Get new FM receiver or better antenna?

You will not know if your tuner is good or bad until you get an OUTSIDE antenna. I have/tried a Terk Pro-- it is barely ok and will not give you a strong signal if you have a weak signal now.

You say you are in a rented house. Isn't there an existing antenna pole ? Add a Radio Shack FM antenna(FM only - maybe $40 ) to the pole and run the best shielded coax thru the existing holes in the wall(alongside the other antenna wires) to your tuner. That will give the best signal possible.

A FM antenna will work good mounted in the attic -- not as good as outside, but way better than other indoor antennas.

Even a FM whip antenna mounted outside the window mite work. Drill a hole in the window frame and caulk around the coax wire. There is no "hole in the wall". When you move you simply caulk the hole when you remove the wire and whip. Of course first try the whip antenna thru the window before drilling any holes to see if it gives a good signal!

Buying a better tuner mite help a little, but prob not. You need a good signal for anything to work!

I tried a couple of signal boosting type antennas and returned them all. The Dynalab whip has worked the best of any I have tried. But what really tricked it out was connecting the unit, then walking it around while my wife watched the signal strength meter on my tuner. The spot it ended up in surprised us both. I never would have tried it in that location. Parhaps try it with the one you have. You may find the golden spot in a most unobvious location.
Good luck, John

Kotta,

Your suggestion for the C. Crane antenna looks interesting. It appears to be a fancy and more versatile version of a simple dipole antenna at a not unreasonable price. They give good advice on alternative configurations of the dipole legs.

Dipoles can work reasonably well, but, they do have to be oriented toward the preferred stations to work well. That can be a problem when signals are coming from all directions. The vertically oriented whip antenna might be better when signals are coming from all directions.

The Magnum Dynalab ribbon antenna which I use (sort of like a rabbit ear antenna) can be oriented in different directions and "tuned" to different frequencies by changing the relative lengths of the dipole legs vs. the vertically oriented leg. Still, there is just so much any of these kinds of antenna can do.

I am in a fringe area, about 50 miles from most radio antennae in St. Louis. I have the 805 and use the Magnum Dynalab ST-2. I get great reception from all directions, no multi-path interference, little if any static. I mounted it outside but I am told it will work almost as well indoors. Mount it as high in the house as you can, even in the attic if it is available.

I have a powered indoor Terk antenna, found at radioshack for about 65 bucks or so a while ago. Picks up good signal into my budget NAD tuner, in the basement of a town house in the DC area. The antenna is likely to be a bigger improvement than the receiver at this time. Why not consider a budget tuner (I paid ~250 on mine about 4 years back) that you then plug into your existing receiver?

Try a simple dipole wire antenna from Radio Shack.

If you do not do better with that, then check FM reception in that location using a portable radio or other device that picks up FM and see how that does.

The tuner with a dipole should do at least as well as the portable or better.

Also use the portable to check reception in alternate locations you might be able to position an antenna at.

Those powered antennas can be hit or miss regarding if they work properly or better or not.

If none of this works, then you are just in a bad reception area. Consider going to internet radio to meet your radio listening needs.

The CC Crane "Reflex" antenna for around $25 will work for you. These have a 30-day trial period I believe. Great indoor antenna. (IMO, better than the Magnum Dynalab "whip" (Model ST-2 I believe) which I also own.)

Even if you upgrade to a better tuner, you will need a decent antenna, so I would start there first. Check out the following website for guidance on indoor antenna selection:

http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/antenna.html

There is a link on that page to Magnum Dynalab, the Canadian company that specializes in FM tuners. They make pretty good indoor antennae. I have the cheaper ribbon one myself, but the long whip one is better. I get poor results myself from cheap, amplifying antennae which just increase both the signal and noise level and do a poor job of noise rejection.

I agree with Rar1 and would also suggest the sony xdrf1hd. I am using this tuner and it is surprisingly good. It is also very small and gets hd radio,just a bonus,as the fm reception is great.

The tuners in most HT receivers are afterthoughts and even with an outdoor antenna the reception will most likely just be ok.

A vintage receiver from the 70's like a Marantz 22XX series or a Pioneer SX series would work very well. You would just connect the receiver to one of your Onkyo's AUX inputs. These receivers are usually cheap to pick up and work well with indoor antennas. I live in a NYC apartment with steel frame windows and doors and this is what I do.

Regards, Rich