I am still checking the 850 out in my 30 days and I am a bit on the border as far as keeping it. It seems to be great for HT but I am finding the FM section to be very bad as I cannot pick up many of the stations my old HK reciever could pick up. I have the same antenna hooked up to the 950 as I did the HK. I am in a relatively tough area for FM but it is really bad on the 950. Does anyone have any experience to share on FM performance specifically FM in "rural" areas. Thanks

I’m presently using a 950 in a HT set up and Classe equipment in a stereo setup. Both the 950 and Classe have TERK FM antennas attached. Both do very well. I really don’t see much difference in the ability to pull in my favorite stations. The Classe is easier to tune & does sound better though.
Try an after market antenna such as TERK.

I thought at first, that the tuner in the 950 wasn't very good. But then I played around with the dipole antenna, and it ended up being "good enough" for me. Not as good as some dedicated tuners out there, but it did pick up all the small power, local college radio stations that I needed it to.

What specific Terk antenna are you using? I will give it a try

I’ve used two TERK models the basic FM+ and the amplified AF-1. Of the two it sounds like the AF-1 is what you’ll need. There are larger models for even weaker signal areas but I haven’t used one of them. I believe the model is FM-PRO or FM-50.

I have a strange situation. I live so close to the transmitters that I can practically spit on them, but they are up on a mountian and I am several thousand feet below. They shoot over my head, so my reception is total crap for TV and radio. That said, my 950's tuner performs as well as a Phase Linear tuner I have in pulling in clean stations. I have the Turk amplified antenna, and can pull in some of the stronger stations, but the weaker ones are a loss on both the Phase LInear and the 950.

soundhound,
We're in the same boat. I can see the transmitters and still not recieve the signal. I'm using a Yamaha separate tuner. I tried one of the lower level Terk's and it only helped a little. I moved up to an amplified model with adjustable gain. It works pretty well.
Mix

Ex-Terk user....since I bought this...it was a demo sale at $69.

no amps to adjust, use it indoors or outdoors mount vertical. I hid mine in a window behind the drapes...works like a champ!

http://www.audioadvisor.com/store/productdetail.asp?sku=MAGST2&product_name=ST-2%20FM%20Antenna

I tried a couple powered Terk antennas and they performed horribly for me. I had much better luck with a well-placed (spread out) regular old dipole. That turned out to work well enough for me.

One possibility that looked interesting though, is Magnum Dynalab's ST-2 (http://www.magnumdynalab.com/home.html).

-HTLearner

My 950 reception is on par with my last receiver, a Pioneer VSX-24TX, which is to say it's mediocre.

However, because I get generally strong signals thanks to my roof mounted antenna, it is not a real issue.

One feature I miss from the Pioneer was it's 'digital noise reduction' which worked rermarkedly well on weak FM stations. Now, I skip the more distant stations because the noise isn't weeded out on the 950. Not a real biggie though.

[This message has been edited by Slee_Stack (edited June 26, 2003).]