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    Tunerreviews PDF

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    danvmarinescu

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 8
    O SISNET ___TUNERS SLES U R wala Tio KOO ESNEITI LOOKED AGAIN RECENTLY AT SOME TUNER REVIEWS | wrote en and more years ago, noting my enthusiasm for such products asthe Yarvaha C17000, which war fited with 3 ‘Special narrow fiter, and for various other famous models. My favourite was the Trio KTITZ which had the most outstanding performance of any tuner that | had measured. n general Service it had one snag, however, at leest in North London: that of Picking up some form of medium-wave Interference which came | through as a very low level whistle behind stereo programmes, and ‘which could never eliminate "Those older tuners always seemed tobe well up to specification on FF input sensitivity, usually around 1nV for 3068 IHF. Looking through figures on at least two dozen tuners tested in the ast two or 50 years, though struck me that hardly any of them met their Specified sensitiviy. began to wonder I the test equipment itself could be incorrect at very low levels, but when |used a muTek Band 2 preamplifier inthe aorial feed tothe tuner under scrutiny almost Invariably got figures that were even better than those of the old {uners. Obviously tuner manufacturere nave abandoned eensitivity” infavour of front-end intermodulation performance and selectivity, In general thai nota bad thing, as long aa manufacturers o honest about t It istrue that most households with a reasonable ‘2erial system can pick up several FM stations at signal strengths far higher han im, butthe problom is that gech vanemiter generates noise offchannel. you are receiving a typieal BOC transmission at 2 ‘gnazrength of, say, Tomy then wil undoubtedly be introducing ‘80dB) quite a way off channel, thus ‘Considering the number of Song statane gett inthe Tuner, one can see that accumulted off-channel vansmitter noise can increase the noi floor ofthe tuner bby many ds, but, ofcourse, in these circumstances ultimate ‘sensitivity is not so important. However, if you are in an area where {a) the station strengths are well below Im, (b) there are.no very strong signals just outside the band, and (c) the tuner's RF selectivity Is also very good, you can use as mich sensitivity as you can get, to improve the subjective dynamic range of stereo transmissions. tis inthese cteumstances that modern tuners are not good enough, and ‘one can gain remendously by the addition of an external prearpiier such asthe muTek" which Nas a pw” $08 Of gan, a very ow input noise, and extremely low RF distortion “Tuner front-ends have most certainly improved in intermodulation performance, and models such as the Hitachi $800 Mk reviewed here appear tobe almost bombproot! As more and more stations come on to Band 2, front-end performance andiF selectivity nave to Improve, andthe best tuners allow the option of narrow ot wide IF selectivity. Wide selectivity gives much less dstortion end frequently improved crosstalk, whereas narrow allows the capturing of ‘Weaker station even itis close in frequency to a strong one. Ifa tuner eannot offer switchable selectivity, then its setting should be 2 {Sood compromise, as is offered on the Revox B261, which remains ‘my favourite madern tuner. aman ‘After the FM signal has been converted to audio by the Giseriminator the signal has to be decoded to give a stereophonic output. Many stereo decoders seem to be rather noley and some are Sriven so hard to avoid that noise thatthe output eet is distorted ‘Whilst the Hitachi 8500 Mk offers both low diatortion and very ‘wide dynamic range, the Dynalat, also reviewed here, has much too ‘much noise, Sometimes, the multiplex tones are inadequately filtered, withthe result that younger listeners ean be disturbed by high pitched whistles, Many tuners supplied in music centres or rack systems have these limitations. A few Japanese tuners have used a pilot tone cancellation cireuit instead ofa proper low-pass multiplex filter. These circuits may well give excellent rejection ofthe 19KH2 pilot tone, but altoo often there are nasty noises remaining on the ‘Output as 