I am not sure if anyone can help me here, but I will give it a try anyway:
With too much time on my hands at the moment, I was contemplating the purchase of a FM tuner (e.g. a NAT05). However, the house we live in does not have an antenna on the roof and there is no way install one (we live in a rented flat) and the only other option would be to buy some sort of room antenna. Does anyone have a suggestion for an adequate antenna (I am based in Germany if that is of any relevance) or is this too much of a hassle and should I stick with listening to web radio?
Hi. Depends really where you live. Rural areas with a lack of transmitters I would not recommend this route. I get quite good results with a Magnum Dynalab ST-2 with some of the stations that have quality transmissions. I don’t have much experience with internet radio but most devices provide this again some stations much better quality transmissions than others. There are even Naim and Linn internet radio transmissions. Really the best is to try before ending up in a worst case with a source that doesn’t work well
Hi Toscana,
Magnum Dynalab for me too.Great antenna.While waiting to mount it on my roof in some way I’m having it fixed to the the wall under a curtain inside my listening room and close to a large window.
Apart from living in an area qhere there are no good quality transmissions, this is really the only inconvenience. I usually listen to the usual channels like HR2 which are the best to my ears. For the future though (mainly due to lack of program materials in rural areas) I will move over to internet radio which I assume will get better in the coming years.a bit like the trends in digital audio. However for BBC radio 3, France Musique and the German klassik stations, they do sound pretty good when streamed from the Auralic and no doubt from an NDX2 or akkurate DS.
I tried both. Outside is better. We cannot put it on the roof unfortunately, which would be the best, although this would result in a long cable. HR2 sounded pretty good even with the antenna inside but better attached outside on the balcony.
We live just outside Darmstadt just for reference.
Regards,
Mark
I recently read that they will switch off the terrestric signals in some years in Germany. Does it then make sense to buy a tuner? What is the benefit over a Streamer with all the digital possibilities?
The discussion about switching off terrestrial FM radio in Germany has been going on for a while now but there is no final decision if and when this will happen.
For me, looking into buying a FM tuner is probably more about nostalgia and playing around with some new equipment combined with the relatively affordable prices for pre-loved tuners.
From a purely rational perspective, I could just as well keep listening to internet radio and be done with it.
i have both, the sr100 and the st2
the sr100 works better and you can work with it as a directional ant or omni (360) ant, so its more versatile , if you can not install the the st2 on high open place i wouldnt invest the money on it as it much expensive then the sr100
I think the remark on antenna installation is a very important one. At some stage FM will go. I see internet radio (only certain stations that really care about the quality of their transmissions) as part of where there will be improvements that naturally come about due to initiatives to give “everyone” access to good internet. When I consider what we have in our rural holiday home to what we had even 5 years ago where internet via satellite was the only way. There are further improvements on the way with fibre. This will have an impact on the transmissions available. I’m just listening to some Haydn piano sonatas BBC radio 3 now and it sounds rather good.
So personally I would not invest too much in FM. I already have since 2004 with a nat05 and st-2
It should do if reception in your area is ok. I also tried something like that when I got the NAT05 out of the cellar.
I have listened to internet radio for most of the afternoon and must say that it is rather good and this will be the future for me simply due to the better choice
Do you know which Transmitter ( Sender) covers your area and how far away it is? A horizontally mounted aerial could work if quite close. Here in England I use a NAT 01, fed by a high gain antenna mounted outside. The quality is as close to the original sound source as can be, in my opinion. BBC Radio 3 is the station.
There was a petition issued to our Government regarding the objection to closing FM transmissions a while ago, we, succeeded in getting the switch off postponed for the foreseeable future.
