Help for my receiver's tuner

[little wing]

Hi folks,

The tuner in my Yamaha RX-V2500 is not very strong. It has problems pulling in some local stations. My question is, do those powered FM antennas work?? And if so, does anyone have a suggestion on which one to buy? Thanks a lot.

 

[markw]

All receivers, regardless of their type need a good antenna to deliver their best performance. You could have the bestest, mostest expensive tuner in the world and hobble it with a piss poor antenna and the guy next store with a mediocre tuner and a good antenna will whup yer butt any day.

Your antenna needs depend on where you are, where the stations you want to listen to are geographically in relation to you, and the terrain and buildings between you and the them.

My experience with little powered antennas has not been good and I'm in a good signal area. You're generally better off with something like this or a pair of rabbit ears that were made for TV reception.

In all cases, the higher up you can mount it, the better off you will be. FM is basically a line of site medium and mountains or buildings between you and the station can have detrimental effects on your reception.

If, like me, you are blessed to be in an area rich in stations in all directions and fairly close by, you can do well with an inexpensive omnidirectional antenna. This is similar to the one I use.

If you're in the boonies and your nearest station is a looooooong distance (35 miles +) you'll probably want a directional antenna, which has greater range but only in the one direction that it is aimed.

Here's an example of one of those

To compound this, if the stations are far away and in all directions, you'll probably want a rotator so you can aim the antenna at whatever station tickles your fancy at that moment.

Granted, there are bigger, more powerful antennas available but these two are fairly representative of what's out there. I use one similar to the one on the bottom. That, and an inexpensive amp, is driving three FM tuners with virtually no noise. When I only had two FM's, I didn't need the amp but, each time you split the signal it gets weaker and, at some point, the camel's back breaks.

RatShack used to offer antennas similar to these, both in performance and pricing. You might want to start your shopping there. You might want to see what else they (and antennacraft for that matter) have to offer as far as antenna stuff goes BUT keep in mind that those monstorous combination VHF/UHF/FM antennas will most likely not work as well as a cheap FM only antenna. Only a few elements are dedicated to FM while on the dedicated FM antennas, they are designed for ONLY FM.

Good luck...

P.S.. Here's a fun toy to play with.
Check out the advanced options, zip code and state.

 

[little wing]

Mark, thank you for the great information you provided. It is very helpful! I live in Philly. There are lots of stations here like any big city. Some of the major stations just don't come through at all unless I continuously play with the placement of the antenna. There are also several local college stations that don't have a strong signal but play great alternative music. The receiver is on the second floor of a very old stone house (Which may be part of the problem) I will try one of your solutions. Thanks again.

 

[highfigh]

The problem is that radio isn't as popular as a main source as it once was and because of this, equipment manufacturers don't put much money into the tuner. For that matter, they don't put much into the phono section and seeing how Denon makes some very nice cartridges, I find it odd that they don't have a MM/MC switch or enough gain/proper impedance for MC cartridges in their AVR/stereo receivers/integrated amps.

 

[markw]

The problem is that radio isn't as popular as a main source as it once was and because of this, equipment manufacturers don't put much money into the tuner. For that matter, they don't put much into the phono section and seeing how Denon makes some very nice cartridges, I find it odd that they don't have a MM/MC switch or enough gain/proper impedance for MC cartridges in their AVR/stereo receivers/integrated amps.

Just be thankful they still have built-in phono preamps in their receivers. That's a rarity nowadays.

Besides, when people wanna go for the hi-glitz cartridges tey usually want a separate phono stage and, heaven forbid, they feed it into a humble HT receiver. [/sarcasm mode off]

 

[mtrycrafts]

Mark, thank you for the great information you provided. It is very helpful! I live in Philly. There are lots of stations here like any big city. Some of the major stations just don't come through at all unless I continuously play with the placement of the antenna. There are also several local college stations that don't have a strong signal but play great alternative music. The receiver is on the second floor of a very old stone house (Which may be part of the problem) I will try one of your solutions. Thanks again.

What antenna do you use now? Do you have access to an attic? A roof?

College stations are very weak, 10 watts maybe?

 

[little wing]

I use the antenna that came with the receiver. It's a single piece of wire with an F-connector that you just push on. unfortunately I do not have access to the roof or attic.

 

[m_vanmeter]

spending very little money, and a few hours experimenting with "wire antennas" could help out quite a bit.

http://www.wryr.org/Antenna_instructions.pdf

http://www.cyberpoet.net/writes/web/infwiz/spant.html

http://www.mikestechblog.com/joomla/misc/54-fm-antenna/130-build-indoor-fm-antenna-plans.html

this is for the serious experimenter !!! http://www.moxonantennaproject.com/fmdxer/The Indoor Moxon FM Antenna.pdf

with the exception of the "turnstile" omnidirectional antenna mentioned above, all these antennas are directional, even a simple "T" dipole antenna receives best off the sides of the "T" (perpendicular to the long axis of the antenna). So, once you build something, try moving it around for the best reception.