2 result of partial demodulation of signals such as ‘adio-datainformetion transmitted on extremely high frequency subearters. Very few modern tuners have retained an analogue tuning knob, favouring instead up and down pushbuttons. Two tuning modes are ‘actor ony ig BNC proavanl connector ren bron 2 Bae Tormally available, apart from direct access to memory. The firsts to peck and hunt one synthesised channel ata time. Sometuners take 9 ‘fecond or two to unmute after the frequency hae boon changed {whichis infuriating ityou are trying to sean the band for umusu Stations). The other mode, usualy called auto, scans in the raquired rection and then opens up when the tuner has found an acceptable signal. The probiem here is that models such as the Rotel wll accopt Incredibly weak signals, so that ttakes an age tolook or usable “Many tuners include AM of such abominable quality asto remove ‘any entertainment value whatsoever, distortion at low frequencies, Teaching way over 10%. There are very few decent AM receivers, around these days, which isa great pty. Returning to front-end sensitivity, the latest solig-state device, whieh offers an exceptionally fine low-noise performance, isthe Gallium Arsenide Feld Effect Trensistor(GaAe-FETT, This device was specifically designed for use at microwave frequencies above 000Miz. At rormal VHF, the device only offers a slight advantageif the circuitry surrounding itis very esoteric. But there's very serious disadvantage in using it t00, since its RF intermodulation pertormance istar worse then thet of normal lowsiuine VHF {tansistor, unless iis combined incircut with a normal wransistor with feedback However, he GaAs FET is one ofthe atest devices to hitthe market, and many hi-fi onthusiasts, Nearing thats isbeing sed for preamplifiers in satelite TV reception, might imagine that t ‘would offer a vastly superior performance on Band 2. Inthe most Carefully thought out cruits a Gas-FET might show, perhaps, 3 .4aB improvement in sensitivity. (Theoretically one night be ableto reach around 0.08,V IHF ial other parts of the circuitry are well-nigh Perfect) Unfortunately, vary few designers know how to use them properly, and having measured many GaAs-FET preamps, have boon alarmed to fing that the typical intermodulation performance can actually be 2048 worse than that of @ good NPN device, fsa 0.448 sensitivity improvement worthwhile for such a degradation in RF intermodulation on today’s crowded bands? | suggest hat the use of GaAs-FET intunereislittle more than a marketing ploy! ui ESS This model was introduced early in 186 ana atnougn wis very similar to the Mk version, the normal input RF stage has been replaced by a GaAs-FET. ‘Other minor changes in the citcuitry have been incorporated to improve the performance. When stereo signals are weaker than SOuV HP blending occurs, which degrades HF crosstalk but greatly improves the subjective signal/noise rato. ‘The RF preamplifier isa 8SK114, which is probably also 8 |GaAs:FET, but this wasn’t confirmed. The mixer, 2 35K113, is claimed in the manual to be a GaAs-FET and to have superior ‘overload properties, Asl've sai this is where | feel that the ‘marketing boys have hadan influence. Ifa tuner manufacturer wanted to design a really good front-end. he would use alow-noise NPN circutinto a fing tod mixer naving a high local oscillator injection level. This would give a fantastic performance fora ‘marginal increase n production cost, Many British-made and {designed VHF communication front-ends employ this typeof circuit to great effect, and it seems that Japan is far behind in this respect. ‘The tuners supplied in an attractive, black finished metal caee. ie auite wide at 435mm but surprisingly slim at 26mm, with a depth of, EQUIPMENT REVIEW TT a EQUIPMENT REVIEW 267m, The front panel cartes a fluorescent digital frequency ‘display having a resolution of SOkHe; the upidown frequency ‘stepping buttons operate in 50kH2 stops. Various other functions are ‘displayed on the readout: frequency lock, memory channel num {and FCCS selected (se later). Thora is also a stereo indicator. ‘Separate LEDs incicate PF attenuation onvot (labelled RF double or single, IF narrowiwide and autormanual tuning engaged. Finally, an