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FM Tuners: You should hear my Aura!

Bagga

Our amps go to 11!
I have been enjoying so FM stereo wireless reproduction recently through my cheap and cheerful NAD tuner and benefiting frommy roof top aerial.

I decided that I might lookto upgrade and made an audacious bid of a whole £100 guineas for a Naim tuner on Fleebay, (which ended at little short of £1400!).

Undeterred,I sought more cost effective upgrades on Fleabay - toyed with and Arcam tuner and then found an Aura T50 with little interest.

Mine for £32, I received and plugged her in today and WOW! What a bargain! Very neutral and revealing! Found myself listening to an engaging folk session Mike HArding's show on Radio 2 and bit of Mahler on 3 this evening. Gone is the "NAD" sound with a slightly over rich bass and lower mid and now I just have fabulous music! Suddenly the tuner is a source to be reckoned with and even the compressed local commercial statio sounds less ghastly!

Thanks to Phil theebay seller fro Plymouth! BARGAIN! Bagga'contentment...

BTW: IS it true that FM will die out in exchange for this ner fangled digital radio? I doudt it will happen any time soon!...here's hoping!
 
Well done. It's magical innit? I cannot see a switch off any time soon with millions of FM radios in cars, can you?
 
Once you've got a decent aerial, it's amazing how good a sound you can get for so little with FM. Happy listening.

EDIT: the earliest possible switch-off date I've heard is 2015 and even that looks mightily unrealistic. £32 for 5 years use = bargain.
 
well I'm to pick up a Cambridge Audio T500 tomorrow FOC from a very generous pfm'er. Ok, maybe not in the same audio league but I'm happy with my firt step on the tuner ladder for many years. Now, how can I scrape together the cash for a rooftop aerial?

Ps, the revox sounds nice.
 
A couple of years ago, I paid £51 for a Sansui SR222 turntable, some Sansui cassette deck but also a TU-7900 tuner as a job lot from Ebay. So £17 for the tuner - that's a bargain!
 
That's no bargain - my nice and mint Revox A76 Mk2 arrived today - £37.00.....:D

I did look at a nice older Revox tuner on fleabay, but decided that I wanted some presets for convenience and to allow my wife and kids to use the radio! :)

I do think that Aura is a bargain and decent source in my system with an LP12 and AAAA5 CD player.

The external FM aerial is the key! Just a cheap multidirectional unit fitted on the pole of my TV aerial works wonders!
 
I understand that, I was just being cheeky...:D

The Aura is a nice, mellow sounding tuner, far better than the digital jobbies.
 
I did look at a nice older Revox tuner on fleabay, but decided that I wanted some presets for convenience and to allow my wife and kids to use the radio! :)

I do think that Aura is a bargain and decent source in my system with an LP12 and AAAA5 CD player.

The external FM aerial is the key! Just a cheap multidirectional unit fitted on the pole of my TV aerial works wonders!

Would you be able to share with us which aeriel you have? Ive a half decent arcam tuner doing f'all under my naim boxes as its aeriel is just 2 bits of cable clothespegged to an adjacent curtain (did get ok reception, now its all gone fuzzy) couldn't/can't afford schmancy roof-top job, but, if there's an affordable one...


cheers capt.
 
I'm using a cheap ribbon aerial and live about 25 miles away from a 250kW transmitter with _absolutely nothing_ in the way of the signal for the entire distance. I get a really good clear reception with this but wonder if I would benefit further from an upgraded loft aerial, and if so what those benefits would be?
 
My old technics ST600 was pretty good when connected to the external FM aerial but the recent purchase of a Marantz ST-17 (£49 :)) showed me how good a tuner can be. :cool:
 
A couple of years ago, I paid £51 for a Sansui SR222 turntable, some Sansui cassette deck but also a TU-7900 tuner as a job lot from Ebay. So £17 for the tuner - that's a bargain!

That is a bargain. £51 for the tuner alone would be good value. Old Sansui tuners are fab (I have the 9900)
 
That is a bargain. £51 for the tuner alone would be good value. Old Sansui tuners are fab (I have the 9900)

Agreed. I have the 9500. Had it serviced, recapped and the alignment checked and it has proved to be a fantastic bargain.

Steve
 
Would you be able to share with us which aeriel you have? Ive a half decent arcam tuner doing f'all under my naim boxes as its aeriel is just 2 bits of cable clothespegged to an adjacent curtain (did get ok reception, now its all gone fuzzy) couldn't/can't afford schmancy roof-top job, but, if there's an affordable one...


cheers capt.

Captain!

It really is a cheapy! Something similar to this one at Maplins going for £12.99

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=874

My TV aerial is on a longish pole (required in my area) and the FM unit is mounted in same pole just below! I believe that given its round shape(and it is omnidirectional) means that it is not sensitve to the direction in whihc it is mounted.

If you are feeling flush, Maplins also do this one at £14.99:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=36358

All you then need is to feed some coaxial cable down to where your tuner is!

I have no doubt that much better aerials are available, at a price, but I am staggered at what I am hearing with this one and don't intend any ungradeitis to affect it. Sounds more like CD than a radio with no significant hiss or interference.... :)

BTW: I did rather double the cost of the tuner (SHHH! don't tell Mrs Bagga)! by adding a new power cable (I have these on my amps and CD player also and am very happy with the investment and improvements over a basic kettle lead!):

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/IEC-MAINS-LEA...uting_CablesConnectors_RL&hash=item518ade3a55

and a QED Aerial cable (wanted better shielding and generally don't like to be using the cheapest plasticy leads):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0001205P2/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

Good luck!
 
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You just need to keep your eyes open. I bagged a Kenwood KT5020 for £20 buy it now on ebay last year and sold my naim tuner (nat3) for £520 the next week. No comparison. Andy.
 
I'm using a cheap ribbon aerial and live about 25 miles away from a 250kW transmitter with _absolutely nothing_ in the way of the signal for the entire distance. I get a really good clear reception with this but wonder if I would benefit further from an upgraded loft aerial, and if so what those benefits would be?

One advantage of using a 3 or 4 element aerial is that they are much more directional. This reduces multi-path (reflected signal) interference. It is also very difficult to overload any tuner and the stronger the signal the better most sound. My Dad was in line of sight of a main transmitter and could not believe the improvement when we properly fitted a 3 element aerial.

Nic P
 
You just need to keep your eyes open. I bagged a Kenwood KT5020 for £20 buy it now on ebay last year and sold my naim tuner (nat3) for £520 the next week. No comparison. Andy.

So did the Kenwood sound better than the Naim? I have heard very good things about the KT-5020.
 
So did the Kenwood sound better than the Naim? I have heard very good things about the KT-5020.

If it did then is says a great deal about brand loyalty and the fact that the newst kit from the best known naimes is not always the best! I guess that it comes back to the view that you need to hear a component before you can know if its right for you and/or worth the outlay and I am as guilty as anyone else of buying used and blind on the basis of the make/reputation!

I remain very happy with my 35 (ish) year old KEF (105/1) speakers considering what I paid for them. I must admit that some of this may be nostalgia from the times when I saw the later versions 30 years ago at a show in Harrogate... a demo of the latest "noise reduction" technology as I recall - Dolby somethng or other???? ..oh how times have changed! However, I still love them and I do think thay are great speakers for which I paid less than £500 including a recent crossover recap and rewire! It says something when these were only sold when the first owner died!
 


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