Hi
I bought this tuner, mainly as a collectible as its being discontinued. Here is my review of it.
It comes in a fancy box (best I've ever seen from any HiFi gear) & looks aesthetic. It features a nice large, easy to read display, a full featured remote control. Its a funny tuner with some really weird quirks. eg - if it mutes, it produces a 'whining' sound - like the tuner is searching for a signal to lock onto (see AM below).
It features direct frequency entry via the remote. But it fills in the zero automatically - eg entering 104.9, it will put in the "0" itself, so you only type 1_49. - a funny quirk.
Rotary manual tuning also advances 200khz/10khz steps
For FM, its rather sensitive, hearing weak signals like 107.5 from Batemans Bay - 90km away - 2EAR-FM low powered community radio - just audible above floor noise, even on the Sony XDR-F1HD. Its selectivity is good but nowhere near as good as the XDR. It tunes in 200khz steps, which makes it useless for anything on even freqs - eg 91.8. Fortunately, most Australian FM channels are odd freqs like the U.S. It suffers birdies on 90.3 (blocks this channel for DX) & 101.7 (Birdie seems to 'tune out' after about 10secs allowing DX on 101.7).
It has aggressive blending (like the Pioneer Supertuners) & will only decode stereo on strong signals.
It has no stereo indicator or a signal strength meter (contradicting the pictures you see of the Auvio on the box which does show a signal meter).
This tuner overloads very easily, even in my remote rural location (so if you live in an urban area, the tuner would probably have harmonics all over the dial).
The AM - in one word forget it, unless I have a defective unit for AM. It appears to mute rather aggressively & only has about 1khz tolerance for searching any signals. It picked up signals which match the USA's 10khz channels like 1170 & 1530 but took at least 10secs for it to lock onto channels like 1611, 1521 (1 khz off a 10khz channel). But anything else - SOL - not even on very strong signals (eg 918khz local AM station, tuned to 920).
Only strong signals can break through its muting, otherwise, it just produces that 'whine' as it tries to lock onto the nearby signal. I'd doubt you'd receive anything on AM with the supplied loop.
Its a nice tuner for casual DXing but not for serious DX. The Sony XDR-F1HD beats it hands down. I will test the Auvio on my 200m longwire during winter to see if it can pick up KMIK 1580 & detect "HD" like the Sony can.
dxer2_2000
I bought this tuner, mainly as a collectible as its being discontinued. Here is my review of it.
It comes in a fancy box (best I've ever seen from any HiFi gear) & looks aesthetic. It features a nice large, easy to read display, a full featured remote control. Its a funny tuner with some really weird quirks. eg - if it mutes, it produces a 'whining' sound - like the tuner is searching for a signal to lock onto (see AM below).
It features direct frequency entry via the remote. But it fills in the zero automatically - eg entering 104.9, it will put in the "0" itself, so you only type 1_49. - a funny quirk.
Rotary manual tuning also advances 200khz/10khz steps
For FM, its rather sensitive, hearing weak signals like 107.5 from Batemans Bay - 90km away - 2EAR-FM low powered community radio - just audible above floor noise, even on the Sony XDR-F1HD. Its selectivity is good but nowhere near as good as the XDR. It tunes in 200khz steps, which makes it useless for anything on even freqs - eg 91.8. Fortunately, most Australian FM channels are odd freqs like the U.S. It suffers birdies on 90.3 (blocks this channel for DX) & 101.7 (Birdie seems to 'tune out' after about 10secs allowing DX on 101.7).
It has aggressive blending (like the Pioneer Supertuners) & will only decode stereo on strong signals.
It has no stereo indicator or a signal strength meter (contradicting the pictures you see of the Auvio on the box which does show a signal meter).
This tuner overloads very easily, even in my remote rural location (so if you live in an urban area, the tuner would probably have harmonics all over the dial).
The AM - in one word forget it, unless I have a defective unit for AM. It appears to mute rather aggressively & only has about 1khz tolerance for searching any signals. It picked up signals which match the USA's 10khz channels like 1170 & 1530 but took at least 10secs for it to lock onto channels like 1611, 1521 (1 khz off a 10khz channel). But anything else - SOL - not even on very strong signals (eg 918khz local AM station, tuned to 920).
Only strong signals can break through its muting, otherwise, it just produces that 'whine' as it tries to lock onto the nearby signal. I'd doubt you'd receive anything on AM with the supplied loop.
Its a nice tuner for casual DXing but not for serious DX. The Sony XDR-F1HD beats it hands down. I will test the Auvio on my 200m longwire during winter to see if it can pick up KMIK 1580 & detect "HD" like the Sony can.
dxer2_2000