Me being a newbie again... Some help please
Found this faq entry: http://www.riocar.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=FAQ&file=index&myfaq=yes&id_cat=2&faqent=1#1
saying this: The empeg Car Mark 1had a built-in FM-only tuner.

I've had my mk1 for 1½years now. Haven't really listened to the tuner. The radio is real fuzzy.. I need a REALLY GOOD signal to be able to listen to the radio. Only the major national radios are listenable and only when not driving. :/

What's wrong? is the tuner really that crappy? Did the guys who installed the empeg leave the antenna-plug off or something? I'm living in Finland, radio transmissions are good on my area and with my stockcar stereo they were coming out fine.
Just wondering, any comments?

is the tuner really that crappy?

Essentially, yes.

Moreover, it's inside a metal box (the empeg), along with all sorts of circuitry that's outputting radio frequency noise.

This means that it doesn't perform as well as one might want.

are you using the antenna booster that came with the mk1.

Honestly, I don't know. :/

Crappy store installed my Empeg for me. Did a totally crappy job. :/ I suppose they did install it, since they didn't give me any spare parts.

Ok. What do you prefer me to get to be able to listen to the radio in my automobile? There's only 1 DIN place in my dash. Maybe I should put external tuner to my AUX somehow? Ideas?

So. I've been thinking about pulling a 3.5mm wire from the AUX of my Empeg. Wire would be loose inside the car. I'd be able to plug a laptop or walkman or md or portable tuner w/ crappy antenna :P

I have no experience on cars / car audios. Quesion is: Is this too hard for me? Is this worth doing? What to do?

Thanks for all your knowledge. I really like the BBS.

I did it to my Mk2. Even drilled a hole inside the glove compartment to mount it. It works pretty well, tho' I don't use it much. I'd suggest trying to get shielded cabling for it. I had to reroute mine several times to get rid of interference from my electronic fuel injection dealy. And you'll have to solder a resistor in there to convert from 2 RCAs to 1 phone plug, assuming you don't buy some sort of pre-built converter cable.

I've had my mk1 for 1½years now. Haven't really listened to the tuner. The radio is real fuzzy.. I need a REALLY GOOD signal to be able to listen to the radio.

My experience with the Mk1 tuner was that it was decent, but not spectactular. If you're getting a signal that's significantly fuzzier than another car radio, I would suspect:

- Wiring trouble with the antenna connection
- Incorrectly connected or missing antenna signal booster.

Do you own one of those cars that needs a special adapter to get power to its built-in antenna signal booster? Perhaps that's all that's wrong.

If all else fails, you could spring for a Mk2 and one of Patrick's tuner kits....

Damn you tf :P

The signal now _is_ significantly fuzzier. I just checked the Empeg-box I gave to be installed then _and_ found TWO cables in the box, unused.

I believe another of them was an antenna-booster or suchadingaloo. I'm trying to describe it now 8-) RCA plugs female & male, wires from them to a red 1-2cm long plastic thingaloo. From one side a thick very short cable's head and from the other side a very short thinner cable's head. Ok, this is the antenna-booster?
Is this hard to install by a total newbie that has absolute _no_ knowledge of car audio? Do I need a special adapter some sort of? Living in Europe.

Other cable found unused was a grounding cable I presume. RCA male&female and wires coming between them, end of the wire is a round metal golden thingie.

One problem I've had has been that in the wintertime (-30-0C) my rearspeakers have had a grounding problem. Dunno if the installation was a failure.

Ok, I'm not the best person to describe things in english nor to talk about cars =)

Greetings!

Wow. And I thought I had trouble describing parts of a car install...

I can't tell from your description whether or not the thing is an antenna signal booster.

I do know that an antenna signal booster would not have RCA cables on it, unless the previous Mk1 owner had soldered his RCA grounding adapters to the ground wire on the signal booster.

