Down and Out with the Yamaha TX-1000 Tuner...

Congrats on the deal :)....

I am fairly sure that the Ham radio store does not have any Metz since I found an area on their website that you can hoover over each location and it says "Pending Delivery". That tells me they are out, so glad that I ordered the ST-2.
 
Yesterday I played around a bit with antenna placement with the cheapie folded dipole I have. Shortly after however, we sat down for dinner, then after to watch some TV, so I never really got a chance to listen to the TX-1000. I just set it on 98.3 WWRZ "The Max" which is where I have it playing during the day while I'm at work.

Well, I just got home from work about 20 minutes ago, and switched over to 89.7 WUSF as they always play "All Night Jazz" from 9pm to 5am. As I'm sitting here listening (signal quality is somewhat steady between 30-40 on the meter), it sounds like I'm listening to CD with the most analog sounding DAC... Meaning very dynamic, clean and noise free with the fullness, warmth and soothing sound of a quality record. There's also a quite impressive sound stage with decent imaging.

I honestly never knew you could get this kind of reproduction from FM. I'm so glad I got back into tuners and especially glad that I did my homework and got this particular tuner.

I can't wait to see how the Carver TX-11a compares.
 
Both the Carver and ST-2 arrive Friday. And speaking of arriving, I just now ordered not one, but two of the C.Crane FM Reflect antennas. These will arrive this Wednesday.

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Randy Myers said:
Nice... when does the Carver arrive?
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Ok, but with the ST-2, why do you need the other antennas? My ST-2 is slated to arrive Thursday. :)
 
Because most likely, I'm going to run both tuners in my system. Don't ask me why, because I don't know.
 
Two tuners... man you jumped in with both feet :)... I have thought about adding a TM-1 module to have two tuners in one box just because I can... but then I just can't seem to figure any use for it :D....

By the way Amazon is now down to just 4 ST-2's remaining in stock.
 
Charles.......I will be interested in your impression of the C. Crane FM antenna. I may consider it to replace my Godar FM antenna that I use on the Tandberg 3011A tuner in my vintage system.
 
So Dan the ST-2 is arriving Thursday. I was disappointed with the Godar, and the Metz was sold out... but glad Amazon got some back in. They are down to only 4 remaining!

For two tuner use would there be any issue with splitting the coax wire to feed both from his ST-2... or would that cut back the signal too much?
 
Yeah, I know. It's crazy. I go from no tuner, to my original tuner, to two, actually 3 counting the original. You can thank Dan for getting me interested in tuners again. LOL

And this is my reasoning for the two C.Crane antennas...

I figured if the Carver is "that" good at pulling in distant stations and keeping them quiet and listenable while drastically reducing or eliminating multipath issues, I would dedicate the MD ST-2 to it, and have both C.Crane antennas connected to the two inputs on the Yamaha. I'll have one facing east and west where my existing folded dipole is right now, the other with a 12' coax cable to take it around the corner, placing it over the sliding glass doors (hid behind the blinds), which faces north and south. That way, the Carver has an omni antenna and the Yamaha has a makeshift omni antenna. All I have to do is switch between the two via the tuner.

Randy Myers said:
Two tuners... man you jumped in with both feet :)... I have thought about adding a TM-1 module to have two tuners in one box just because I can... but then I just can't seem to figure any use for it :D....

By the way Amazon is now down to just 4 ST-2's remaining in stock.
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Dan, from what I've read, those antennas do pretty good. Of course, some say it's only as good as the typical dipole, others say it's better than the ST-2. I feel it really depends on placement, how willing you are to dedicate enough time for proper placement, and the tuner used. At 20 bucks, you certainly can't beat that deal. I hope they do help draw in stronger signals. However, more interesting to me will be how the Carver and Yamaha compare to each other.

jdandy said:
Charles.......I will be interested in your impression of the C. Crane FM antenna. I may consider it to replace my Godar FM antenna that I use on the Tandberg 3011A tuner in my vintage system.
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I was originally thinking of using a splitter as well between the ST-2 and both tuners, until I started thinking about the possible weakening of the signal. Just those typical 300 to 75 ohm adapters cost you roughly -0.75 dB of signal loss. It doesn't sound like much, but is a pretty decent hit on an indoor dipole antenna.

Randy Myers said:
So Dan the ST-2 is arriving Thursday. I was disappointed with the Godar, and the Metz was sold out... but glad Amazon got some back in. They are down to only 4 remaining!

For two tuner use would there be any issue with splitting the coax wire to feed both from his ST-2... or would that cut back the signal too much?
Click to expand...
 
I blame Dan too. He's good at getting the excitement flowing. Must resist. ;)
 

Randy.......A two-way splitter takes the input signal strength and routes half of it to one output and the other half to the second output. In other words, 100% of a given signal strength at the input side of the splitter and 50% of that input signal strength at each of the two outputs. Signal strength is typically measured in decibles, so a two way splitter has a loss at its two outputs of 3.5dB.

Some people will add a signal amplifier to the input side before a splitter to boost the signal by 5 to 10dB in their attempt to offset the signal loss of the splitter. Unfortunately the signal plus the noise captured by the antenna get amplified. If you use a splitter to share a single antenna with two tuners, you are better off without the signal amplifier when it comes to signal quality, particularly if you are in an area where strong radio signals are present. Take note, the ST-2 antenna has a 2.5dB gain. This will help offset a signal loss in a two-way splitter to some degree.
 
Speaking of multiple tuners in one system, do you guys think there would be any issues have two of them stacked on each other? Would they cause interference with each other if both were turned on at the same time?
 
The ST-2 arrived. Getting it out of the tube was a pain :)... A bit of experimenting finally best bet was to hang it from the whip tied to the curtain rack (one of their suggestions in their paperwork. Well it does a nice job... I would say the Terk FM-50 did as well here, however it is a lot bulkier and figuring in future locations when/if we move the MD ST-2 will be much easier to find a spot.

As crazy as it may seem, a couple stations may sound a little better even though they were 9 signal strength previously. Anyway I think this is the best I am going to do with an antenna in doors and place and forget.

Listening to the ST-2 a little more... some stations just sound fuller, richer, even though the signal is the same... is that nuts or does that make sense at all? I tell ya, the MR85 is sounding really really good!

I am still experimenting with placement trying to find the best spot. Laying on the Windowsill seems to pull everything except NPR perfect, but the NPR station comes in perfect when the ST-2 is hanging from the curtain rod :).... I just got to find the best spot in the room. I am kind of surprised that even the ST-2 seems to vary quite a bit in placement.

I finally found a spot that works.... clear taped the bracket to the window and the whip up... at this position all of my stations that I can get reasonably well are coming in at full signal strength of 9 in stereo!
 
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