Jump to content
Light-O-Rama Forums

sound quality from fm transmitter


Scott Johannsen

Recommended Posts

If someone can help me with the sound quality from my fm transmitter. When I turn on the radio to listen to the music some songs sound like they are playing to loud and have too much bass. When I take off the fm transmitter and just plug in headphones the sound is good but just a little loud. Thanks Scottt

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I presume this is the sound coming from your computer. Check your volume level, it may be to high. Also alot of sound cards have the ability to change frequency settingd like a equalizer. check yours and see oif you have these in your sound settings, some are as simple as bass and treble. plug in a head set radio or put one near you and listen as you adjust it to what sounds best.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The sound is not coming from my computer. I did get the mp3 player from LOR and I am using that to play the sequence.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not sure what kind of transmitter you have. The one I have has a volume control. if I turn it up too high sound is garbled. Found by setting to about 25% offers best sound.



Lee

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you for the advice. My fm transmitter does not have a volume control, but I think I can put an in line volume control on it and give that a try. Thank you,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One other thing you can do is use that Audacity program to "normalize" all of your MP3 files. You can lower the volume and get them all to play at about the same volume.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not sure if this will help, but I have the Ramsey FM25B and noticed that if the input is too high, the sound is very bassy, and get's distorted...

I found out that with an FM transmitter, Less is more...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's a couple of things to think about with your FM transmitters/source combination. With luck, you won't have many problems. Most of this can be solved by another seldom used Ramsey product, by the way. Check out their site, and look for the STC1C Stereo Transmitter Companion. Order it pre-built so you can get it going as fast as possible, unless you're just a wiz at building kits (and have the time). Here's a link:

http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/cgi-bin/commerce.exe?preadd=action&key=STC1C

All of our music sources are sampled, and this can cause problems when mixed through your transmitters carrier frequency. Low pass filtering can solve this problem easily. Eliminates nearly all of the squeal and hissy noises. The STC1C has this built in, by the way. It also has a built-in limiter, which can even out your volume problems and prevent overmodulation (resulting in distortion).

If you're running out of your headphone jacks from your PC (most of us are... we don't have line-out connections), then you need to crank the volume down significantly to prevent front end distortion. Of course this will vary from machine to machine, but my volume is set at 30 (out of 100).

Also, ground loops and other power supply types of hum can be a problem as well. I have an audio ground loop isolator between my PC and my transmitter for this reason as well. This is a cheap product, and can be found from a large number of sources. Radio Shack carries them. Here's a link:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062214

Make sure you power your PC/Transmitter from a circuit far away from any of your lights. You'd be amazed how much buzz can feed back through the power lines from dimmer circuitry, and screw up your audio. Ideally, a power regenerator module would be perfect for this, but they aren't cheap.

Lastly, the three most important words for any radio transmission scenario.... antenna, antenna, antenna! :)

My particular setup has my laptop PC running through a ground isolator, into the Ramsey STC1C and then on into a Ramsey FM100B transmitter (I'm 800 feet from the road, so I needed a bit more power). I use a Ramsey TM100 dipole antenna, located outside and connected to the transmitter through 50 feet of 50 ohm coax cable. My sound is pretty much the same quality as our local FM stations.

I can't stress enough how important it is to have the best sound quality you can get. That is the key component making your display different and unique (and super cool).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...