Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site

Romy the Cat wrote:

As now the Rohde & Schwarz + T-85 sound just wonderful and I would not look for other Multiplex Decoders with exception of a future idea to built one even better (with L de-emphasize)  INSEDE of the Rohde & Schwarz. So, effectively so far the Decoder project is over.  Probably the most reasonable question would be to ask how the Rohde & Schwarz + T-85 Decoder sound in relation to TU-1X. I have the judgment and it is much unexpected judgment at least to me. I will post it later on in the Rohde & Schwarz’s thread along with some commentaries.

People who read my site regularly know that one of the fundamental rules for understanding my audio rational is accepting the following postulate:

http://www.romythecat.com/Forums/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=432

I have to admit the in my tries of adopting the Rohde & Schwarz were not the subject of my above linked rules of audio self-navigations. I very much pleased, beyond expectations of what the Sansui TU-1X does (not the “experimental one” but the very original one converted of direct coupled output - no other changes are made there). My level of comfort with my original TU-1X is so great that I not what (or afraid) to touch and have no desire to seek better Sound. So, the Rohde & Schwarz ides was pure fishing to see if anything else is possible by virtue of a classic analog tuner design. The Multiples decoder was a big obstacle but it was resolved.

http://www.romythecat.com/GetPost.aspx?PostID=7675

So, was the Rohde & Schwarz able to push the Sansui TU-1X’s Sound further?  Well, it was not able to. The key in the answer is that in case of respectfully-proper operating conditions the Rohde & Schwarz and Sansui system threw absolutely identical sonic results. What I realized it was in a way disappointed but then I spoke with Dima and he pitched to me a very interesting observation that I found fascinating. He said:”

Romy, look, you have two absolutely different top-flying tuners make with very high objectives. They were made by very different people with very different design cultures. They use different parts, different topology and different architecture. However, they both end up with the same resulting sound. So, does it mean that the result that you are getting it is what is basically possible to get out of FM by use of sensible means?”

I was thinking what Dima proposed and I feel that makes a lot of sense….

Well, I have no addenda what tuner is “better” my Sansui TU-1X of the Rohde & Schwarz +T85’s decoder, I have no need to sell ether of them and having two A/D processors that I trust (Lavry 122 and pacific) I might as well use both. I might set up one for listening and one for recording only – I can do whatever I want. There is a difference between Sansui and Rohde’s use & Schwarz’s use and I would like to take about it. However, the major underling fact of all differences shell be the knowledge that both R&S and Sansui, if be aware and to serve their own idiosyncrasies deliver absolutely identical Sound. Also, my Sansui is perfectly calibrated and aligned. My Rohde & Schwarz is not aligned and my Schwarz’s Multiplex Decoder (T-85) is calibrated by me (which might not mean a lot)

1)  Sansui need external, manual, very precise, antenna signal dial-in. 1-2dB of wrong signal strength on the Sansui’s front end send Sansui’s into FM noise. The R&S is much more immune from it and it basically would like to have as much antenna signal as you can feed it.

2)  R&S is pain in ass to tune in case of frequent station change. The Schwarz take time to stabilize the station, sometimes it needs 2-3 adjustment within a fist hour after the station is tuned. However, as the Schwarz is tuned and the tuner is in it’s cruise temperature and mechanic state then the Schwarz’s holds the frequency very fine, controlling and tuning the station with less than 5kHz(!!!) precession. Sansui is much more forgiving and much less precise then that.

3)  the Rohde & Schwarz has better selectively then Sansui in Wide Mode (I never use narrow Sansui’s’ mode as it sound not as good) but playing with attenuator it is possible to make Sansui to sound very similar to Schwarz. The Rohde & Schwarz with it’s one signal mode does have advantage in DXing and reception of far stations near a powerful neighboring stations however, I do not recognize is as “Sound” but  rather as a “receptions”. The advantage is there but overly huge. The Yamaha T-85 is far better DX machine then both Rohde & Schwarz and Sansui.

4)  Sansui has tone generator – very useful tool that permit to calibrate A/D processor – the equality of the R+L channels sensitively - I wish my stations broadcast always the channels equally.

5)  Rohde & Schwarz need to run for a few hours to become like a measurement machine. When it “cold” it “flies” here and there. Sansui is good after a few minutes.

6)  Sansui scale is more predictable and more intuitive then Rohde & Schwarz. The Schwarz’s ultra-precisions scale is more gimmicky and not good for play-and-play tuning

7)   Now, I can tell that internal Multiplex Decoder is a pint in ass. The decoder should be in the tuner and the output shell drive 2 loads with no impact to impedance sinking. So far the Rohde & Schwarz is two chassis tuner…. From a different perspective the Sansui is enormously large. Put Multiplex into Rohde & Schwarz or take AM section out of Sansui and make it smaller.

8)  Rohde & Schwarz and Sansui have slightly different character of noise in case they vaguely out of optimum operation condition. When Schwarz starve for signal then it develops a continuing MF hiss. When Sansui starve or overload with signal then it develops none-continuing choking, pinging time of distortions with some MF hiss.

This is all for now. I will be killing both tuners and perhaps will be more able to detect the advantage of a specific tuner at a given station of my given antenna configuration. I might post some recording from the R&S +T85 tandem if any interesting recording come along and if I use the Schwarz for recording. As time goes buy I discover more and more new ways to make my FM recordings better…

Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site