AMC T7 Tuner

When looking at the indicator and push-button bacchanalia of modern devices, sometimes we want something simpler and not so multicolored. For the supporters of such a view, we can state with satisfaction that the peculiarity of the European approach to the design of block equipment is still alive, despite the statements of Philips ideologists in the early 80's that the Japanese won the final and irrevocable victory in the design of household appliances. Austerity Dusseldorf school, which amateurs have appreciated even in the Atelier series of Braun, found its contemporary incarnation in the products of AMC. The simple and clear logic of the T7 tuner is defined by the arrangement in one row of all controls. Normal operation is indicated by a calm green color of all indicators, from power on to fine-tuning. And only the necessary tuning direction near the radio station is indicated by a red triangle. The three-color "tunoscop" of the Grundig ST-6000 tuner comes immediately to mind. So, the tuning indicator is very clear and handy. There are ten buttons (0, 1,...9) to call the fixed settings from the memory. Some problems arose when searching for the channel of the thirtieth fixed setting. After logical reasoning and recollections, it was found: its number turned out to be not 30, but 00. Of all the controls, only the Auto button (excluding the power on button, of course) is connected to the mechanical switch and its pressed state is not very noticeable. And since there is no display on the auto-tuning on indicator, every time you turn on the tuning, you had to clarify which mode is on. However, considering that you will have to enter the tuning frequencies into the memory only once, because there are more than enough channels of fixed tuning in the AMS T7 even for a capital listener, the absence of such indication will not prevent the owner of this otherwise very easy-to-operate device. The tuner comes with a remote control and two antennas: a frame antenna for AM and a T-shaped antenna for FM in the form of a dipole made of two-wire flat wire. The latter antenna requires the use of a special transformer, which is usually not available. In my experience it is the first case, when the antenna for the tuner is made technically correctly: the matching transformer in the case of the antenna connector is present. Remote control is also extremely functional: just enter the preset number or auto-tune to the nearest station. The different output levels for FM and AM reception, which are deliberately built into the design, were somewhat surprising when listening. When receiving even strong signals in the FM band the output level was almost four times lower. The tuner confirmed the claimed very high sensitivity in the FM band: 1 μV in mono mode with a signal to noise ratio of 30 dB and 20 μV in stereo mode, but with a standard ratio of 50 dB.