I know most of you will attack me for even suggesting this but I already started on this fisher 500B and it is way better. But I would like the right sequence on the 38kc, 67kc, dual can and blue controller on the multiplex board. I now have excellent separation but with a "hole in the middle" and some sibilant breakup on the outsides especially noticed on solo speaking voice. I am having guests over tomorrow and want to show it off as nominally functional so I don't have time to buy a manual and wait a week. Thank you for actually helping and not telling me I am nuts. For off forum direct email use thomash85715@yahoo.com. I do have a scope if only I knew where to stick it and what to look for. --Tom in Tucson
alignment by ear
- Thread starter thomash85715
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Brian
An Old Geezer
Not sure anyone will tell you that you are nuts but, you'll probably get a list of tuner guys who you'll need to send the unit to to align it after it gets totally messed up. It is hard enough to do with the right gear and instructions. Alignment is an area where expereince is the difference between a mess, an okay alignment, decent and a killer.
thomash85715 said:
As the doctor always says: "If only you'd called sooner..."
Click on the "Radio X" ad at the bottom of the page.
You're not going to be able to get this fixed by tomorrow, unfortunately.
Twenty20Man
Is that you Michael?
good luck Tom...but you really should know that you cant align a tuner by ear, no matter how well you can hear, its simply not possible...if it were one pot.. one adj, idling current for example you couldn't even do that without a DMM. tuner adjs you need to walk the adj in, repeating steps several times till all are with in spec.
bastek
Well-Known Member
Mark every pot's position with a marker, and slowly turn each one left or right. If you don't hear -see (on the signal meter) an improvement on audio or reception, return it to its original position. Use good quality headphones. Keep in mind that some adjustments require a power off-on. Good luck.
Vinyl Rules!
Well-Known Member
I'm not a modder and haven't picked up a soldering iron in years, but I've built Dynaco preamp and amp kits, and even built a Tigersauraus amp that never blew up (from what I hear, a firstthomash85715 said:
), but I would never attempt to align a tuner by ear.There is a former Stereophile tuner reviewer who still does alignments by ear, and serious tuner techs who've gone into his units have been astounded at how badly done they were. Some techs will not even accept a unit for repair if they know it was "modded" by this individual, whilst others have noted that one of his tricks is to reduce the stereo separation to somewhere between 5dB to 10dB so it sounds "quiet" on distant FM stations.
I learned an interesting phrase from one of my economics professors in University: TANSTAAFL!: There Aint't No Such Thing As a Free Lunch!
I'm not trying to discourage you from experimenting with your equipment, but FM Tuner Alignment is part engineering and part long experience in doing this because so many of the service manuals for tuners contained inaccurate information. IMHO, unless you have the necesary signal generators and distortion analyzers, and requisite experience, you will never get the FM performance your unit is capable of. As always, YMMV, of course, but the tuner in your Fisher has a very good reputation when properly aligned.