I'm digging through the empeg photos to locate a picture of the signal booster that shipped with the Mk1. Note that this would be completely unused if your car came with such a signal-booster built-in (such as some VW and Audi cars do).

suchadingaloo
thingaloo

I am definitely going to have to add these words to my everyday vocabulary.

Can't seem to find a picture of the booster, even in the old Mk1 beauty shots in the geek guide. Anyone else?

Better yet - Lauri, do you have a digital camera handy?

Does it look anything like this?

That bears a striking resembalence to something I found in the box with my MK1 when I bought it (although that was used, so it could have been put there by the previous owner).

Yes, my recollection is that the Mk1 antenna booster did look like that.

The in-line antenna amplifier was a shortish, aluminium "cigar tube" looking beastie, into which you inserted the antenna cable. You wired the amp to +12V, and then took the output cable to the empeg antenna input.

You should ask a knowledgable friend to have a look at your installation for you to see if it has been put in.

If you can't see it, then mail Car Support for one.

PS. I actually found on my (un boosted telescopic) antenna that the amplifier made the situation worse. I found that I could impedance match the antenna to the empeg by shortening the tele to approximately 1/3 of it's full length, and I get really excellent stereo reception. If you don't believe this is possible, then come over to the owner's meet in July and you can listen to my Mk 1 setup in the Mini, complete with AF RDS....

I've got a box of them here, trouble is I have no digital camera!

I have my Mk1 booster in front of me, that it an exact match.

Does it look anything like this?

No. :/
I don't have a digicam on me, so. Guess we are not going to know what the part was

Well. Until the summer smiles at me I'll be driving around w/o the tuner. It's too damn cold to start learning about car audio now!

Hey, about the AUX plug/wiring thing... What kind of cable do I need in order to get a signal from my portable-cd/md/laptop/whatever? Just a regular RCA-3.5mm ? Like one connecting my computer to my home stereo? Or my Empeg @ home to my stereo?

Thinking it would be great to install a 3.5mm plug in the car, maybe in the glovebox / such. And to plug a cable in it when using a portable player. Comments?

That bears a striking resembalence to something I found in the box with my MK1 when I bought it (although that was used, so it could have been put there by the previous owner).

You were referring to my description, right?
What did you do with it? What was it?

I've got a RCA -> 3.5mm cable and I plug my laptop into it. Works nicely but I did have to connect the shield of the cable to the empeg casing otherwise I got a really bad hum. Can't really do much from the laptop end so I had to do it at the empeg end. A ground loop isolator also worked but it attenuated the signal and it works just as well by grounding it. No problems so far but somebody tell me if I'm not supposed to do this!

- Trevor

You were referring to my description, right?
Wrong, I was refering to the link Paul attached.

What did you do with it?
Left it in the box, the car I was installing it in already had a booster.

What was it?
What I had was an antenna booster, As for what you have, something with 8 RCAs on it, the only thing that I could think of is some sort of whine isolater/filter

Sorry,

Works nicely but I did have to connect the shield of the cable to the empeg casing otherwise I got a really bad hum.

How did you do this? Please be as specific as possible..
Connected the ends of the cable / the plugs? Or dismantled the cable and somehow grounded the showing copper?
Where did you attach the grounding? Just anywhere in the case or did you use a nice warm preinitialized spot?
You had mk2, right?

I connected the shield of one of the aux in plugs to the ground line of the empeg. I soldered a new wire onto the cable I had and connected it to the ground wire in the harness.

- Trevor

If you use the AUX, you should really use the RCA earthing leads since most portables tend to "float" with no DC ground reference. This means the input signal floats also, and you have to refer it to the same earth potential as the empeg knows (ie. touch the case).

I didn't have to do this (ground the leads) with my portable, but I did notice a significant difference between using the line out and the headphone out. Noise and distortion on the line out, fine on the headphone out. Funny, that.

I don't actually have any RCA earthing leads so that's why I did the wire myself. It's a Mk2a so it didn't come with any.

- Trevor

Here's a picture of the antenna amplifier.