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From: reid@Glacier.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: Re: FM tuner query
Message-ID: <5002@Glacier.ARPA>
Date: Sat, 16-Mar-85 02:38:06 EST
Article-I.D.: Glacier.5002
Posted: Sat Mar 16 02:38:06 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 20-Mar-85 04:43:32 EST
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Distribution: net
Organization: Stanford University, Computer Systems Lab
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> From time to time, people have had pretty nice things to say about the
> Carver tuner--the TX-11 or some such.  I think I remember a posting about
> it not too long back.  Is it all it's supposed to be?
> 
> I'd like to be able to pick up a decent signal from the local stations as
> well as from Denver (roughly 35 miles away) with one fixed antenna.

I have a Carver TX-11 tuner. It is absolutely fabulous. It is better than
that. It is pure magic. My Hafler 220 and Hafler 110 amplifiers are good;
my Nakamichi 680 and 480 tape decks are better; my Revox turntable is good,
but my Carver TX-11 tuner is absolutely the best bleeping tuner you can
possibly imagine.

I live in Palo Alto, CA. I am 40 miles south of San Francisco, with a small
(500 foot) mountain range in between. I am 50 miles SSW of Berkeley, with
clear water in between. I am 35 miles NE of Santa Cruz, with 1500-foot
mountains in between. I have an ordinary TV antenna on my roof, an
11-element chromatic Yagi, pointed at San Francisco. That TV antenna feeds a
300-ohm low-loss twinlead that runs about 30 feet through carefully-placed
ceramic insulators to a ChannelMaster broadband TV amplifier, which gives me
30dB of gain. I run the output of the ChannelMaster into a 300/75 Balun
transformer, and then into 75-ohm coax which snakes through the walls of my
house down to my living room, where it feeds into the Carver TX-11 tuner.

With this setup, I can get a 100-watt public radio station in Berkeley, a
5000-watt commercial station in Santa Cruz, a 50-watt college station in
Marin county (15 miles farther away than San Francisco), and a complete
crackpot public-access station that can't be running more than 10 or 15
watts, which is in Pacifica (800-foot "mountains" between me and Pacifica).
These stations come in in full stereo, reliably, with not a particle of
noise or distortion. There is no multipath interference, there is no fading,
there is no popping in and out of the stereo signal. It just works. It's like
playing a record or a tape.

I can't speak for the signal conditions in your area, but if there is signal
in the air near your house, the TX-11 will be able to hear it and give you
good stereo from it. I didn't have a lot of success with the TX-11 when I
was using an indoor antenna or rabbit ears, and I was slightly disappointed
with it. Then I decided to modify my TV antenna system to feed FM to the
living room, and it was like somebody had pulled cotton from my ears.

I tested it against the NAD tuner, and against my old decrepit receiver that
I had field-modified into a tuner. I didn't really do a lot of surveying--I
was just so struck by how much better the Carver was than the NAD that I
stopped looking and bought it on the spot.  The blinking thing costs $650,
though. Carver knows it's the best and charges accordingly.
-- 
	Brian Reid	decwrl!glacier!reid
	Stanford	reid@SU-Glacier.ARPA