I will plan to stick with the Carver and Onkyo tuners then. Both handle weak signals well. I will have to set up a outdoor antenna when I can figure out where to put it.
Tuner or Receiver
I'll preface my main point and question by saying that I recently bought a used Yamaha RX 596 Receiver which is around 15 years old. After biwiring my Castle Conway 3 Towers to it, I have been blown away by the sound from this system. Far better than any previous amp I've used with these speakers and probably due to the 85 wpc vs 60 wpc or less and only using a single speaker cable for each.
This leads me to the question about tuners and receivers. Currently I have a Carver TX11a and also a Onkyo T-4310r. Both are quite old but still work fine. But... Has recent tuner technology advanced beyond the the units from the 80's and 90's? Is the sensitivity of the AM and FM sections superior these days and is the selectivity also better? I don't need Digital FM and still listen to analog AM and FM. Just want to know if I would be better off with a new tuner or receiver that would offer better audio quality or better signal capturing ability? The tuner in the RX 596 is OK but also dates to about the same time as the Onkyo tuner. Onkyo seems better too.
This leads me to the question about tuners and receivers. Currently I have a Carver TX11a and also a Onkyo T-4310r. Both are quite old but still work fine. But... Has recent tuner technology advanced beyond the the units from the 80's and 90's? Is the sensitivity of the AM and FM sections superior these days and is the selectivity also better? I don't need Digital FM and still listen to analog AM and FM. Just want to know if I would be better off with a new tuner or receiver that would offer better audio quality or better signal capturing ability? The tuner in the RX 596 is OK but also dates to about the same time as the Onkyo tuner. Onkyo seems better too.
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- 31 posts total
billbartuska I have a Yamaha CR-1020 (1977 - 1980) that has an excellent tuner. You can even tune out multipath distortion (from signals bouncing off buildings)..That's interesting. Will you please explain how it "tunes out" multipath distortion? |
yogiboy Tuner technology has not changed.Oh no, this is quite mistaken. While at the low-end of the market things may be the same, there has been tremendous change at the upper-end by using DSP. There are a few tuners that take advantage of this, not the least of which is the McIntosh MR-88 which - oddly - has recently been discontinued. Crown and DIVA also make DSP-based tuners. Whether these represent worthy audible improvements is a matter of debate, of course. But to say the technology has not changed is just not accurate. |
antenna - yes your location decides whether you need the best sensitivity or the best selectivity - many tuners are better at one than the other Magnum Dynalab is legendary and Yamaha (which I have) might be 2nd best Peter Aczel (Audio Cryptic) once tested a car stereo tuner against home ones - the car unit won there is a nice web site somewhere that is solely devoted to FM Tuners |
- 31 posts total