[doug s.]

I have had good tuners before, the one I had last was a Kenwood KT-3300D, if you know anything about FM you realize Kenwood made some of the best.  My KT-3300D sounded as good as an Arcam tuner but killed the Arcam in regards to reception.  I know subjectively there were better however taking in to account the FM frequency response is only about 50 to 15k at max I don't see how any one can make an argument a tuner can hold it's own against quality CDP or turntable.  I'm glad you all enjoy the radio hobby but let's keep some perspective.  At the time I sold my tuner I was using a Krell CDP and still have my Rega P3 table.

I've had pretty good success with Terk, sort of rabbit ear style antenna.  The higher you can place the antenna the better though, so I'm sure if it's feasible the attic style would give better results.

i have never owned the kt3300d, but i have owned several kenwoods.  (jim rivers rated the kt3300 favorably in his "shootouts" on the fmtunerinfo site, fwiw...)  my experience has been that they have excellent reception, w/so-so sound, unless modded - then they can sound spectacular.  (i am not referring to the sought after l-02t, which i have not heard, and is supposed to sound great in stock form).  my stock kt8300 had great reception with truly boring sound.  my modded kt7500 and l-07tll had fantastic sound.

regarding frequency response, that is not the whole story, and it isn't quite true, either.  better tunas are flat from 20hz to past 16khz.  i have a fine digital and analog set-up, and my best tunas easily compete sonically.  (seriously modded art di/o dac w/audio alchemy acd-pro as transport; oracle delphi mkv w/o-l dc motor kit, o-l silver taper arm, ortofon mc25-fl, pentagon ps-3 fono stage.)  on more than one occasion, i have had the system cranked up, when guests have come over; they listened and commented how fantastic it sounds, and when they asked what i was playing, they were flabbergasted when i said: "i dunno, it's the radio".   

my fave tunas include but are not limited to modded sherwood s3000v, modded sansui tu-x1, modded hk citation 18, stock citation 18, modded heathkit aj1600, stock aj1600, modded rotel rht-10, aiwa at9700u, onix bwd-1/soap-2, revox b261...  others i have owned that are also fantastic include modded sansui tu9900, stock tu9900, modded accuphase t109, modded mitsubishi da-f20, stock da-f20, rotel rt2100, accuphase t100, accuphase t101, audiolab 8000t, philips ah6731, revox b760...  and a whole slew of others that are nearly as good, many of which i still own.   

again, my comment that quality fm can sound as good as cd or winyl comes from experience, not "specs".  hearing is believing.   

ymmv,

doug s.

ps - yes, a proper antenna like a directional yagi, will give better results, especially if you are not wery close to the station you are wanting to receive.

[toocool4]

My KT-3300D sounded as good as an Arcam tuner but killed the Arcam in regards to reception. 

I don’t think Arcam and quality belong in the same sentence do they? Arcam are just boring and safe British manufacturer, a bit like Linn.

Check out this link to read about good Tuners http://fmtunerinfo.com/shootouts.html#T-109

[richidoo]

I listen to a lot of FM radio. I have a Sansui TU-717 with a RS FM Yagi at 45 feet, pointed towards 100kW classical station 26 miles away that broadcasts with very high fidelity music. It is compressed though, but still sounds good. I buy a lot of the CDs that I hear playing there. Two college jazz stations play jazz around the clock, lower wattage, but good sound. One of them plays vinyl on one day a week, but the EQ is tilted a little up, and one of their CD players is screwed up. The cool thing is that I can hear all these subtle details. Love the tuner, and the free music I can get.  The kids love the pop stations and playing loud music on Daddy's stereo.

Using Google Earth I can find the antenna towers and get the exact heading and distance. I want to re-aim the yagi toward the weaker further jazz stations, since the big classical station comes in strong without direct aiming.

One thing that is annoying is that one of the FM talk stations that I like is being swamped by a pop and a country station that are closer and more powerful. I was told by their radio engineer and friend of mine, that I need to notch out the offending station or use a weaker antenna when listening to the talk station. He said the front end of the tuner is clipping. Any ideas on a very weak FM antenna with 75 ohm coax connection? The 300ohm screws were disconnected when the 75ohm jack was installed. Can both antenna inputs be made active?  I guess it would be easier to just use a 75>300 tranny on the coax input.

The sansui has the output stage modded with Black gate caps. But there are still a lot of old electrolytic caps in the tuner section. My friend will replace those this summer, he expects the SQ to improve further with those updated. I want to put Belleson regulators on the output, they make everything sound better. The guy who did the black gates and FM alignment put 6V flashlight bulbs in the display, which burned out quickly since there is 8V rail. So I got some 10V leaded bulbs from Mouser to replace them.

Rich

[doug s.]

rich,

it sounds like you need a rotor on your antenna set-up, to fine tune to different stations.  it would likely really help w/the talk station that is plagued by more powerful adjacents.

perhaps an easier solution for you would be to get a switchbox and hook up an indoor antenna for only that station, and then you could adjust it as needed.  i would not recommend reconnecting the 300 ohm input on your tuna; having it disconnected means more gain for the main connection.  better to simply have the reduced gain antenna for the one problem station.

another worthwhile improvement would be to have a bill ammons filter adder board installed in your tu717.  matched filters will improve reception and sound in both wide and narrow mode.  and, you can get filters even more narrow than stock, for narrow mode, which will reduce and/or eliminate the interference from powerful adjacent stations.

the tu717 is a fine sounding tuna, even in stock set up.  proper alignment and mods will get it close to as good as it gets...

doug s.

ps - for compressed stations (and for compressed cd's and winyl as well), a dbx dynamic range expander, in the tape loop of a preamp, can make compressed music have much more life to it.  and having it in a tape loop means it won't be in the signal path when not in use...

[Doublej]

Any ideas on a very weak FM antenna with 75 ohm coax connection?

Would one of these work for you?

http://www.amazon.com/RCA-ANT111-Basic-Indoor-Antenna/dp/B000HKGK8Y