I havent heard of Humax, but the Magnum tuners use all analog circuitry, but have a numeric "digital" readout for the frequency. A Tuner with a numeric readout lets you know exactly what station you are tuned to. As far as broadcasting, all FM radio will be analog for the forseeable future. Several attempts have been made to broadcast in 'digital' have fallen by the wayside. An exception is XM and Sirius Sattelite Radio, which is a digital signal.
What do I purchase an Analog or a Digital tuner
I wish to purchase a tuner, since I understand that the future broadcasting will be digital I am looking for digital tuners like Humax...but I found that one of the best tuners in the market is Magnum and it is operating in analog. Some one may help to clarify this apparent contradiction?
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Here are links to two explanations that are consistent with what I've always understood: From the Galen Carol Audio web site discussing Magnum Dynalab tuners... Magnum-Dynlab believes that analog tuning circuits provide performance superior to digital or frequency synthesis tuning. In contrast with the frequency synthesis method of tuning, analog is not dependent on a digital microprocessor chip to establish the tuner's receive frequency. With analog, tuning is accomplished using specially-selected, discrete components in the tuner's critical "front end." In the Magnum Dynalab design, these components are selected and matched so that a unique balance of sensitivity, selectivity and sound can be maintained.And from the Magnum Dynalab web site... WHY ANALOG? The answer is very simple. The best SOUND can only be produced when the signal received by the tuner is tuned and maintained in the ANALOG domain. |
The Magnum Dynalab tuners are nice and they are appealing visually, but in my opinion you can do as good and better by purchasing a vintage tuner. There were a lot of great tuners made in years past when there was a lot of emphasis on making good FM tuners and receivers. I suggest you spend some time at the FM Tuner Info site; by considering a vintage tuner you may be able to afford both types if desired. |
My $7 vintage Sansui tuner from eBay causes jaws to drop when people actually hear the thing. Get a good fidelity jazz broadcast from a public radio station or college (either can be found like below like 91.9Mhz FM or so on your dial). The trick is you need an relative uncompressed unscrewed up signal, and commercial FM isn't it. Some of those broadcasts rival my redbook front end for all of the audiophile critia, including musicality. Now that's scary. And remember, this is a used $7 solid state tuner from the '80s folks! I would seriously consider a respected used, vintage tuner before buying anything new. And like my $7 jobby, you might not need to spend all that much. The lucky part here is most people live in an FM waste land, so nobody needs or wants a tuner. And their loss is your gain. I would not buy a brand new, or current production model tuner. To me the value just isn't there. But maybe you listen to way more quality FM than I do? I would purchase an analog vintage tuner if I were you. Also, you will need a decent roof-mounted aerial if sonics are important to you. |
You should go to fmtunerinfo.com and read. There are many vintage tuners that will outperform many modern tuners at multiples of their price. Also modding a vintage tuner for a total of several hundred will get you sound quality equal to the best tuners made in the thousands range. This sounds like bs but it's true. There's a site on Yahoo: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FMtuners/ These guys know everything you could possibly want to know about tuners! I highly recommend a modded vintage tuner. cheers |