Problems With Sony XDRF1HD

audiojones

audiojones

Jonesin' for audio
Subscriber
Has anyone else had power supply problems with their Sony HD tuner? I bought the Sangean HD tuner and my friend bought the Sony XDRF tuner. I always thought that he got the better deal, but his suddenly started humming very loudly through the preamp as soon as it (the tuner) was powered up, which kind of sounds like a power supply issue. He also said that it always ran hot, although I've read that it's normal for them to do that. This unit is well out of warranty but Sony is going to fix it anyway (pretty cool). I was just wondering if anyone else out there has had any issues with the Sony HD tuner, and is it normal for them to run so hot or could that be an indication of a problem? I once left my Sangean HD tuner on all weekend and it was as cool as it would be if left off, but I think the Sony is supposed to be a better tuner.
 
Last edited:
Register to hide this ad
The Sony does run warm, which is why some owners have rigged up cooling fan arrangements. I have a 4" 12 volt fan cannibalized from a defunct computer power supply mounted on top of mine. I run it at 5 volts which makes it nearly inaudible, but it does a great job of keeping the tuner cool. The tuner would run cooler if it were in a cabinet as large as more conventional tuners. I have not had any power supply failure issues with mine. Some of the top mounted push buttons tend to become "noisy" when not used frequently.
 
I own 3 of them. They run warm, but not hot. I use chair leg caps and other items so that they are about an inch above the counters. No problems with power supplies so far.
 
Yes, I Wonder About the Reports of Heat

The top of mine runs at near room temperature, about body temperature and the bottom runs a little warm. That's it. I've left it on pretty much non-stop since I bought it and it's never run anywhere near to what could be described as 'hot.' Maybe the early runs of this tuner had some design issues.

mshultz said:
I own 3 of them. They run warm, but not hot. I use chair leg caps and other items so that they are about an inch above the counters. No problems with power supplies so far.
Click to expand...
 
Tuner fixed...

My friend got his Sony XDRF1 tuner back the other day, he said it's all straightened out and works like it should (which evidently is quite well). Sony told him to send it away to a Texas repair depot to be fixed and that they would cover the repairs even though it was out of warranty. He did that and the repair shop sent him a bill for $65, but before he even had a chance to contact the shop and tell them that it was supposed to be a warranty repair Sony had a refurbished unit shipped to his door. That's great service! I haven't heard of other people having problems like the humming issue that this one had, but I haven't really looked into it. I'm thinking that I should get one of those tuners - I'll bet it's way better than my Sangean (which flips in and out of HD and loses signal very easily even with the roof antenna), and with some mods it might be better than my Pioneer analog tuners.

Add-On: I told him about the larger feet for improved cooling and directed him toward the Sony HD tuner thread here.
 
I've been listening to one of these Sonys for the past few days and also noticed it ran warm, but not hot.

What I find I don't ike about this tuner is that when receiving non-HD stations (which is about 99% of the stations where I live) with a weak signal, it doesn't sound as good as a decent audiophile tuner or receiver using the same antenna. Some examples of these better sounding tuners (to me) are Yamaha, Denon, Nakamichi.

I'm going to play around with it some more to see what I can figure out, but at the moment my hypothesis is that the Sony doesn't do well in the face of multipath.
 
reneborg:
I notice a similar problem on weak signals. I think it is the adaptive noise reduction becoming audible. Switching to mono (at the preamp) seems to eliminate it. A better antenna might help too. It happens on only two stations, both of which play classical music; both are weak and have co-channel interference issues. Comparing a good analog tuner on the same stations: More background noise, but cleaner audio. Its a toss up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom