NAT 03 - nice!

There are only two boxes on the right tier…

I’ll get me coat :laughing:

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That’s the AV tier Suzy, the XPS-t is on the right of the hi-if tier :blush:

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Presumably because it wasn’t financially viable Graham.

Yeah, the trouble is, all these PSU cases look the same from the front.

:laughing: :laughing:

@b-lilja Any developments on your FM aerial?

Glad you are enjoying the tuner, I was very tempted to not sell that one (sold for a customer) and take it home myself!

Thanks for checking in - I didn’t find anything on the internet about transmission directionality for my stations. Really, it’s just one that I’m focused on - the KNKX satellite transmitter south of Port Orchard - and so I’ve emailed them to see what I can find out. My aerial is up on my roof, and it will likely be damp all winter up there, so this is probably a summer project anyway.

That said, I found the Magnum Dynalab ST-2 write up and manual (see little download icon) – which seems to indicated the aerial is omnidirectional.

Also - I’m intrigued by this magnumdynalab md-205-signal-sleuth-fm-amplifier - any experiences?

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Oh wow - hi! Thanks! It’s great. As you can see it went to a good home!

Here is my NAT 03, and if you look carefully there’s three generations of Naim gear, a Nova, CDX 2 (now converted to digital output only) and a NAT03.

The NAT03 was bought from new at Uxbridge Audio , then around 2002/3 I bought a Magnum Dynalab , the NAT03 was retired.

It was restored to the rack last year and was singing within a couple of hours (ditto CD3 this year, as a temporary measure) . It is kept because of unreliable broadband , and you can’t have enough radio sources.

(I have three, Sky, Naat 03 and the Nova)

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Very nice - looks like you got the LED display swap out (which included the motherboard) before the parts ran out!

Finally gave my NAT-01 (and Leak Troughline, Quad FM+MPX, Nelson Jones tuners) the aerial they deserve with a brand new G17. Since we were doing a loft conversion and had scaffolding I took the opportunity to fit this one and point it at Wrotham. I’ve never seen the bars overlap on the troughline’s magic eye.



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I received this response from KNKX’ chief engineer from my email about polarization - “The 92.1 translator is circular polarization. Typically, a horizontal antenna works best for fixed point reception.” Interesting. Right now my ST-2 is vertical, so will play with things.

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Circular polarisation is another word for ‘Mixed’ polarisation, both horizontal & vertical
& it covers all the reception options, H for fixed point & V for both fixed point & mobile/auto.

My attic mounted antenna is a circular design that works on all, I have mixed transmissions from the national stations & a selection of other local with mixed & low power locals on vertical.
image

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That’s a great collection of tuners. I’ve got an FM2 & FM3 - both ‘altered’ a little to work properly into the 47k load of a Naim pre. The 3 has a bit of Naim like punch but lacks the air and grace of the valve based FM2. Both excellent quieting with roof and loft space (very basic) dipole aerials. Can you say how your collection compares to the venerable 01 ?

I am using the MD ST-2. I am located in Paris. The antenna is sited on the rooftop of my four story house. It is feeding a MD-107T. Results are great.

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Good question! Currently I’m doing building work on the house, and have not had the chance to compare the tuners against each other with the same amplifier and speakers. The NAT-01 normally lives with a 32-5/HC/135 and I used as my home office system over lockdown. The FM1/MPX is used with a 22/Quad II and 1969 Kef Crestas, and this is on rotation with the Troughline/Leak Stereo 30 Plus. The Nelson Jones (which was built from a kit by my dad in the 70s) is used with a Texan II (also a kit) amplifier and 1972 Kef Crestas so they tend to remain paired up this way. When the house is back together and I have a little time I’ll let you know! Some of the gear could do with a service - I did the Nelson-Jones and Texan back in 2004 and they definitely need another round! The Leak and Quad went to London Sound in 2015 and are all spot on.

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So…hungryhalibut says no on the service/recap…any other thoughts?

I received the following in an email conversation with Naim about some problems I was having with my Naim tuner:

"It is possible that that some of the settings in the RF front end may have drifted off. This again can happen over time with analogue tuners.

Has the unit ever been serviced? We do recommend that Naim products are serviced every 10 years. This is especially true for units like tuners.

You local Naim dealer can arrange this for you."

Naim did service my tuner. It has also had a new Yagi. It sounds great with a mixture of clarity and warmth if that makes any sense.

Mike that Yagi of course is horizontally polarised… the dipole element is circular which adjusts the impedance which suit coax without needing potentially a lossy impedance transformer.
The shape of the dipole could give some limited reception on vertical, but the gain would be reduced compared to a vertical dipole, and similar to those horrible omnidirectional circular antennas.

Chris I hope you get your NAT03 sorted… it is a nice soft tuner with a pleasing hf attenuation giving a lovely tone, especially for voice.
I find mine does need to stabalize from cold over a day to reduce a very slight drift, although frequency locking mechanism is quite effective.

As far as antennas, you are right you don’t need fancy metal work. A horizontal 3 or 5 element Yagi is fine (depending on distance from primary transmitter - I use 5 elements for 30 miles). If you are wanting to strongly reject signals behind you, or you find your favourite stations are either end of 88 to 108 band and you need all the gain you can get … then fancy dipole, director and reflector elements can help flatten the resonance without too much impacting gain and impedance across the band… however good coax and a quality balun/transformer would be more impacting in my opinion.
The key considerations with coax is to ensure your antenna has a quality balun … (remember Yagi is balanced, and coax is unbalanced) and your antenna is in the clear ideally by a couple of metres if you can… a really important performance consideration.