons... all good to go!

I've started on one actually, but it's currently on hold due to my amplifier project which I'm also using as a project for one of my college classes, so it has priority at the moment.
 
T

The Woodworker

Member
Joined 2012
I have a car radio deck in my house hooked up to a Computer Supply Unit for a power source. Only problem is when I turn off the power supply, I lose my memory settings. Wondering if a dedicated Wall Wart Plug hooked up to the yellow wire on back of deck would work. I don't like to leave the Computer Power Supply on constantly because the fan would always be running.
 
S

sreten

R.I.P.
Joined 2003
Pano said:
Why? Well I put away all my receivers that were serving as FM tuners
and want just a small, good quality FM tuner. Looking around at what's
available in home FM tuners, they all seem large and expensive.
Click to expand...

Hi,

Non RDS tuners are very cheap used nowadays (in the UK about $30) :

Denon TU260LII Boxed FM/AM Radio Hifi Separate | eBay

The above is the one I have, I bought new many moons ago.

Around $200 at the time, fairly budget but far more expensive ones
go for very little more used nowadays, and they are a world away
from car tuners with a good aerial, that is impossible for car use.

Used tuners are always very cheap, there is no demand.

rgds, sreten.

A lot cheaper from local shops dealing in used hifi, no postage.
 
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