LED indicates whether you have selected memories 1-8 or 9.16, “The front panel controls are all pushbutton types. With auto tuning selected, the up/down buttons initiate searching, with the tuner ‘Stopping at the first reasonably receivable station, in the manual ‘postion twill go up one channel at atime in 60kH2 stops, oF around {IMHzin 1. seconds ifthe button is held down, "RF band seams to h showed the Selectivity tobe excellent but at | was already rather enthusiastic about this tuner, we decided to run a complete plot of frontend bandwidth and bandwidth ofthe wide and narrow filtering, For the RF bandwidth we took the output from the mixer, bridging it with a high impedance RF probe, and plotted the respons withthe ‘Rew Marconi 2382 tracking system, using an external remixing technique. Plott shows the combination of RF and mixer output Bandwidth, rom which itcan be seen thatthe ~3dB width is around 500kH2 and the ~10d8 width around 1.3MHz. The RF bandwicth characteristics are thus quite good at rejecting strong signals at {MiHz off channel. The next plot shows the bandwicth immediately, prior to the main F fiters, although some IF roofing fitering has ready been applied. The ~ 348 width here is about 250KHe, andthe irts are rather steeper, with — 1008 bandwidth at around 400K, ‘This shows that By thi point in the cireut there isa good rejection of alternate channel signals. The third plot includes the response of both the narrow and wide fiers, The narrow plot shows 3-308 bandwidth of only 120kH2 or so, and this will eantabtntainerancad listortion, but he adjatent channel selectivity ts very good, the bandwidth at -50d8 being around 400kiz, result one sometimes finds at only 348 down inthe wide positions of afew esoterie tun “The wider plot shows @ -3dB bandwidth of around 260k, is alte excessivel The ~6008 bandwidth, however, is extremely, Wide at 84okHe. Ione bears in mind the bandwicthienergy plot Which lincluded recentiyin my Radio” column (October p33), 9 ‘300kz bandwiath would be more than enough for extremely low ‘istortion stall frequencies. Hitechi have again included their Field Condition Computer ‘System’, or FCCS for short. This gadget operates under ‘microprocessor control, and when itis engaged the tuner scans the band to look for signals reasonably close-into the tuned frequency, and for any very strong signals onthe band: i then automatically ‘selects the most appropriate IF fiter for optimum reception, ‘Theoretically it should switch in the RF etterator, but| was unable tofind a condition that caused this. This optimum setting can be {stored in momory for future uae, togather withthe frequency and ‘Stereoimono setting, Additionally, ater you have accessed @ memory you can change any ofthe parameters at wil. We ‘experimented with this facility by receiving Chitern Radio on 97.6MHz with @ high gain beam on Wrotham. The Chitern signal wes Quite weak yet was woll received with narrow IF selectivity, But when ‘Switched to wide, the tuner muted inthe stereo mode, Switched to ‘mono and wide, there was bad interference from LBC on 97.3MHz. ‘The wide selectivity gave just 15dB reduction inIF gain at LBC's frequency, whereas the narrow fiter rejected it by more than 70d8, This shows the tremer.dous improvement in reception to be had with switchable selectivity. ‘Although there are only eight memory pushbuttons, a shift button introduces eight more positions. Either medium-wave or VHF {frequencies can be stored in each memory. Use of the memory has been made very simple: one presses the memory button followed by ‘the memory channel required, The auto button gives two functions atthe same time: the on position allows the tuner to switch to stereo ‘utomatiealy fora stereo broadcast, atthe same time selecting the {auto tuning function: inthe manual postion, manual tuning ie Selected with mono reception, whether the signa iin stereo or aot. ‘Arecord ca! button mutes the tuner, and supplies a rather distorted 330H2 at 1248 below 75kH2 mono deviation, which in practice will be around 8B below normal peak storeo modulation. In the instruction book, Hitachi suggest theta cassette deck mete should read around - 1VU, and rea-to-roel deck around + 1VU. This level