New to tuners ... Advice required

[Deleted member 45006]

I m a regular listener of FM through the cellphone, but m quite not used with dedicated tuners, will it make a considerable difference, if I could pick up an used marantz or technics tuner , my
Amp is a marantz pm 30 paired to a set of infinity towers , was a casual FM listener so far, will it be comparable to my marantz cd 63 sound? I know it still depends on the stations, but I stay at a place in chennai where there is always some strong signal .. Someone please advice..

 

[prepress]

If you need better sound quality, then you should go for analog tuner/receiver instead of digital ones (mostly). It need strong signal strength so you may have to use outdoor antenna for perfect tuning. But you will be pleased with the results.

 

[audio_passionate]

Absolutly right .....I m also die hard fan of dedicated analog Tuners. Its always a great experence listening analog Tuner...so I also recommend you to go for a Analog Tuner instead of Digital one.

 

[Shivam]

Analogue tuners need alignment more frequently than digital. If you opt for an old analogue tuner, get it aligned first by someone experienced and with all the needed equipment.

 

[hemantwaghe]

Analogue tuners need alignment more frequently than digital. If you opt for an old analogue tuner, get it aligned first by someone experienced and with all the needed equipment.

what is this alignment you are always referring?

 

[gopib]

This alignment is done using an RF (Radio Frequency) signal Generator. The tuners will have IFT's (Intermediate Frequency Transformers), which are nothing but small inductors with a ferrite core. Any transistor/tuners about 30 years old would have it. Now all these IFT's should work at a particular frequency and this is adjusted using a signal generator. Any alignment (adjustment) issues and you would have all kinds of mixed up signals. I used to do this once upon a time, and believe me it could be frustrating at times...Sorry for a lot of electronics mumbo jumbo but it brought back memories...

Nowadays it would be difficult to locate a signal generator as well as find people who can use them to align...you would have to really search...

 

[Shivam]

what is this alignment you are always referring?

See this thread -
http://www.hifivision.com/am-fm-tuners-satellite-radio/29078-misalignment-tuners.html

I too was baffled by this initially but now I have a faint idea thanks to some of our forum members and also information from various internet sources.

 

[hemantwaghe]

This alignment is done using an RF (Radio Frequency) signal Generator. The tuners will have IFT's (Intermediate Frequency Transformers), which are nothing but small inductors with a ferrite core. Any transistor/tuners about 30 years old would have it. Now all these IFT's should work at a particular frequency and this is adjusted using a signal generator. Any alignment (adjustment) issues and you would have all kinds of mixed up signals. I used to do this once upon a time, and believe me it could be frustrating at times...Sorry for a lot of electronics mumbo jumbo but it brought back memories...

Nowadays it would be difficult to locate a signal generator as well as find people who can use them to align...you would have to really search...

In last 12 years I must have sold 25 tuners -- and they worked -- some of them were very old and noone talked about alignment... tuners worked..

So is alignment necessary?
What exactly it does?

 

[gopib]

Not all Analog tuners would need alignment. The transformers with ferrite core hat I mentioned above were sealed with wax after the cores were adjusted. Now over a period of time the cores could shift because the wax would have melted. Besides this some capacitors would have weakened. So it is not necessary that an analog tuner would be misaligned. Also you would have to open up the tuner and check whether they are analog or not. You should look for devices like these...

 

[hemantwaghe]

what happens if tuner is not aligned??

 

[omishra]

what happens if tuner is not aligned??

Misaligned tuner has two kind of basic problems.

1. There are multiple sections inside tuner - from antenna input to audio rca output. When signal goes from one section to another, there are tuned gates which allow only specified signal to pass. These gates are made of coils and transformers like shown above. If these are mistuned then there is signal loss and results in low gain. Remote stations are lost in processing itself. Good aligned tuner pull all distant stations easily. This is called sensitivity of tuner which must be high.
   
   Selectivity means capability of differentiating nearest stations on dial. This will also reduce if gates of IF are wider than standard design of tuner. And shrill sounding if gates are too narrow.
   .
   
2. While you tune station then they are achieved with some change of local frequency which takes down station frequency into next tuned gates (IF - intermediate frequency). This could be achieved with mechanical changing of big capacitor with moving plates (pure analog) or changing voltage across tuning capacitor (digitally tuned). Now this tuning of station or gates could change slowly in both above cases due to some leakage or no life left in few of caps. This is called drifting of station means low stability. Stability should be high. That why people go for recapping.

Now you know importance of tuning which could be affecting both analog or digital.

 

[gopib]

Frequency shifting - if your stations frequency is at 200mhz, you may receive it at 210. It will not be clear, there could be cross talk with another station - on the whole poor quality reception....

HTH

 

[reubensm]

This alignment is done using an RF (Radio Frequency) signal Generator. The tuners will have IFT's (Intermediate Frequency Transformers), which are nothing but small inductors with a ferrite core. Any transistor/tuners about 30 years old would have it. Now all these IFT's should work at a particular frequency and this is adjusted using a signal generator. Any alignment (adjustment) issues and you would have all kinds of mixed up signals. I used to do this once upon a time, and believe me it could be frustrating at times...Sorry for a lot of electronics mumbo jumbo but it brought back memories...

Nowadays it would be difficult to locate a signal generator as well as find people who can use them to align...you would have to really search...

gopib is spot on, tuning IFTs can be quite taxing. Back in the day, I did not have a signal generator. Used to tune the IFT by listening to very weak radio stations. Found that I would get the best alignment, listen for the day, turn off the radio and return the next day only to find harmonics all over the place. Then realized that this had to be done using a signal generator (as one required a source signal without even the slightest frequency drift). Thanks for bringing back the memories.