FM tuner in 3k range

QUAD S-2 Bookshelf Speaker
Thank you RP and Anil. Yes its from UK, I had to do a bit of circus getting it here.

Looks great, I have not even wiped with a cloth after taking it out of the package.

Sounds good, it can do a lot better, something's wrong with the antenna/port.
 
Congrats "overkilled" for getting such great Tuner. I have used 15-20 tuners till now but not enough lucky to get any NAD....Wish some day I will be having NAD 412 in my collection
 
Splendid, you've now got the legend. What is the problem with the antenna socket? These usually need proper cleaning. Regarding sound quality, a lot is dependent on the reception. If you are in the coverage area of your FM stations, you'll just need a one foot long wire as your antenna. If not, then you'll have to look at antenna options. Also position of the receiver in the room is very important.
 
When I initially connected the antenna there was no difference in the sound, I thought the port is not working. Later, there I realized that the noise increased when Antenna is connected, so the port is working.

I have done some reading regarding the antennas and there are 2 types
Yagi - I don't have time and resources for this at this right now.

Dipole - Full Wave Loop and Half Wave Loop
Basically the loops are shorted circuits, am I correct?

I have currently built a half wave loop using aluminum hanger.

But I guess the calculations are wrong and its not yielding any results.

So here is what I picked up form yahoo answers. Antenna length should be 300/F (300 because of the speed of light) in meters.
I will use F=98 as it is in the middle of the band. This will give the length in meters as 3.06m. For a half wave the length would be 1.53m.

I will try this out and let you know the result.

One important thing is, should the wire strictly be a coaxial? Im currently using a speaker wire, that I had bought during school days.

Also, I tried using the antenna provided with my Pioneer AVR, this did not improve or reduce the signal reception. Is this expected?
 
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You've got to start with the basics first. Even a mercedes needs a road to run on after all :D

Are you located within the designated service coverage area of your FM stations? Where are your FM stations transmitting from, one single area or are the all over town in different directions? What about the topograpy around, FM signals are line-of-sight, hence homes on a hill (like mine), etc get spotless reception. Even something as simple as moving the tuner around the room may help. Do you have a lot of buildings around in your area? Are you near a windows or in an internal room?Those living in apartments with concrete structures tend to have reception problems, thanks to the steel embedded in the concrete pillars. Do some more reading realted to FM radio reception in general - dependencies, risks and mitigation. After a proper understanding of this, only attempt to venture out into the world of Antenna design. The results you're getting are because you've gone straight to the mitigation plan without properly identifying the root cause.

0verkilled said:
When I initially connected the antenna there was no difference in the sound, I thought the port is not working. Later, there I realized that the noise increased when Antenna is connected, so the port is working.

I have done some reading regarding the antennas and there are 2 types
Yagi - I don't have time and resources for this at this right now.

Dipole - Full Wave Loop and Half Wave Loop
Basically the loops are shorted circuits, am I correct?

I have currently built a half wave loop using aluminum hanger.

But I guess the calculations are wrong and its not yielding any results.

So here is what I picked up form yahoo answers. Antenna length should be 300/F (300 because of the speed of light) in meters.
I will use F=98 as it is in the middle of the band. This will give the length in meters as 3.06m. For a half wave the length would be 1.53m.

I will try this out and let you know the result.

One important thing is, should the wire strictly be a coaxial? Im currently using a speaker wire, that I had bought during school days.

Also, I tried using the antenna provided with my Pioneer AVR, this did not improve or reduce the signal reception. Is this expected?
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
reubensm said:
You've got to start with the basics first. Even a mercedes needs a road to run on after all :D
Click to expand...

Sure thing, it definitely needs a road to run on. But the suggestions you gave look like whoever buys a car should know how to lay the road too ;) I have done some reading, but nothing that helped me. I will have to look at right places..

Im living in an independent house and there is a huge ground behind my house, signals are not a problem. And yes, the antenna sits at the window, it has steel grills. However, I never faced any issue with the Pioneed AVR sitting below the NAD.

I have made half dipole antenna, 1.5m in length. At first, it felt sound quality has improved. After few days, I feel its all the same.

Tell me one thing, if I remove the antenna pin from the back, will the sound quality/signal reception reduce? What I see is nothing changes in my case, that is where I feel if the antenna pin is really working :sad:
 
0verkilled said:
Tell me one thing, if I remove the antenna pin from the back, will the sound quality/signal reception reduce? What I see is nothing changes in my case, that is where I feel if the antenna pin is really working :sad:
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. It was the same in my case. When I first setup the 412 tuner, I turned it on without an antenna and guess what...the reception was fantastic and that's because I get awesome reception in my area. I did connect a short antenna for weak stations and that had marginal improvement.
 
I live in the shadow of a hill so reception at my place is not great to say the least. I built a yagi antenna as per fm omishras measurements. Difference is massive compared to a long piece of copper wire connected before. Signal strength has increased by 12-15db for every station I listen to. There's no hiss for any station I listen to. It won't cost more than 600 rupees for the required material. Took me only 4 hours to build(that too me being very lazy) :p
 
Its working fine, except for one or two channels. I was looking for "CD quality" that was mentioned in one of the posts. I will continue to use it this way, may be I will build the Yagi some time later.
 
0verkilled said:
Its working fine, except for one or two channels. I was looking for "CD quality" that was mentioned in one of the posts. I will continue to use it this way, may be I will build the Yagi some time later.
Click to expand...

No you will never get CD quality, not here at least because the stations themselves use mp3s... At least here at my place. What you will notice is mainly a reduction in background noise, hiss and slightly better highs imo
 
0verkilled said:
Pardon my ignorance! Yes, I read in some post about CD quality! ;) Well, its alright, not bad after all..
Click to expand...

To be very honest, my 412 produces some great quality sound and sounds soo much like CD quality. The warm bass from the 3020i makes it even better especially for FM.

FMs who have auditioned my setup feel the same.
 
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