Quality Audio Broadcaster

[Philbd]

I have a Mobile Black Box in my Christmas Display but I am not happy with the sound quality, there is a lot of sibilance on the high end , I was wondering if you all had any recommendations for a good quality Transmitter with a decent range?

thanks 

Phil

[Brad Stucky]

Found this review of mine on the Black Box Eclipse 4000 from about 2011, so any dates referred to in the content are way off.  ( I did edit a bit for spelling and punctuation)

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I thought I'd pass along some information about the frustration I've had with the sound quality of my transmitted audio using a Mobile Blackbox Eclipse Model 4000.  2 years ago, I purchased this unit as a backup to a Ramsey FM30 unit. The unit is very well constructed, HOWEVER, it is very sensitive to the quality of audio signal supplied to the unit. The Ramsey showed a little distortion last year in the upper frequencies.  The Eclipse tested on the same computer this year sounded simply horrible. No radio receiver of mine would even lock in a stereo signal.   Reconnecting the Ramsey resulted in a cleaner sound but again, as last year, with a bit of upper frequency distortion. After all kinds of ferrite cores added to input and output cables, power cables, swapping out the computer power supply, substituting a 12volt battery for the transmitter AC adapter, and checking different antennas, etc.   I finally decided to check the sound output of my on-board motherboard audio with an oscilloscope and an audio wave generator.  I was shocked at how choppy the audio wave appeared in the upper frequencies as opposed to a clean sine wave, even though I couldn't really hear the problem. The Black Box transmitter is evidently affected by the distortion to the point that the radio audio becomes very distorted in the upper frequencies.  I installed an older Sound Blaster Live audio card into the computer and when the signal seemed to improve a bit, I figured I was on to something.  The scope still showed a small amount of wave choppiness coming from the SB live card.   I purchased and installed a Sound Blaster Audigy SE with 24bit audio and immediately noticed a much improved and cleaner signal output from the Eclipse transmitter to the radio. The cleaner audio output was also verified on the scope. The price of the MBB Eclipse 4000 unit is very reasonable, and with a clean audio input, sounds as good as the Ramsey and has just as good if not better transmitting range.  By using 128kbps mp3 music files, the frequencies above 15,000 hz will be limited and should help eliminate the distorted sounds that could result if upper frequencies are transmitted, particularly the 'sss' sounds from singers or cymbals.  The Ramsey has a better audio high frequency brickwall filter and thus does a better job of filtering the high frequencies that cause distortion and loss of the stereo signal. Aside from the Eclipse 4000 sensitivity to upper frequency input, the other thing to consider here is that if you are experiencing distorted audio through your radio from any FM transmitter connected to your computer, it might just be due to that audio output from the built-in motherboard audio circuits.  I've also discovered that the Eclipse 4000 works much better with some computers, probably due to superior on-board audio circuits in those cases.

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Hope this helps some.

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I'm still using the Ramsey FM30B unit and plan to for our 2022 show, using the input from stock audio circuits of a Dell Optiplex 7010 and the sound seems to be fine.   It's my understanding that the Ramsey unit is no longer available, so if you aren't able to get a satisfactory signal from your BB, then there is the option from Light-O-Rama which is their Whole House FM Transmitter Ver. 3.  I know that some of the earlier Whole House units were not stereo, but it appears that the the one pictured at the LOR site has stereo on the display and that would be an improvement on the earlier ones that Whole House had.  The price isn't bad either.  I would consider it over any of the other cheap Chinese units that are out there.  Whole House has been around for a while.

 

Edited August 23, 2022 by Brad Stucky

[weigh2fast4u@yahoo.com]

Look for a Rangestar FSCZH-05B

its crystal clear…. I set my computer volume on around 25. And turn the volume on the transmitter all the way up..

25 on the computer volume was good for me. ..until car radios start blasting. Super loud with a trunk filled of rattling 15” in woofers. Then I cut the volume all the way off. Lol

 

 

[Orville]

I bought an MBB Eclipse, I think it was a 1000 back in 2010 when I got into this hobby, have never had an issue with it as long as I kept it away from the computer.  Closest it has ever been to my computer is no less than 15 feet.  Still using it to this day.  Sadly, MBB discontinued the one I have.  But it's never given me any issues.

Went to see what they offered, as I wanted to get a 2nd one as a spare a couple years later, but everything they were selling was now MONO and not stereo.  And if it's not stereo, I'm not interested in it.  The one I have lets me select stereo or mono, and can mute it at the push of a button.

But looking at other transmitters and reviews, but haven't really found one I'm comfortable buying for a spare unit.  Still looking though.

Good luck on finding a decent one that has true stereo output, most I've seen lately are mono with no stereo output option, and I just don't get that at all.

P.S. mine is usually connected to an N4-G4 Director, and has worked perfectly with that for a couple of years or so now.  My N4-G4 Director is currently at LOR for repair, so waiting on it to get back.  Hopefully soon.

Edited October 5, 2022 by Orville

[dgander]

OK, I had to laugh at the mitigation you took on the blasting woofers. I will have to remember that. I have a WholeHouse 3.0 that came with the LOR min director setup. It worked fine last year but this year it won't transmit very well at all. I am going with a Retekess TR508 which looks exactly like your Rangestar FSCZH-05B. I borrowed one yesterday and it was nice and clean as well as powerful. I had it set on H and got all the way around the block with the transmitter being inside the center of my house, not in my mini director enclosure. So I am hopefull this new unit will last more than the one year the WholeHouse 3.0 lasted (actually only 2 months if you count actual use)