Omegaspeedies system

[OwenY]

Good stuff James.

Unfortunately my roof is covered with corrugated iron Wall mounted wire dipole only.

[AshleyK]

Hi Gaz, yes it's a shame FM is overlooked. The digi muffens can enjoy there dead silent 320kb/sec trash My next big purchase will be a high end tuner. Theres plenty of life left in it yet.

I like your thinking. I've been using a Tivoli table radio as my only radio source for a couple of years now and my old Technics tuner is in the storage locker somewhere - I just never really enjoyed the thin compressed sound I was getting from the local stations. May well be time to try again with a decent aerial and a better quality tuner...

[Omegaspeedy]

Ashley, go for it man, make an arial and enjoy. BFM, George and kiwi generally play a lot of vinyl and CD but they have been caught out as some LAZY Dj's and guest bring their shitty horrible little i-pod that have NO real place in a commercial broadcasting studio. If you are a DJ or Guest to any of the above station or any other for that matter and reading this now, leave your crappy little poor quality i-pod at home! We don't want to hear it in our living rooms, and if your wondering, we can tell easily if you have plugged it in at the station!!

[T110]

Certainly looks schmicko James! I'm a fan of good old FM too. Can you describe for me the aerials you are employing? A complete Luddite when it comes to any techo stuff. While my Pro-Ject Tuner Box does well, I know it is limited by the aerial. I have a DSE indoor ribbon FM aerial that does way better than the 3 bar rooftop FM aerial I fitted.(couldn't get a decent signal across the band) Also the rooftop aerial when connected messed with my CDP. It wouldn't read discs for the most part but when it did it sounded real bad.
We have clear line of sight to the Skytower. Apparently thats half the battle. Spoke to plenty of "aerial technicians" who after the briefest of conversations all confirmed to me that they were really only Aerial Installers and they had less clues than me.

Craig.

Cheers Andrew and Craig. FM is foreplay to vinyl:)

Craig The arial is easy to make. I just followed the instructions on the link below. Basically there are two rods in line with each other with a 1/2 gap in the middle. The outer of the 75ohm coax will be soldered onto one half and the centre to the other. The rods have to be exactly the correct length for the frequency you want to target which for me was half way between BFM and George. As it turns out I can pull the whole FM range with NO amplifier in the chain which I HAD to have prior. I'm blown away with the pulling power of this thing.

The copper wire (rod) I used was a car jumper lead, just one strand, taped to a 10mm dowl. I them inserted it in some nylex hose which had a hole cut in the centre so I could solder the coax on to the two wires (rods). I cut an angle bracket out of wood to attach to the arial so it can be mounted and also to support the stiff coax. Lasty I bundled up three rotations of coax about 6" round. I don't know why I had to do this but just followed the instructions. This arial is easy to make and works bloody well.

The cable of this arial is 75ohm cable feed down the wall and plugged straight into the tuner. You need to fiddle with position to get the best result. 7 years olds are so useful:)

http://braincambre500.freeservers.com/O ... lation.htm

Thanks James. Looks simple and effective. The way things should be. The site in the link above is out of action at the moment. Would this aerial work under the house do you think. We are reasonably elevated and have line of sight to the skytower.
Craig.
BTW. The Benz is really starting to sing! Still early however it is already exceeding my expectations.

[Omegaspeedy]

Hi Craig, Re the aerial under the house, you could try it and see if you get an acceptable signal and if you do it'll be a bonus, but I'l expect if the aerial was close to the soil it could be attenuated a bit causing a lose in signal. They also recommend keeping an area clear in front of the aerial equal or greater than the wave length your capturing so that would be 142" or more. Give it a go and see. Mine is in the roof and has obstructions within a wave length in front of the aerial and it works great.

That's great to hear the Benz is getting even better!!

Cheers James.

[Omegaspeedy]

Having sold my turntable to purchase an FM tuner, unfortunately there aren't many real good ones to choose from. I had my hopes on firstly a second hand Accuphase or Macintosh, secondly the Bel Canto FM1 which is a bit of an unknown with exception of one dude raving about them in the UK, (nothing out on the forums in the states which is interesting), Neil has offered a Marantz SA15 for a great price but It's not really what I'm after, it just doesn't appeal to me though I'm sure it's a nice machine, I haven't even tried it. Also resale value comes into this purchase and the Marantz has close to zero. Searching and researching hi and low the penny dropped! I've supplied a photo as a clue It sound bloody amazing! The right tone, weight and good pace unlike my Arcam T61? which sounded great but didn't dance when required (wonder what Gapals up to?). This old girl has dance factor. Anyone else with one who would like to comment? I'd like to thank 'like a tiger' for the idea. I read that it needs a good aerial which mine isn't but it still sounds bloody good. It's not the XS but I can live with DIN and no power supply upgrade which I can't afford anyway.

[Neil]

Good on you, we sold the Marantz anyway, it was snapped up pretty quick!

[T110]

Nice James! Real nice. I've always been interested in Naim, although I've never had a real good listen. Naim does also look pretty schmicko in my books.

[Omegaspeedy]

Nice James! Real nice. I've always been interested in Naim, although I've never had a real good listen. Naim does also look pretty schmicko in my books.

Thanks Craig, this thing sounds so bloody good I almost can't believe it! I've been listening all day up to now and it keeps you drawn right in. The openness is staggering and on good broadcasts really does sound as good as vinyl, this is going to be a long love affair

[like a tiger]

Enjoy your ride on the Naim bus James!!