might be about right forthe later, but wil ikely blast the ving daylights outof an average cassette tape on program! Perhaps Hitachi assume the user will ave athree-head Nakamichi cassette deck with a very high quality metal cassette ‘Another front panel option gives a readout of signal strangtb in {dBs above TV, and this proved quite accurate, Weak signals tended to under read by 248 or 8 Burana sbovETODAV over read by { 77S WARCONE itaoi) F1980072 AF mix RES | | L ae aaa be yD ap eaters ne ae, ‘er 50.008 te Ean teano ee oma Tiare vee be PI ae chinerdeea provided for the bither viaa male terminals which are also 750hms. Two AM terminals are ited for connection toa circular loop antenna which has serew holes to allow fixing to wall ete. Thisloop is 165mm in diameter, and connects via some twisted flex Technical Measurements ‘AL 3uVEMF?2 the frontend sensitivity good, but 348 poorer than ‘many tuners of 10 years ago. With narrow selectivity the sensitivity ‘would degrade slightly because of the decreased distortion at full oo bes od ‘deviation on a very weak signal, although on average the subjective ‘Sensitivity would be slighty improved most af the time, More crackle ‘would be heard in the noise at peak modulation, which would of Course afect measurement. Two signals spaced at ! and 2MHr foft-channel at around tra created a ust audible intermodulation product on-channel, and as far as can remember this is nat as good ‘38 one of the earlier Hitachi models. The intermodulation Performance at 400/8004H.2 is around 848 worse, whilst for /4MH2 ‘spacings tis around 8dB better. This performance should be good ‘enough for most users. ‘We potted the overall frequency responses and crosstalk on both wide and narrow selectivity positions. The responses wore virwaly Fler fat rom 20H2 to 16kH2, with an extremely rapid attenuation above 16H. With wide selectivity the crosstalk plot shows a super Performance to above TOkHe, with ~45d8 from around 60H to ‘4.5kHz. Somewinat surprisingly. the crosstalk also axteemely good Fraecrenceae T Tt fo 100% modulation with narrow selectivity, which again confirms the ‘unusually good IF group time delay characteristics. The typical ‘maximum audio output for full modulation at iKrvis around 0.775V, fr ~2.24BV. (Ths level is conventionally referred to as Od8m, although itis not strictly correct The 19°384H fitering is excellent, NNote the steep roll-off above 16kH., Subjective Tests used this tuner forall my normal listening over quite a long period, and during one session tuned around the Band listening carefully for ‘weak stations very close to strong ones. Ihave a fixed Fuba antenna, Pointing ESE to Wrotham, andi picks up a rather poor signal from Chiltern radio off the back. The Hitachi picked it up superbly well with nerrow selectivity, and alsa captured quite afew Continental stations Cleary which had been most unsatisfactory on wide. The tmosphere conditions wera average The only othe tuners that hag around at the time which wore as good were the latest Revox, Which costs around 37 times more, andthe Tro, {have always been keen on previous incarnations ofthis tuner, but this version is cealy excelent Classical music on Radio 3 was 30, clean, and the high Frequency performance was particularly fine, | Confirming the measuremants we made inthe lab. The presets were ‘extremely easy to use, and the FCCS system worked very well, | athough have to admit that personally prefer to choose such parameters manually. “The AM quality was alittle better than usu \whatit could be. As usual, detector distortion, AGC chara ‘andIF distortion are stl imited. can recommend this tuner very etrongly, But would point Hie tt An {or fairy low-level one Aull deviation signal of 1kHe gave on excellent crosstalk result, even including ll the noise and ciatotion ‘components. We checked the 26dB signainoie sensitivity, bate Stereo sensitivity andimiting threshold, and these were al very good. Theimage response a RF was quite remarkable requiring Sirmost the full output of my signal yenorator fo measure it Out feeding wes ~ 11808, which should cut out intererence ror arerat flying at 200M over the house quite satisfactorily! AM rejection was 6638, again one of tne bast gures that