Try entering your address into www.fmfool.com and get the results, it will give you both a true (map) heading and a magnetic (compass) heading to the transmitter so you know where the signal is coming from.

 

[little wing]

Thanks M Vanmeter. Looks like a bit of a project, but not too hard to do.

 

[bikdav]

Good Point

My experience with little powered antennas has not been good and I'm in a good signal area. You're generally better off with something like this or a pair of rabbit ears that were made for TV reception.

Hey MarkW, thank you for your input on this. I was wondering about the powered antennas also. Any of the ones that I've tried have caused more problems than they solved. So, I guess I'm not the only one that noticed this.

 

[GoFastr]

A lot more FM radio stations are broadcasting over the internet too. I get a much better listening experience via the internet than trying to use the tuning through my FM antenna. If your AVR doesn't support an internet connection maybe a suggestion is to run a media player connection (xBox360, or other less $ devices) to it that can connect to your PC or laptop?

 

[Swerd]

little wing - I have little to add to mark's advice - it is both correct and complete.

Because you have no access to the roof or attic and you live in big city with lots of signals, the simplest thing to try, and least expensive, is a simple set of TV rabbit ears. As mark already said, avoid those with built-in signal amplifiers.

FM radio is limited to a narrow range of radio frequencies between over-the-air broadcast TV channels 6 and 7. Any simple TV antenna can pick that up. Some TV antennas are equipped with a device, an FM Trap, to block FM radio signals, but they clearly say so in their instructions.

TV rabbit ears should work just as well as the T-shaped wire antennas, called folded FM dipoles. To work well, folded dipoles must be mounted upright and spread out, and need rotating to find the best reception for each station. Usually folded dipoles either end up lying on the floor or have to be tacked to the wall.

Rabbit ears stand up on their own and you can easily rotate them by hand to get the best reception.

 

[bikdav]

You are right.

A lot more FM radio stations are broadcasting over the internet too. I get a much better listening experience via the internet than trying to use the tuning through my FM antenna. If your AVR doesn't support an internet connection maybe a suggestion is to run a media player connection (xBox360, or other less $ devices) to it that can connect to your PC or laptop?

I actually took a short cut. I have a MAC running to the CD input on my receiver _ 3.5mm three conductor jack at the MAC and left and right RCA jacks at the receiver. I had to install a ground loop isolator between the two to remove a loud buzz that was running between the two. I'm told that this is a very common problem when you connect a computer to an audio system. Yet, all is well and the sound quality is excellent from my standpoint.

 

[little wing]

All great ideas folks. I thought about running some type of connection from my PC to the receiver, accept it would be a very long run of wires. The Rx-V2500 is an older model and does not have an Ethernet port on the back, so I would have to invest in a device to connect the receiver and my PC. I think I am going to experiment with different antennas, and see how that works. You guys are really a wealth of information. I love this site.

 

[little wing]

Ironically, one of the stations I listen to is changing frequencies from 107.9 to the more powerful 100.3. I had no idea that different frequencies have different strenghts. As it turns out 107.9 operates with 780 watts at 906 feet. 100.3 is a more powerful 17kW, and is directional class B. Who knew?!

 

[bikdav]

Yep.

Ironically, one of the stations I listen to is changing frequencies from 107.9 to the more powerful 100.3. I had no idea that different frequencies have different strenghts. As it turns out 107.9 operates with 780 watts at 906 feet. 100.3 is a more powerful 17kW, and is directional class B. Who knew?!

Weird. But, I too was told that about radio station frequencies. If push comes to shove, I encourage you to try using your computer. If you use the hook up that I use, I don't think that the length of the run will cause any problems. If you absolutely must have a computer nearby, buy a laptop for that purpose. Most laptops will leave even the best tuners in the dust audio quality wise.

 

[GoFastr]

Agreed. With iPads and tablets beng the latest craze I'm sure you can pick up a used netbook for around $100-$150. These will have wifi so no need to run wires. (that's if you have wifi at home already)

 

[little wing]

More good ideas. I do have a wireless network at my house. I suppose I could purchase a notebook for this purpose. That way I would have access to more music sources. Pandora, Tune in radio, and the many stations that broadcast over the net.

 

[mtrycrafts]

More good ideas. I do have a wireless network at my house. I suppose I could purchase a notebook for this purpose. That way I would have access to more music sources. Pandora, Tune in radio, and the many stations that broadcast over the net.

That could solve your antenna issues.

 

[little wing]

Yeah man. If I can score an inexpensive laptop, and the gear to connect it. The antenna is obsolete. No experience with internet music played through a receiver though, just curoius, what's the quality like?