uxwbill
Lurking in the Shadows
About a month ago, I picked up a Carver TX-11a tuner. The seller stated that it worked well on the FM band, but did not appear to detect AM stereo broadcasts.
When it arrived, I found the AM stereo side of things to work quite well when driven from a low power AM stereo transmitter kit. It also seemed to pick up WLS 890 AM's C-QuAM stereo signal perfectly well. Maybe it got religion after being knocked around in shipping?
Having listened to it now for a while, I've got to say that I'm impressed. Most of the listening I've done is on the FM band, though I have listened on AM as well. This tuner does a pretty credible job on both, and unlike many other tuners, AM reception was not just a low-fi afterthought.
Comparing it to the one of the other "outstanding" tuners I own (a Sony XDR-F1HD), the Carver comes awfully close to the performance offered by the Sony when listening on FM. There is no comparison on AM--the Sony is not a hi-fidelity tuner when listening to analog AM broadcasts, and it does not offer C-QuAM stereo broadcast decoding. Like the Sony, the Carver can find FM broadcasts that are barely out there, buried in noise and bring them out, although the Carver doesn't manage the impressive noise filtering of the Sony.
Then again, the difference in technology is quite wide. What Sony does with a DSP the Carver has to do with a large quantity of circuitry. That the performance of the two is so close and the technology so different is remarkable. Thankfully, the Carver tuner seems to be a pretty clean design, and should be fixable if something goes wrong.
Using the additional noise reduction function on FM helps a lot, though having the ability to switch to monophonic reception would be nice. I'm not about to modify the tuner in order to get there, though. What the Multipath Reduction function does can sound odd. If anything, I'd liken it to a crude, simpler version of what I have heard the Sonic Holography unit do. Sometimes it was an improvement, other times I wanted to turn it off.
I decided to do another comparison with a Denon TU-680NAB tuner. I think it fair to put the Denon tuner in roughly the same league as the Carver. Both were engineered to offer a high quality reproduction of radio broadcasts, and both support C-QuAM AM stereo broadcast decoding, at least in theory.
On AM the two were pretty much identical performers. Yet when switched to FM, things were different. The Carver not only found more stations than the Denon, it did so more quietly and stably without necessarily having to engage any of its special signal processing techniques. The only real advantage held by the Denon was its ability to be switched into monophonic reception mode on AM and FM.
Later, I'll do a shootout between the Sony ST-550ES tuner (which has been modified and aligned in recent times) and the Carver. I expect the Sony will compare well with the Carver on FM reception, and the Carver will surely mop the floor with the Sony on AM. Because I have no shortage of audacity, I also plan to do a comparison between the JC Penney MCS 3050 and Carver tuners.
In closing, I'd like to hear the thoughts of other AKers who happen to own--or have owned--a Carver TX-11, TX-11a or TX-11b tuner.
When it arrived, I found the AM stereo side of things to work quite well when driven from a low power AM stereo transmitter kit. It also seemed to pick up WLS 890 AM's C-QuAM stereo signal perfectly well. Maybe it got religion after being knocked around in shipping?
Having listened to it now for a while, I've got to say that I'm impressed. Most of the listening I've done is on the FM band, though I have listened on AM as well. This tuner does a pretty credible job on both, and unlike many other tuners, AM reception was not just a low-fi afterthought.
Comparing it to the one of the other "outstanding" tuners I own (a Sony XDR-F1HD), the Carver comes awfully close to the performance offered by the Sony when listening on FM. There is no comparison on AM--the Sony is not a hi-fidelity tuner when listening to analog AM broadcasts, and it does not offer C-QuAM stereo broadcast decoding. Like the Sony, the Carver can find FM broadcasts that are barely out there, buried in noise and bring them out, although the Carver doesn't manage the impressive noise filtering of the Sony.
Then again, the difference in technology is quite wide. What Sony does with a DSP the Carver has to do with a large quantity of circuitry. That the performance of the two is so close and the technology so different is remarkable. Thankfully, the Carver tuner seems to be a pretty clean design, and should be fixable if something goes wrong.
Using the additional noise reduction function on FM helps a lot, though having the ability to switch to monophonic reception would be nice. I'm not about to modify the tuner in order to get there, though. What the Multipath Reduction function does can sound odd. If anything, I'd liken it to a crude, simpler version of what I have heard the Sonic Holography unit do. Sometimes it was an improvement, other times I wanted to turn it off.
I decided to do another comparison with a Denon TU-680NAB tuner. I think it fair to put the Denon tuner in roughly the same league as the Carver. Both were engineered to offer a high quality reproduction of radio broadcasts, and both support C-QuAM AM stereo broadcast decoding, at least in theory.
On AM the two were pretty much identical performers. Yet when switched to FM, things were different. The Carver not only found more stations than the Denon, it did so more quietly and stably without necessarily having to engage any of its special signal processing techniques. The only real advantage held by the Denon was its ability to be switched into monophonic reception mode on AM and FM.
Later, I'll do a shootout between the Sony ST-550ES tuner (which has been modified and aligned in recent times) and the Carver. I expect the Sony will compare well with the Carver on FM reception, and the Carver will surely mop the floor with the Sony on AM. Because I have no shortage of audacity, I also plan to do a comparison between the JC Penney MCS 3050 and Carver tuners.
In closing, I'd like to hear the thoughts of other AKers who happen to own--or have owned--a Carver TX-11, TX-11a or TX-11b tuner.
