Are Tuners - Audiophile quality

Some of you have alluded to the fact that a good FM tuner can provide results that are quite acceptable to the audiophile sense of what sonic accuracy truly is. We at Fanfare join you in that belief.

Proof for one person might be playing a CD in synch with the same selection playing in a radio broadcast (a tricky fete, but do-able) and A/B'ing them. Fanfare has such a client, and has vindicated the FT-1A's claim of sonic accuracy many times over. You'll find his further comments in a review of the FT-1A under "Tuners", "Fanfare" at Audioreview.com". His name is "Roger".

Another is splitting the output of a CD player to the line stage of a reasonably high resolution audio system, and at time, to the exciter stage of an FM transmitter which is connected to a dummy load so it can only transmit locally within the same room. The receiver hooked up to the system to receive the airborn version is a Fanfare FT-1 FM tuner. Based on our count, the vast majority of the audience at both CES exhibits where this was performed could not tell the difference between the broadcast and the direct feed, and even the detractors couldn't be certain on a double-blind test, including me.

Through the type of "objective" comparisons illustrated above is how we judge the accuracy of a tuner, and in this case the Fanfare FT-1 and the FT-1A. We do not deal in speculation or aesthetic response. Our specific goal is to provide the high quality performance our customers have come to expect in a Fanfare product.

As for David Rich's comments, he doesn't speak about the quality of the internal workmanship in the FT-1A inside. What he, in his own personal judgement does(and he's never built anything for the market that's known to me), is speak about what he feels are weaknesses in the design. He is entitled to his opinion. However, in the final analysis, upon listening to the FT-1A's transparent sound, the quietness in its background (no hiss) and its unique station acquisition capabilities (better in all ways than its Canadian competitor), I suspect no one who is a self-thinker would give a damn what anyone says otherwise.

The FT-1A is a design that works for everyone, save the few heretics who feel the world should move to their side of the boat, no matter what the consequence.

Soon a more definitive comment on David Rich's review will appear on our website at "http://www.fanfare.com/reviews.html/"
Thank you for your time.

Marv Southcott, President, Fanfare Electronics

Dcaudio: In your response, you commented that you have been using your external TV antenna to feed a signal to your FM tuner. Since you don't state the brand/type of TV antenna, I'll simply comment that it may not be optimal for FM reception. If you are serious about wanting top-quality FM sound, and are willing to experiment a bit, you should try getting a decent FM antenna that is fairly directional. Better yet, get a motorized rotor so you can aim the antenna from inside the house.

I was raised in the Washington, DC, area (Kensington, MD), but have not lived there for many years. I do, however, visit friends every 2-3 years. The DC area does not, for the most part, present severe multipath problems, because there are relatively few tall buildings, and the surrounding geography is fairly flat. The last time I visited Washington DC, I listened to a few FM stations on the car radio, and remember thinking that there didn't seem to be any really good stations like I remembered from earlier years. Your problem with FM broadcast quality may simply be a lack of good stations, in which case not even the best tuner on the market will help much.

SDCampbell: The FM frequency band is between TV channels 6 and 7. So any good VHF antenna should work whether also for TV or just FM. The fact that some FM only roof antennas cost more means we are all probably getting ripped off.

It is true that a TV antenna has enough range to pick up the FM band that is between channels 6 and 7 VHF. That said, an antenna that is designed only for the FM band will do a much better job of rejecting channel 6 and 7 and a lot more RF that your tuner doesn't need sent to it's first stage. So use a cable feed or TV antenna..and they are very usefull, but the best is an antenna designed for the FM band. The very best set-up I've ever heard was a pair of stacked Finco model 5's, but the models from APS are likely to be the best available now...maybe better than the old twin 5's.

Once the tuner receives a strong enough signal to go into what is called "full quieting", it is pretty much up to the tuner from there. This is taking into account that it is receiving a direct signal and not something loaded with multipath reflections. As such, almost ANY outdoor antenna can pull in a reasonable signal so long as you are not a million miles from the transmitter.

To prove the point, how many times have you been able to listen to a station in your car with a factory installed stereo and then gone into the house and NOT been able to get the station in near as good using a wire dipole, amplified indoor antenna, rabbit ears, etc... ??? Do you think that the difference was that the "cheezy" car stereo had a better tuner section in it than your "hi-fi" grade tuner or was it the fact that the ( much shorter ) car antenna was outside ????

While i am a BIG fan of proper antenna systems, they become FAR more important at distance OR when you are nearfield with a lot of tall buildings or structures that will deflect the signal. You can actually run into problems by having TOO much antenna when the receiver is located relatively close to the transmitter. This is called "front end overload" and can be quite a problem in big cities.

As to Marv / Fanfare's comments, Quad used to do very similar tests / demo's when they came out with their FM-4. They even went so far as to bring a small transmitter being fed via vinyl to their "big" dealers and demo this for them and the interested customers. Switching between the vinyl being fed directly into the audio system and then listening to the same record via the signal being transmitted and then received by the FM-4 resulted in no discernable difference ( other than the delay ) under those conditions. Sean
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