September 12, 2016

  • Simaudio Mind 180, Part 12

    During the Fall '86 semester, we bought the Sony STR-AV780 receiver, which came with a loop antenna for AM, a dipole T-shaped ribbon for FM. Under the influence of Crutchfield and J&R Music World ads, I bought a black plastic, powered, L-shaped FM antenna. Damn it, my audio friends and I have not had any luck, determining exactly what the antenna was. Archer/Radio Shack? Parsec? Recoton? Terk?

    On September 1, 1992, I bought the Adcom GTP-400 tuner/preamp, which came with a T-shaped dipole ribbon antenna. My intention was to use and leave the GTP-400 at home, in San Francisco. It was so good, I decided to bring it down to UC Santa Cruz, for my senior year.
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    Move-in date was September 20, 1992. The college apartment originally had two single-person chairs flanking an end table. We removed all three pieces, and replaced them with the coffee table. The coffee table held Tron's 13" TV; my stacked Sony CDP-520ESII, Adcom GTP-400 and GFA-535; and the Pinnacle PN-5+ minimonitors.

    Via our careful experimentation, the mystery-brand L-shaped powered FM antenna worked best, when placed in a corner, behind one of the loudspeakers. With that powered antenna, the GTP-400 could bring in a few local stations, plus - hallelujah - a Central California (Soledad?) Oldies station. On certain days, by pointing the antenna in a northerly direction, we could get 2 or 3 San Jose stations.
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    No, the Simaudio Mind 180 does not have FM. But even if you use Ethernet, you will still need to use Wi-Fi, for setup. The Mind 180 comes with a small, matte-black, plastic antenna. It screws into the back of the Mind 180, and has a joint near one end. When you were in college, you screwed into the back, and had a joint...oh never mind, get your mind out of the gutter.

    In September 1992, our friends and neighbors very quickly learned that we had not just a stereo, but one comprised of high-end audio products. Back then, in colleges, that was simply unheard of. Thus, everyone wanted to come over, and listen to music. Even when we ran out of CDs, we could always see what the GTP-400's tuner could bring in.
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    Because the Mind 180 has an Internet tuner, it brings in radio stations from all over the world. Back in '92, even world band radio enthusiasts could not have imagined this.