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fm signal quality

C

cetroutt

Veteran CEG'er
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Feb 16, 2009
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so i've switched back from the factory head unit to an aftermarket. however i'm getting poor fm signal. with the factory unit i could listen to certain stations that were very far off in poor weather. now i'm lucky if i can listen to them on a clear sunshiny day. anyone have any suggestions as how to improve fm quality or do i just suck it up. thank all.
 
I have been dealing with this too. I can't remember how my signal was when I had a factory antenna but my roof mount VW Jetta antenna I would have though could pull a better signal :confused:. I hooked up one of those signal boosters and all it did was boosted the "fuzzyness" of the stations :rolleyes:....
 
i read somewhere that the signal boosters don't do a thing except like you say boost the static. it's just aggravating that now i have a really great HU and it sounds soo much better, that most of the stations i enjoy are hit and miss when it comes to tuning them in.
 
Check the db rating of the fm tuner. The higher the rating the better the reception IIRC. Generally pioneer has pretty awesome tuners. Although you may want to check the jump out in the passengers kick. Done any work on it lately?
 
no work done lately, and yeah i seem to remember that the fm db rating on clarions have always been around 70 or 75. still seems like it should perform better than stock. my old kenwood was awesome that is until the faceplate took a crap on me.
 
This may help explain it better.

"I'm sure everyone has heard this at some point or another and if it wasn't something a powered antenna could fix we probably told them that alot of aftermarket tuners are not as good as the factory and maybe they should try a pioneer becuase they seem the best.....well, I had someone in not too long ago with a subaru imprezza who had a pio 2100 installed and was having horrible reception issues....we tried the usual fixes but it really didn't get any better and when his factory was plugged back in it worked fine. This prompted me to do some research and check alot of manuals and was able to come up with a solution....If you look at the specs of the radio in the manual it should list a "useable sensitivity" spec for fm and am radio tuners. They will range from 8dBf being the best to maybe around 15dBf being pretty poor. Everyone here I'm sure knows what a dB is, but this spec is dB's in relation to femtowatts. Now if you remember correctly, to go up or down 3dB is an a doubling or halving of the original power...in this case lower being better. So the "SuperTuner 3" in pioneers for example are not all created equal. The 2100 is 11dBf, the 3100 is 9dBf and the 4100 is 8dBf and the 5100 goes back to 9dBf etc...well, that being said the 4100 has twice the reception power or capability then the 2100....thats enough to obviously translate into a huge difference. In my particular case he went with the 3100 becuase the 4100 is not available in the store....this was a 2dB increase and as such had 66% more power and range and actually more than solved his problem....so, I just thought I'd throw this out there for anyone that may got stuck with another one of these issues....it's a pretty important spec that is probably misunderstood by most of us.....and by the way, pioneers still have the best reception out of everything we cary except for the 2100 with its low 11dBf stat....all alpines sit at 10.6dBf if I recall...." - Christopher Brookshere is what I was looking for
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SO if we look at say 2 pioneer units

DEH-1300MP This years bottom end unit - Usable sensitivity ..................... 11 dBf (0.7 µV/75 W, mono, S/N: 30 dB)
DEH-P5000UB About 3 years old mid range unit - Usable sensitivity ..................... 8 dBf (0.7 µV/75 W, mono, S/N: 30 dB)

By what we've learned then is that the new unit has almost double the reception power as the older mid range unit.
 
I am rocking the JVC Arsenal tilt face unit. I don't know the model number off hand, but the unit is about 4-5yrs old.... :shrug:
 
I had a Panasonic for about 6 years, was pretty good. But my daughter's JVC seemed to pick up many more stations that were farther away than my Panasonic did. May want to check connections by power antenna, just to be sure. Seen a few where trunk seal let some water drip in, ---> rust-----> poor reception.
 
check the signal to noise too on the stuff.. i know i have an older sony headunit and for the cd player anyway it's like >100... and that thing picked up stations like a modern day stock headunit... being about 60 miles from the antenna and still picking up a signal crystal clear unless i'm behind a building i'd say is pretty good... esp for a 10 year old unit
 
cetroutt said:
thanks for this, never thought about it but my trunk does have a phantom leak.
Click to expand...

It's probably one of your tail lights. Check around the seams from the inside of the trunk behind the carpet.

I was rear ended in Jan. and the bodyshop that fixed it didn't seal up the tail light and after the freezing temps went away, the sum bish leaks like crazy, and its been raining just about every day I so haven't had the chance to pull it out and dry out the foam and rtv it.
 
this is what i've been thinking, but with all of the rain i haven't been able to get to it.
 
steelblueSE said:
It's probably one of your tail lights. Check around the seams from the inside of the trunk behind the carpet.

I was rear ended in Jan. and the bodyshop that fixed it didn't seal up the tail light and after the freezing temps went away, the sum bish leaks like crazy, and its been raining just about every day I so haven't had the chance to pull it out and dry out the foam and rtv it.
Click to expand...

thats what it was for me
 
new plug wires really helped me out. i'm getting the best signal i think i've ever had.
 
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