we have measured. ‘The tuner was capable ot switching to store on a signa of around uV"The capture ratio measured particularly weat 128. Inthe wide positon the IF selectivity was indeed extremely wide (again too ‘wide) but the narrow position gave superb results, a 200k2 Offchanne station being ejected by an average of 2848, The iternate chanel selectivity st 400kK2 wes very poor on the upper Side, but he narrow selectivity was again excellant and about a8 {00d a8 have measured. “The signalnorse ratios in mono andin stereo are phenomenally 00d. An antenna signal of tmV gave a signaloise ratio. Spproaching 7308, CCIRUARM weighted, reference absolute ‘maximum deviation 80 the typical performance in practice would be around 76d8, We checked the stereo signalmoise on vary weak ‘Signals and must particulary commend the 50d8 CCIA/ARM rato for Stereo at 17uV, thisallowing weak stereo stations tobe ar more acceptable than usual “The cstorion of Tk signal sent on the sum cheno at full deviation is remerkably ow at 0.05% on the wide filter Iwas Somewhat surpried, However, atthe good figure of 0.12% th ‘this shows the extremely good group time delay Slrecensies alse fie combined wih supe ming | ‘would Tave expected a much worse figure then this having ‘examined the F passband plots. These excellent characteristics also explain the very good erossalk plots on narrow solectivity, which are Slesson to many other manutectures. ‘Ghocking distortion on wide seloctvty, by sending left or right only at 30%, and even 100% deviation, we were astonished to see Vitualy identical figures, averaging 0.05%, which hed been previously noted for =A. Figures of below 0.1% ware noted even at ‘out that it was subject tos severe supply shortage atthe time of writing (late August. DO This FM tuner is made in Brampton, Ontario, Canada and has an ‘analogue tuning system. Although it uses digital frequency readout ‘with only 100k resolution, tis possible to tune continuously to any ‘requengy. The font panel includes lever switches to select mona! stereo, IF narrow/wide, autometi frequency control onvo# and mute ‘n/t, The maine orvot switch i algo a lever and the European ‘model is nominally 20V AC, although it works perfectly satisfactorily on 240VAC. The display includes a stereo indicator and ‘meters for signal strength, multipath indication and centce tuning ‘The tuning knob (rather stiff and appesring to havea slightly var tension) provides an everage of 15MHz per rotation. The tuner is Quite large, and is fited witha rackmountable front panel, the main Body being 420mm wide, 82mm high and 257mm deep excluding projections. Audio outputs are on phono sockets on the rear pans [which also includes a captive wo-core mains lead and an infuriating {_ ‘evial threaded 7éahm coaxial connector for tho FM antenna A ‘3000hm balun is supplied with the tuner for use with balanced ‘ribbon cable. “The editor was keen for me o review this highly-recommended ‘modelo see how it would compare with modern designs from the Uk and Japan. Ihave to be frank and express my disappointment with several areas of Re audio section, Ine RE front-end factually very good, but the IF and discriminator distortion levels are nat really {g00d enough to compate with the best alternative products ‘The front-end is extremely sensitive, and uses three separate MOSFETs before the mixer, with voltage controlled tuning circuits. | suggest that there ig much too much frontend gain, andthe BEIM performance could have been significantly beter wth a complete Festhink in the RF frontend design, ‘The tuners referredto as analogue-digital. and many a potential purchaser might think thatthe use ofthe word digital implies ™odeen magic. The only digital part ofthis tuner, however, very basic frequency counter which measures the local oscillator frequency and displays the equivalent RF input chan ‘There is much tobe saidin favour af the lover switches, which! ‘much prefer to touch-sensitive pushbuttons. You can see or feel 8 [[exaativ what state a contol isn and the facies provided are just ‘what ane normaly needs in an analogue tuner. | Technical Measurements ‘The RF sensitivity was indeed excellent, achieving nearly KV ‘Sensitivity for 3048 IMF. The 26d signalinoise