Kenwood KT7300 Help!!!!

My latest find was a KT7300 and I displaced my other tuners for this one. I just relamped it, looks good!! I had given it a few quick listens and it was hitting all the good stations with just rabbit ears. Now I installed it in my living room system with a Marantz 1060 playing thru TF700 all sounds great before. Now on the tuner there is a distortion. Hard to describe it is there most of the time especially on voices kinda like a buzz you would get from a badly tuned station but yet I am hitting all bars on the meter. It maxes out the signal meter where my other tuners with the exception of the Hafler got anywhere from 3.5 to 4.5. Does this make any sense? I can fix a bulb, or loose solder joint, deoxit switches etc, but that is where my detective skills leave off. Wondering if this sounds like an alignment problem I can provide an audio file of the sound if it would help. I was so impressed by this unit, it really breaks my heart to think It might not work out. Any help would be appreciated. I'm going to mess around with some different antennae and see if it makes a difference. BTW I have a J-pole ant. roof mounted about 30 feet from ground on rotator 75 ohm RG6 coax down run to 75-300 balun connected to 300 ohm input on unit. All caps looked good and no moisture candlewax etc inside. Although I did find a spare led bouncing around inside.

Here is a link to another post I did about this one.. It has some pix of the patient.
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=262538

An alignment would not exactly be expensive.

Sounds like multipath distortion. Your J-pole is an omnidirectional antenna, so it is picking up the same station twice--the real signal, and a reflected signal from somewhere else. Usually a hill, large building, or something else. Your dipole is more directional, so it's going to be more immune to multipath. Try putting the dipole back onto the tuner, and see if the distortion is gone; I'll bet it will be.

Good luck, that's a nice tuner!

jhoyt said:

Sounds like multipath distortion. Try putting the dipole back onto the tuner, and see if the distortion is gone; I'll bet it will be.

Good luck, that's a nice tuner!

Click to expand...

Bingo, You hit it exactly, Rabbit ears sound fabulous. That is curious.. I understand multipath.. But I wonder why the TU317, Hafler, Marantz 2020 didn't have an issue with it. :scratch2:

Maybe the Kenwood is more sensitive? Probably so. Sensitivity is a double-edged sword...

Is this a failing of the unit? The Antenna? Or the signals in this area? I am used to bounce signals coming from all around. Had trouble with TV for years.

Shackman55 said:

Is this a failing of the unit? The Antenna? Or the signals in this area? I am used to bounce signals coming from all around. Had trouble with TV for years.

Click to expand...

It's a "failing" of the physics of multiple FM signals emanating from the same source, reflecting off of objects, and arriving at your antenna at different times from slightly (or more rarely, more than slightly) different directions. A directional antenna minimizes what you pick up off-axis. NOT "a failing of the unit".

Well I guess my question is why does this J-pole work so well for all my other tuners and given that I am fairly rural here, no other antenna has worked as well. When I hook it to the Kenwood it sounds like marbles in a coffee can, yet a simple rabbit ears works great! I understand multi path Ghost signals etc. But why don't have this problem with the other tuners.