FM tuner

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KatieandDad

KatieandDad

Member
Joined 2011
#1
Now that I've got my Pass Aleph 4 and Pass P1.7 working fully I notice that my Arcam AVR280 has some sibilance on the FM. I use it us my tuner.

Has anyone any suggestions ?

Maybe mods to the Arcam or a better tuner.

I'm using a roof top aerial.
 
#5
That could be the problem, since it will pick up reflections just as well as the direct signal.
Try an indoor antenna that you can move around, like rabbit ears.

Capture ratio is a relevant tuner spec, smaller is better.
 
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#8
How old is it?
My Dad's Reader's digest radio 1976? sounded good and had great sensitivity in the day.
When I inherited it 2010 it had a lot of distortion and no great sensitivity.
Bought a new sony radio 2007, it had no sensitivity out of the box. (I listen to a 100 W high school radio station 10 miles away when I can).
So I put about 60 electrolytic capacitors in the Reader's Digest radio. Lots of .47 and 1 uf electrolytics. Voila, performance back to original. No alignment required.
BTW the dynaco FM3 tuner never had this sensitivity. A 200? luxman cassette/fm/am radio out of the trash does when I put a couple of electrolytics in it, but now it needs all the other ones. A GE pocket radio from 199? does have the sensitivity with a few new electrolytics, but it has a 1/8" earphone jack and I can't buy 1/8" phone plugs anymore, so one channel is always dropping out. Metricization doesn't sometimes work. Haven't seen a stereo jack that tiny for sale and winter is over already, try again next year.
 
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#12
indianajo said:
Other than not working, it is a great theory. I get 3.5 mm as .137 ". 1/8" is .125".
Click to expand...

True, but the real size has been 3.5mm for quite some time. Jacks are made with spring contacts that would easily accommodate the 12 thousandths difference. Switchcraft, for example, who certainly would have made .125 dia plugs, specifies 3.5mm and 1/8" as the same part.

I would suggest it's far more likely you have a bad jack.
 
#13
If you have any interest in using FM, you should take a look over at both the Tuner Information Center and the group that they use on FMtuners@groups.io. There's a lot of good info there and many knowledgeable people there that can help you get where you want to be. There are a large number of tuners that can be brought to at least a decent level of audio quality. Just a matter of working with something that meets your budget and is available. One decision to make is whether to go with analog or digital tuning. Do you want to go retro or want that black box look? Either path has many options. I'm not always so in love with the soulless look of the black box. And in my area there are just enough decent stations to make it worth going for something a little better in tuners. After doing some reading, and trying a couple of Denon digital tuners, I ended up with an older Kenwood KT-8300 that has the brushed aluminum and analog faceplate look. After spending time replacing caps and a couple opamps, the SQ is everything I wanted. People have given up on FM, making it a little easier to find gear. Some of that is due to crappy programming, poor sound quality from the station engineer using too much compression, and the preprogrammed I Heart radio/Clear Channel institute. Smaller broadcasters, college stations, and PBS stations are what to look for these days. As for your antenna, the vertical is not doing what you need. Try one of the T shaped twin lead folded dipoles that you can find cheap on Amazon or eBay. Even indoors may work better because you're closer to the tuner. If you have attic access and the room, there's the Stellar Labs 4 element yagi for about $30 from Newark Electronics. That would open a whole world of signals to you. With FM, you need a good signal to achieve enough quieting...signal to noise ratio. Sounds like the vertical isn't giving enough gain to achieve this.
 
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