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Quad Fm3 question

The Captain

The Captain

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Hi chaps,

I've just acquired a Quad fm3 having always been a sucker for the look/ design/ quality.

I haven't got it hooked up yet, but a thought just occured: they can be used with other preamps.. can they? Naim 32.5 ?

If so I need a 5 pin din at both ends I believe, & then an aeriel to consider.

Thanks, Capt
 
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Yes, it will work fine with other preamps - its solid stafe so not lke teh previous FM1 and 2 that needed a minimum 100K input impedance on the preamp.
 
martin clark said:
Yes, it will work fine with other preamps - its solid stafe so not lke teh previous FM1 and 2 that needed a minimum 100K input impedance on the preamp.
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Hi Martin, ah relief.. dodged a bullet there then.

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Could anyone advise re. an aerial? Into my old school arcam/ MA 2nd system, mostly cheap £50 ebay pickings.

Altho not an huge tuner user, before, this newish system's in my bedroom, & loft above. So would the idea be to run a cable up to loft/ some kind of aerial up there-? Ive only ever strung a makeshift spilt 2 wires behind a picture frame before.

As you can see I've a convenient curtain to hide it behind, make a hole, into loft. May as well do a proper job.

EF86-D79-A-51-F8-49-B7-BC11-831-B85851-BBC.jpg



Thanks, Capt
 
Mike1965 said:
I use one of these, it works very well.

FM Half Wave Dipole – A.T.V. Poles, Brackets, Clamps & Aerials

www.aerialsandtv.com www.aerialsandtv.com

Signal strength would be important of course. I use mine with an FM4 and get full strength according to the display.
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Hi Mike, thanks that gives me a start. if you're using a quad fm tuner.

Being an FM newbie though, have I got to match the 'type' of tuner to type of aerial? Are you suggesting that a "half wave dipole" is correct for an Fm3, or do I have to consider other stuff to choose an aerial I wonder.

I seem to recall I do a search online to see where my mast is. Is this just to see where to point the thing?

If anyone can help, I last asked maybe 15 years ago about all this! Thanks Capt
 
No, it will work fine. Aerial types are essentially a trade-off of 'anything from anywhere, vs ' stronger -signal , but much-more direction ally sensitive. This affects all tuners equally.

The thing that will make a big difference , is knowing where you best transmitters for what you want to listen -to, are. We can come to that later

tl;dr: a simple 1/2wave dipole vertically, so it is 'omnidirectional' - is a really good place to start, esp mounted high as you can - such as you propose.
 
^^^
I have several tuners and I get a great signal strength with them all. I use the aerial vertically mounted. I think it works for all fm tuners although I have very little technical knowledge. It is 1.5m high so would likely be easy to attach to a beam in your loft. Use a good aerial cable 👍
 
Mike1965 said:
I use one of these, it works very well.

FM Half Wave Dipole – A.T.V. Poles, Brackets, Clamps & Aerials

www.aerialsandtv.com www.aerialsandtv.com

Signal strength would be important of course. I use mine with an FM4 and get full strength according to the display.
Click to expand...
I use one of those mounted not very high off my office (converted garage) with a Meridian 504. Very good signal strength and sound quality.
I’ll be buying another soon for the loft to feed another Meridian tuner.
 
martin clark said:
No, it will work fine. Aerial types are essentially a trade-off of 'anything from anywhere, vs ' stronger -signal , but much-more direction ally sensitive. This affects all tuners equally.

The thing that will make a big difference , is knowing where you best transmitters for what you want to listen -to, are. We can come to that later

tl;dr: a simple 1/2wave dipole vertically, so it is 'omnidirectional' - is a really good place to start, esp mounted high as you can - such as you propose.
Click to expand...

Hiya Martin,

that's good so I'll go with 1/2 wave dipole, vertical mounted then. I'm looking at screwfix.. I know cheap & cheerful, but any reason why not anyone?

But which FM3 socket am I to go into with it, the usual looking 75 one.. or the funny looking 300 one?

I'll search & see what mast- I'm literally only using it for bbc R3 to be honest, I'll rarely be twiddling my quad knob.

Thanks all for the replies, Capt
 
Use the 75ohm, 'belling -lee' coaxial connector plug/socket, for a 1/2wave dipole, and 75ohm coax for interconnect.