sensitivity was superb at around 0.6uV, but the RFIM performance was @ few dB woree than thatof the Hitachi Since the senftvty wes quite aot better, however, intermodulation products would be discernible rom considerably weaker high-level signals that areoff Thy personal favourite, despite its exremely high pri Tam slightly disturbed that the frst sample tested had 8 poor ‘rasstalk performance, so there may be some sample variations. «ean safely recommend purchase, however, sines the user would be ‘able to tell f there was 2 crosstalk problem if he tried monitoring the BBC test tone transmissions late at night. (Schedule available from the BBC's Engineering Information Department.) The BBC tranemit perhaps ~4008 crosstalk, or even better, sf you listen first on the 1d channel and then on the thearatically quiet one, You only avery slight signal Tuite liked the ergonomics of this tuner, preferring the slightly ‘range tuning knob system to up and down buttons, Indeed, users ‘who are familiar with a conventional tuning knob may wel iso prefer Trio's system. tis a fascinating tuner, but wish leould have known more about its technical background, Rotel RESSOL SED ‘Another metal encased tuner with a black finish! thas synthesiser ‘controlled tuning on FM, LW and MW. Although there are only eight memory buttons, each memory can store both an FM and an AM Irequency, AM combining the LW anc MW ranges, Putting ‘frequency into memory is very simple: press the memory button {followed by the required channal. On FM, the tuner operates in the ‘Usual SOkH steps with up and down buttons. On AM the medium ‘wave increments are set at kHz, but on ong. wave IKHs used, ely Necessary at the moment whilst new {requencies are being sorted out in Europe. This makes LW tuning incredibly iaborious, but atleast you can use presets for those Stations that you require regulaly. “Two basic tuning modes are available when using the up and down tuning buttons. When the selectors set to auto, and one of the tuning buttonsis pressed, the receiver finds the next fairly strong signal, stops on itand then unmutes (if muting is switched on. ‘muting is of, you can hear it chuaaina across the band, but sil Feascnably muted while scanning, twas not poseibie to find Chitern radio'on 37.6MH2 in auto mode as it was too weak for the automatic tuning sensor. This is nota bad thing, for twill enable the next “Station giving a reasonable signal to be found faity quickly. iv Uwe ‘manual mode, the buttons either change channel in SOKHz stops, or, Itheld down, increment at around 38 per Miz. Each time the button is depressed, the tuner takes around 08s to change channel and then | capture ratio wes no more than fairly gooe ‘Selectivity a 400KHz was only good on one side, Image rejection was acceptable at 83d8, but was again beaten hollow by the Hitachi, AM rejection was very poor at ~ 4448, so be aware of ignition problems for thermostat interference on weaker signals “The muting and stereo switching thresholds were atthe same point, opening up at just above Suv, which is quite sensible. The 2.248, and | would hhave expected rather beter, considering the wide IF bandwidth “The frequency responses on left and right channels were extemely flat from 20H2 to at least 17kHz, and the response charts Show the use of an automatic pilot tone rejection circuit, for the response comes up again at 20kH2.As ve sai, in my experience ‘ch circuits tend to produce supersonic subcarrier breakthrough problems, including radio-data interference. leannot understand how the message about steep low-pass fters for Europe has filed to.reach Rotel’s design team. The crosstalk charts show an, ‘acceptable performance, averaging at ~s4dB across te boara, ut once again | wouldhhave expected Detter, “The signalinise ratio in stereo is quite reasonable atjust over ‘7068 re fll modulation, but is easily bettered by the Hitachi and Trio ‘models. One might notice just a few dB more nolee than is possible on the best broadcasts, although this results very many dB better ‘than that ofthe Dynalab. 5008 SIN is reached in stereo for an input ‘signal of around 271V. The sum channel distortion at TkHfor full

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