Best car radio tuner.

[chrisalcorn]

I have both a Sony Xplod and a JVC Arsenal in each of my cars and as far as tuners go, the JVC blows the Sony away. The Sony has a tuner rated at 9dBf sensitivity and the JVC has 11.3dBf sensitivty rating but the JVC is leaps and bounds better at grabbing stations and holding on to them. The antennas connected to them are the same. What gives with this? What are some of the other posters to this forum think is the best car tuner. Pioneer, Alpine, Kenwood??? etc.   

[rbrucecarter5]

I have both a Sony Xplod and a JVC Arsenal in each of my cars and as far as tuners go, the JVC blows the Sony away. The Sony has a tuner rated at 9dBf sensitivity and the JVC has 11.3dBf sensitivty rating but the JVC is leaps and bounds better at grabbing stations and holding on to them. The antennas connected to them are the same. What gives with this? What are some of the other posters to this forum think is the best car tuner. Pioneer, Alpine, Kenwood??? etc.   

The Pioneer Supertuner 3D (not the less expensive Supertuner 3) uses a remarkable adaptive IF bandwidth technology.  Originally designed for HD radio, Pioneer uses the capability without having HD (saves on license fees!).  The adaptive IF technology analyzes the incoming signal for spectral components and strength, widens things up for strong local stations and narrows it down for weak signals.  The result is amazing selectivity and sensitivity.  The gain / bandwidth product is one of the few "win-win" situations in electronics - if the stereo signal is going to be noisy anyway, and blend to mono - why even bother?  Just narrow down the IF bandwidth and concentrate on just the mono portion of the signal.  It works so well I can pick out distant stations from over a hundred miles away right next to strong local signals.  So well, in fact, that a couple are on my presets.

In terms of raw sensitivity - I have used Pioneer to listen to stations up to 200 miles away reliably.  Spotty reception up to 300 miles on some stations.  I just don't think anybody else can touch them on performance, although a lot of people are upset by their stereo blend function, and others think the noise floor is too high.

[ddsparxx]

I generally prefer the Pioneer with the Supertuner 3D, for the reasons that rbrucecarter5 has explained in his post, to the other brands. My factory car stereo (I don't know who makes them) in my 2008 Honda Civic LX appears to be as selective as the Pioneer on FM. I don't think Sony has offered manual tuning, a big turnoff. Sensitivity, I have a hard time to tell the difference.

[biggguy]

OK, maybe a little off-topic here...but maybe not

Best car radio tuner I ever have used- on AM anyways- was the factory radio in  my dad's company car- a '67 Plymouth Fury wagon. If I'm not mistaken, it was a Bendix made "Plymouth Transaudio". As a DXing kid (a late pre-teen with hijacked car keys in action after the folks went to bed), I never ceased to be amazed with what came in- Oklahoma City, St. Louis, Salt Lake City and other places thousand of miles away- this to a kid who considered
picking up CHUM in Toronto (directly across Lake Ontario) one of the miracles of the age (they still had music on Sunday morning- the locals then where I was didn't).

Best FM tuner was in my ex-wife's '98 Honda CRV- a factory unit- stations 150-200 miles away came in great!

[ddsparxx]

The radio in that 1998 Honda CR-V must be good. I had a 2001 Civic that had a radio that was junk, it was immediately replaced by a Pioneer.

[austingrace]

sony's are pure shit in my oppinion. i have used two sony tuners and both get static on a station that is real close. pioneers are some of the best i have sceen. it can get stations from over 100 miles away like they are close. also, my grand parrents have a good tuner in there 07 saturn vue. not sure on the model of it.  some factory radios are damn good.

[BamaWOLF]

I've got an old JVC KD-S890 car stereo powered by an external hard drive power supply, and hooked up to my outdoor antenna, that i use as my DX radio, and a Pioneer in the car (forgot the model at the moment). Sony isn't even a shadow of what their tuners were in the past. I hated the JVC when I had it in my car, sounded awful, but with it in the house, I've caught my best DX catches with it.

[DanielBoone]

The 2003 to 2008 Pioneers are the best tuners around!  I have four of them.  The 2009 models, I don't believe to be as good as the previous models due to the fact that the FM senitivity is now at 11 dbF versus 8dBF(best)on the older models.  The selectivity on the older Pioneer models at 80dB.(best)    I know from my readings, Sony and Panasonic have rating of 75dB for selectivity (not as good as 80dBf).  And their sensitivity is at around 10dBf, not as good as 8dBF.  Pyle is a pile of shit!

Things to look for when shopping, that I have learned myself from user manual specs and websites, is the SENSITIVTY and SELECTIVIY.  For sensitivity, 8dbF is best.  Lower number is best for sensitivity and higher number for selectivity like 80dB or above.  The older Pioneers that have the "D" in SupertunerIII are the best.  Other brands that I may consider, Kenwood or Alpine, in that order.   

Read each of the user manuals specs for "FM usuable sensitivity" and "FM selectivity" for each of the brands and then make your comparison. 

[elchupacabras]

The Pioneer SuperTuner III is by far the best. I regret having traded it out for a Sony XPLOD. The sensitivity was fantastic, and bandwidth on AM was superb. The XPLOD has crappy bandwith and sounds poo poo.

[DanielBoone]

Why would you trade a Pioneer for anything else???  Ha Ha.