Pre/pro's and tuners (1 Viewer)

[Andrew Pezzo]

In the past any tuner I had was intergrated into the receiver. However, I just purchased a Rotel pre/pro and need to add an external tuner so I can listen to the radio. My expereinces with built-in tuners is that they suck, to be blunt. I have never been able to use the radio on any reciever simply because it nevers picks up anything, maybe one station if I am lucky. My question is does external tuners perform better? I would hate to put down the money for one and get the same results as built-in units.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Generally, yes, dedicated FM tuners perform better than tuners integrated into a receiver or a modern so-called "pre-pro" (which, in the old days, were called "tuner-preamps"). However, just about all FM front ends, be they in a receiver or a dedicated tuner, are vastly overqualified for the job of detecting and conveying most FM signals. It's not the tuners that "suck," but the garbage being put out by almost all FM stations that does.

 

[Andrew Pezzo]

Interesting. So does that mean when I add the external tuner I still will get poor performance, regardless of it being intergrated or not?

I guess my best bet would be to try the unit I am considering first (or make sure I can return it). What also probably adds to the trouble of receiving signals is that I am in a condo and cant put an external antennas anywhere.