earossi

Not being terribly knowledgeable about car stereos, I am wondering why the sensitivity of after market tuners is not as good at most OEM radio installs. Every car that I have had that had been retrofitted with an after market stereo system generally is pretty useless for listening to local AM and FM radio.

Why is that? My recently purchased 993 has a Pioneer tuner and CD unit installed. If I am playing CD's, the system sounds terribic. If I attempt to get a local FM station, reception is almost always terrible. Where I can get 20 to 30 strong signals in my BMW OEM radio, the Pioneer in my Porsche is absolutely terrible. And, the Pioneer was not a cheap insstall.

Have others experienced this and if so, what can I do about it to boost the reception of AM and FM stations?

cobalt

Nope my Nakamichi units in my cars sound superior and get better reception in every way over anything I have had from a factory install. I have a Pioneer in my track car and it too sounds quite good using factory speakers far better than the factory head unit.

Might be the install. There are lots of high end installers that really have no clue to what they are doing.

earossi

Any suggestions on how to proceed?

cobalt

I would probably try tracing the antenna lead and making sure everything is tightly secured.

JBrown

Cobalt is right. What most shops do is they forget to turn on the factory antenna amplifier in the cars. You usually no this is your prolem when you get so so FM and no AM at all. Most shops do plug the antenna in so I dont think that is your problem. I install radio in european cars all day and unless I am installing a off brand piece of junk, most brand name units have pretty good tuners built in. Most stock radios are made by aftermarket companies for the manufacture and have the same tuners in them.
I am pretty sure the 993s came with the glass antenna with the amplifier. The only other thing it could be is the cable or antenna in windshield and those rarly go bad. On those cars you need and antenna adapter to change it from a euro end to a universal male standard end. That I bet is in the car. At the harndess that plugs into the radio (original harness in car) there will be a white wire. That wire turns on the antenna amplifier. It must get 12v power when the car is on. On the aftermarket radio there is a blue with white stripe and or a blue wire. You can use either one to turn on the antenna amp.

JBrown

Oh buy the way , I am a high end installer and most of them no what they are doing, Most people price shop installs and have the cheapest quote do the work. You get what you pay for. I have been installing radios for almost 30 years and the high end guys that I no, no more about the stock systems then the service departments in the dealership. I help out and diagnose problems that the dealer tried to fix.
I could tell you hundreds of stories of what service departments told customers what was wrong and they are not even close to the probllem. Then they quote them out 500-1000 to fix it and I find the problem and they owe me 100.00.

earossi

So, I took the car into a recommended audio shop and had them tear into the aftermarket radio install. Sure enough, they found that the installer had not run power to the antenna amplifier. The tech corrected this issue and cleaned up what looked like a messy installation and the tuner now provides better reception than my OEM BMW radio (my other German car!!). I am elated. Thanks so much for the advice. Truth be known, my reception is now better than any of my factory installs on some stations that I like to listen to.

The installer of the aftermarket radio in my car had used crimped terminals, and two of them just fell apart when the tech pulled the receiver from the dash. What a mess! My tech then installed a soldered plug to make all the connections with the receiver as well as hooking up the power to the antenna amp. Took him about an hour to sort out the mess and perform the repairs. The final tab was $110 which was a little steep until you realize that he essentially turned an inferior installation that could not be used into an installation that is superior to a factory set up. On final analysis, I think that I got a bargain.

Again, thanks to you guys for encouraging me to take this issue to a pro.

bigmac

Any thoughts about FM tuners for Home use?

JBrown

I cant believe how many installer mess up installs in the early year porsches. It is one of the easies cars to change a radio on. A clean install in that car takes no more than 30 min. The radio slips right ou the front and all the wires are right there. There is even a harness that they make for those cars. All you do is wire the harness to the new radio and plug it into the factory harness. Plug in the antenna, give the white wire off the antenna switched power and you are done. Most installers who have not been in the bussiness long always forget about the white wire off the antenna for the antenna amplifier.

Most modern cars have so much more to bypass or incorporate into the install. Bose data turned on amps, steering wheel controls, can systems, lan systems, most systems. Sometimes I think I am the only installer who has been doing this for 30 yrs... Man where did the time go......

M. Schneider

I have 2 of the Magnum Dynalab FM tuner model FT101s I could sell for cheap, say $250. Additionally I have a Tandberg 3001A (mint) with rack mounts/or rosewood side panels for $1800.00 (late production w/grey *****) and last but not least a DaySequerra Broadcast One FM tuner (mint) for $5,500. (Tandberg 3001A is a jewel of a FM tuner - my favorite)

Just a life long FM tuner hobbiest with both the Broadcast One & the 3001A there original owner. Manuals, Boxes, etc.

PM me if interested.