& no, no reason why-not 'screwfix': aerials are all about .. basic geometry, not bijou build - esp for such simple yet effective designs. Get it all up & running, and simply enjoy

ATB!
 
seyles said:
I use one of those mounted not very high off my office (converted garage) with a Meridian 504. Very good signal strength and sound quality.
I’ll be buying another soon for the loft to feed another Meridian tuner.
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Hi seyles, I didn't spot the surface mounted one is only £21.. so great, will go with Mike & your suggestion. No need to scratch about in screwfix.

Would you know though.. in my photo you might just see I have a timber balcony outside my bedroom. 1st floor. Would the aerial be better placed outside attatched to this I wonder without obstruction by a wall, as opposed to say 3m higher but sited in loft (caveat being the aerial would be firing thru a wall up here).

The balcony position you see would be just 3m of cable away from the hifi. But to go up in loft it's A) 10m of cable, & B ) defo got mouses & maybe a squirrel's doings to faff about in. Urgh job. I do have a hatch tho.

This Westerly balcony end -is- the direction of the local mast.. I think.

Thanks, Capt
 
I’d say external mounted a bit lower will be better than through a brick wall (not sure what the loss is at FM frequencies, but when I model WiFi designs, a single course brick wall is an 8dB loss).
The above assumes that the transmitter you’re looking to receive from is on that side of your property!

The one I use on my office is only 3m from the ground, with terraced houses all around, I get full signal on BBC stations.

The aerial is fairly light, you could test fit it outside without drilling any walls to see if it works well enough.
 
Most aspects have been covered above but wonder if I may make two observations.

One, that some (all?) old Quad stuff used different pins in their DIN plugs/sockets, so DID to DIN may not be the one (unless you can solder)

Two, Find (as Martin said) your local strong Xmitter station, distance to it (with any intervening topographical hurdles) and somehow get an external 4 or 6 element antenna on a decent mast (and maybe fixed to your bedroom wall?), orientated to said transmitter. As an interim measure, you can simply stich the aerial in the loft as long as you have the room for orientation.

I had an 8 element in my loft in the eighties in my Victorian house on high ground feeding my NAT 101. Moved it onto on of the 5 chimneys with a 12' mast and reception was chalk 'n' cheese. The '87 hurricane blew the lot down and I had Ron Smith and his son drive from Luton to Ramsgate to erect a Galaxie 23 on rotator on steel mast and associated cabling (20 metres plus) to my hifi room on the ground floor. Despite this, still couldn't get France Musique !!!!! Still, insurance paid for it and it lasted until we moved 9 years later.

You simply can't beat a strong signal to load the tuner; easier to reduce than enhance (if necessary but unlikely). Currently in Norwich, with Tacolneston 9 crow's miles away, my 6 element/12' mast on crappy sixties chimney lights all the little LEDs on my Akai tuner and did well on my relatively crude 01 and subsequent NAD. Get it right and you'll be in your element, Captain. :)
 
Thanks @seyles & @Mike Reed .

When I asked similarly many years ago, I was told to goto some site, put in my postcode, to find where my mast is. Well, I've tried to now, but can't see any obvious site. Tried much searching too. I might assume, with one very tall 160m telecoms mast prominent on the coast about 11m away as a crow flies.. that it must be this sending fm. But maybe not: B'rum is 130m away east.. but surely vastly better telecoms hubs. So how do I know?

Obviously I'd be happy to know it is this local mast, & my balcony aims right to it, down my small valley, although I do have a hill between so not a direct 'sight-line'.

Thanks Capt
 
Happy FM listening. The FM3 is very simple design which, once aligned correctly, is sensitive enough and sounds great.
 
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The 'best' position and orientation of the antenna - and the choice between a plain 'dipole' and something more fancy will depend a lot of where you are and the direction of arrival of the FM radio waves from the TX. You may also find it varies with time and weather if you are a long way from the TX or have no fairly clear line-of-sight.

So unless someone knows their local situation, just experiment with a simple dipole. if you get low noise and a clean sound the first place you try, fine. If not, experiment. FWIW we're up a hill and despight the TXs being some distance away, get a decent result from a plain dipole thrown into the loft. (FM4 + Armstrong 626 + Yamaha CT7000 all can work fine here.)
 
The Captain said:
I'll buy one of Mike's aerials & update.
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Ho ho! Wherever you site it, there shouldn't be a solid surface (wall?) behind. Free space only. Lots of tuners work on pieces of string but to get the best s.q. capable from the tuner it needs to be adequately loaded, which usually is visible even with the crudest of signal meters.
 
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