FM stereo tuners - Xpost (OTish)

[David]

Tidying(ish) the loft I came across a very nice NAD FM stereo tuner.

Put into storage during a house move and never taken out again; I don't even have an FM aerial although IIRC I have previously had one since the

1970s.

If I want to listen to the radio at home then I can use the Internet (e.g. iPlayer) or for many radio stations I can use FreeSat or FreeView.

So is there any real use for a stereo FM tuner any more apart from in a car? Perhaps also when you are camping without a mobile phone signal or a TV signal?

Nice pit of kit, but udder on a bull?

Cheers

Dave R

[charles]

As I found earlier this week, the router goes down.

[newshound]

Only for a few more years? Norway has already gone DAB.

I still use a superb Sony which I bought in the early 70's.

[Max Demian]

It does what is does. Receives FM radio, providing you have an aerial up to the job. Freeview requires a proper TV aerial and usually a TV set, though there used to be Freeview "set top" boxes with audio output which could be connected to an audio system. DAB is OK, if you have a DAB radio and good enough reception. Who needs 100s of Internet radio stations?

And there's a place for stand alone FM transistor radios, such as bedroom, kitchen or workshop/garage.

[Me]

No contest really, Keep it and use it! It was designed to do one job and do it very well. The sound quality from even a middling FM tuner will knock spots off Freeview, internet etc. As for the aerial, depending on your location you could get away with an indoor type (not rabbits ears!!), I do and the sound quality is excellent.

[Woody]

NAD made and still make very good kit. I use one of their integrated amps as a pre-amp (external links) to drive a Rotel power amp which is in fact dual mono bar the mains transformer.

If you want to listen to the radio you will be hard pushed to find a tuner much better than the NAD.

On the other side I will be more than happy to take it off your hands - especially if you have any other NAD kit to go with it.

[David]

Most of my kit is Marantz. :-)

Just looked and NAD tuners seem to be very reasonably priced on eBay.

Can't remember the model number at the moment.

If I want to listen to radio at the moment I tend to stream it to my PC and then out to my amp. I was using a Cambridge Audio 100 USB DAC but this has just died, and at the moment I am using digital out from my sound card into the DAC on my Marantz PM6005. I'm not convinced that the sound is as good as the Cambridge Audio set up but it is far superior to the analogue out from the sound card.

I am considering if it is worthwhile trying to fix up an aerial and plumbing the tuner into (one of) my stereo stack(s) or if my current options are "adequate".

Will let you know if I decide to dispose of it.

Cheers

Dave R

[Steve Walker]

If and when FM is turned off, the big losses will be for drivers whose cars aren't fitted with DAB (and a replacement may well not look at all right in the dash) and stand-alone radios (that are perfect for DIY work, 'cos they'll work for months on one set of batteries.

SteveW

[Ian Field]

They usually have a pretty useful RF JFET in the FM front end, one with manually tuned AM bands will have a nice multi section tuning capacitor - that and the JFET are a good start on a DIY GDO.

[David]

Was that a Garage Door Opener or a Grid Dip Oscillator?

Not that I am in need of either at the moment.

Cheers

Dave R

[Ian Field]

Early American garage door opener senders often used a Nuvistor - a very popular valve for grid dip oscillators.

Somewhere I have a low anode voltage 8056 Nuvistor from the tuner on a Sealey TV that someone dumped at the flats.

I bought a part finished JFET GDO, but so far not managed to untangle the mess left by the previous owner - the plug in coils seem to be from several other projects.

If someone had a complete set of coils to spare - I could probably overcome all the other difficulties.

[Dave Liquorice]

Shhh, that idea seems to have been quietly forgotten about or is under a D Notice. Also it was only the nationals that would go to make room for lot's of new local stations. Local stations that are hideously difficult to make profitable...

Even if the car has DAB it needs a DAB signal... Very patchy around a here with the patches of signal being rather small and well spaced so useless for actually listening to that radio. Even when in coverage there is something "not quite right" and it becomes wearing to listen too for more than about 1/2 and hour.

Internet streams vary for bloomimg good to yuk... Having the telly on consuming lots of power just to "listen to the radio" seems a bit extravagant. Bet that NAD tuner is very frugal in comparison.

[Brian Gaff]

Well I still have one, Its a Dennon, and I still have a spare marantz too. There are stations that I listen to that do not have internet or dab outlets. If it sounds good then as long as you are within a reasonable distance with a good aerial fm still sounds better. The big snag these days is that the broadcasters, along with most of the public have forgotten what good dynamic radio can sound like, instead focussing on the ultimate" listen no hiss" and plenty of level and bass that seems to pervade everything so called high end for the masses these days Not only that but back in the day the audio on FM was not being generated from a feed that probably uses lossy compression in the first place. I know its an old chestnut, but we truly have lost the plot and seem to settle for second class sound even on CD. Some very good productions of middle of the road music are ruined by the actual mastering which seems to suggest that it was done in the, , lets shove in a brick wall limiter and push off down the pub method. Brian

[Phi]

I use a Tandberg TR1010 stereo receiver (circa 1972), had to replace the output electrolytics a few years ago.

[Andrew]

I had an AIWA AX7400 which was brilliant. I bought it in 1978 after buying my first house and went out to buy a bed one weekend and came back with this Tuner-Amp, and then slept on a mattress on the floor for a few more years.

Getting rid of it in 2006 in favour of an Onky CR515DAB was a mistake. The Onkyo works fine, apart from DAB which is rubbish here in West Sussex, so I am listening to Classic FM on FM right now - perfect.

[damduck-egg]

We use the freeview signal a lot as FM reception around here isn't that good, our TV allows you to turn the screen off completely so I would not think there is that much in it.

G Harman

[Bill Wright]

It's neither 'ere nor there in the grand scheme of things, anyway. I just don't worry about that sort of thing. I think one thing that goes wrong in people's heads when they retire is that they start to worry about tiny things, so I resist it.

Bill

[Woody]

Definitely +1, but resistance is futile.

[Norman Wells]

If your hearing dulls, as it does with age, the source of your hi-fi won't make any difference anyway. You'll have lost the 'hi'.

[Indy Jess John]

When I was (much) younger I was lucky enough to live near pubs that had live musical acts, and if I wanted to watch the performers I had to get close enough to them that I was very close to their loudspeakers. It was quite common to lay in bed afterwards with a whistle in my ears, though luckily by the time I had woken up in the morning my hearing seemed back to normal.

I am not anywhere near deaf in my retirement, but you are spot on with the prediction that I have lost some of the 'hi'. I can hear it, but probably not at a comparative volume to the bass.

Jim