n012  0723  14 Feb 82
BC-STEREO-02-14
    Weekly STEREO column
    By Rich Warren
    (c) 1982 Chicago Sun-Times (Field News Service)
    OK, all you FM broadcasters sitting self-contentedly atop tall
buildings: Clean up your act.
    Replace your old FM transmitter exciter - that key transmitter part
responsible for audio quality - with a modern one. Align the heads of
your tape machines and use dbx or Dolby to reduce noise. Get some
decent phono cartridges and trade in those high-rumble, old clunker
broadcast turntables for modern, quiet ones.
    Sony, you see, has thrown you the gauntlet, and soon most Japanese
audio companies will follow. They will offer - or are offering -
tuners of higher audio quality than most FM broadcasts.
    One of the first such tuners, the Sony ST-J75, received the greatest
reader response of any item mentioned here. It was the first super
tuner, at a bargain price of $450.
    Sony employed a new phase-locked loop circuit with its extraordinary
direct-comparator technology, incorporated on a new
integrated-circuit chip. The internal mechanics involved in FM
reception no longer spill into the reproduced audio, so there's a
cleaner, lower distortion sound.
    Many companies offer fine, technically innovative tuners, but until
the new Sony chip for the direct comparator circuit, they were either
outrageously expensive or noisy, or both. Just about every company
offers tuners with good selectivity and sensitivity these days,
usually with low distortion. Sony just happened to make one that not
only sounds better, but also is relatively inexpensive.
    Sony's new ST-JX5, at $300, is a real challenge to FM broadcasters.
It boasts nearly the same specifications as the more expensive
ST-J75, but at only two-thirds the price. It's also more beautiful to
look at, with a slim front panel less than 2 inches high. Its
miniature control panel requires a deft touch, but the eight AM or FM
station pre-sets can be pressed by someone who's all thumbs.
    The totally electronic tuning includes all the expected subtleties,
such as manual or automatic scan, sensitivity switching, manual or
automatic muting and a calibration tone. It also features a
programming switch. You can pre-program four stations, so when the
unit is used with an automatic timer and connected to a tape deck,
you can record a different station each time the unit is activated.
The logically positioned controls are color-coded.
    This tuner is not the ideal choice if you live in a difficult
reception area and you wish to use an outdoor roof antenna. The
tuning indicator consists of just three LEDs, which would make
antenna positioning a bit tricky. The AM reception in an urban
high-rise isn't much better than conventional tuners.
    Now that everyone can afford a state-of-the-art tuner, when are
broadcasters going to transmit that state to us?
    
    CORRECTION: The Kahn AM stereo system was incorrectly identified in
a recent column as having been originally approved by the FCC. The
Kahn system was used in Mexico. The Magnavox system initially won FCC
approval.
    END
    
nyt-02-14-82 1023est
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