Car FM Tuner for Home

Pano · 6th March 2007, 03:35 AM

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!

Bama Slamma · 6th March 2007, 03:46 AM

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 · 6th March 2007, 04:45 AM

Hi Bama - thanks for the fast answer.

Quote:

Originally posted by Bama Slamma
The tuner is very sensitive so all stations come in as clear as a bell.

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.

Bama Slamma · 10th March 2007, 04:28 AM

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.

Zoran · 10th March 2007, 05:58 AM

It would be nice to find
old BECKER car radios...
with stereo FM...
they are very good units indeed
Becker had also tube car radios
Cheers

djQUAN · 10th March 2007, 02:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Bama Slamma
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.

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.

audiobahnkid592 · 11th March 2007, 05:10 PM

I use a Pioneer DEH-P7700MP in my home setup and love it sounds excellent and comes in very clear, even with some stations that are weak on other radios.

EWorkshop1708 · 24th March 2008, 02:16 AM

I'm building a small sound system using a car stereo as the CD player and FM tuner, to reduce the size of my equipment, but have big system quality and sound.

I'll deliver about 12-14V for the radio, and +/-30V for the power amp.

TheMG · 24th March 2008, 04:39 AM

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.

shagone · 24th March 2008, 06:46 PM

The Pioneer supertuner III is a good tuner that is in many many pioneer radios with very good reception. i think they are still used in some current models.

6th March 2007, 03:35 AM	#1
Pano diyAudio Moderator Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: North Carolina Blog Entries: 4	Car FM Tuner for Home 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! __________________ Take the Speaker Voltage Test!

10th March 2007, 05:58 AM	#5
Zoran diyAudio Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Belgrade	It would be nice to find old BECKER car radios... with stereo FM... they are very good units indeed Becker had also tube car radios Cheers __________________ ###

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6th March 2007, 03:46 AM	#2
Bama Slamma diyAudio Member Join Date: Oct 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.

10th March 2007, 04:28 AM	#4
Bama Slamma diyAudio Member Join Date: Oct 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.

11th March 2007, 05:10 PM	#7
audiobahnkid592 diyAudio Member Join Date: Mar 2007	I use a Pioneer DEH-P7700MP in my home setup and love it sounds excellent and comes in very clear, even with some stations that are weak on other radios.

24th March 2008, 02:16 AM	#8
EWorkshop1708 diyAudio Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Florida	I'm building a small sound system using a car stereo as the CD player and FM tuner, to reduce the size of my equipment, but have big system quality and sound. I'll deliver about 12-14V for the radio, and +/-30V for the power amp.

24th March 2008, 04:39 AM	#9
TheMG diyAudio Member Join Date: Jan 2008	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.

24th March 2008, 06:46 PM	#10
shagone diyAudio Member Join Date: Apr 2007	The Pioneer supertuner III is a good tuner that is in many many pioneer radios with very good reception. i think they are still used in some current models.