Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater FM Reception In Basement

Talking about the integrated FM tuner in today's AV receivers... Browsing through various receivers in my local Ultimate Electronics the other day, I noticed that there are fairly significant differences among brands in the RF "sensitivity" of the tuner. Although I bought the Elite 45TX sight unseen with respect to tuner reception (I wasn't at all interested, although now I am), the Pioneer seems to have a very decent FM tuner. Even with the included "single stretch of wire" antenna (Alan, even the T-antenna wasn't included -- just a wire), the reception is very audibly better than all other "tuners" in my house. I guess I was just luckey.

Hi JD

If you are in Southern California I may be able to help. PM me and I'll ask superradiogeek to get in touch with you.

G'luck.

It seems that Pioneer does have a decent tuner compared to alot of other late model units. I have a very low end 209 model that gets station that some of the latest Yamaha's couldn't even touch. I am running a Denon now that seems to be comparable to the Pioneer in terms of reception. I wonder if Pioneer uses the same "SuperTuner" technology that that impliment in their car stereos?

Hi sushi and jazz drummer,

Yes, Pioneer generally has very good FM tuners in their receivers and their car units. You have to read the specs on home FM tuners very carefully. They often play fast and loose with S/N ratios (quoting the mono figure, which is always at least 10 dB quieter than stereo FM; likwise distortion). Plus the "30 dB quieting sensitvity" figure is nonsense. With noise just 30 dB down, an FM signal is barely listenable. Look for the "50 dB Quieting" in stereo.

Regards,