I just did a "shoot-out" with 6 different omnidirectional FM antennas last night. While these are all primarily designed to operate outdoors, you could use them indoors if you had no other options. None are big i.e. "TV antenna" sized or difficult to assemble.
Given the location that you folks are in, i would HIGHLY recommend playing around with the "junk" wire dipole antenna that most "audiophiles" laugh at. Not only do these have the advantage ( at least in your type of situation ) of being bi-directional to help null out multipath, it is actually tuned quite well in comparison to other "brand name" designs. You can position it for your at least a few of your favorite stations, which should give adequate signal strength and help to minimize reflections from nearby buildings. I would try to orient the dipole so that it is away from large metal structures and possibly near a window for best results. With a relatively decent signal, these "throw-away" antennas will hold their own against "products costing well over 10X, and maybe even 100X the price" : )
In plain English, i found that the MD antenna did not perform that well and you should save your money. This is especially true if you are planning to use this product inside of a building. It was very sensitive to what was in the nearfield and easily detuned by a human's physical presence or other "conductive" objects. The wire dipole was FAR, FAR less sensitive to this type of de-tuning due to the difference in polarization i.e. vertical for the whips and horizontal for the wire dipole. Given the near identical design, i would venture to say that the Fanfare would react quite similar in overall performance. The Metz antenna, which is the company that builds the Magnum's for them, would also offer the same results.
One other hint. Look for a good tuner with a HIGH "selectivity" rating. Since most of your problem might be due to front end overload i.e. stations coming in on more than one point on the dial, stations bleeding through other stations, strong stations sounding somewhat fuzzy or furry / lack of definition, etc... this would be more important that ultimate "sensitivity". To achieve high selectivity requires a circuit that is of "high Q" design and tubes TYPICALLY don't fall into that category since they are broadband by their very nature. Sean
>
Given the location that you folks are in, i would HIGHLY recommend playing around with the "junk" wire dipole antenna that most "audiophiles" laugh at. Not only do these have the advantage ( at least in your type of situation ) of being bi-directional to help null out multipath, it is actually tuned quite well in comparison to other "brand name" designs. You can position it for your at least a few of your favorite stations, which should give adequate signal strength and help to minimize reflections from nearby buildings. I would try to orient the dipole so that it is away from large metal structures and possibly near a window for best results. With a relatively decent signal, these "throw-away" antennas will hold their own against "products costing well over 10X, and maybe even 100X the price" : )
In plain English, i found that the MD antenna did not perform that well and you should save your money. This is especially true if you are planning to use this product inside of a building. It was very sensitive to what was in the nearfield and easily detuned by a human's physical presence or other "conductive" objects. The wire dipole was FAR, FAR less sensitive to this type of de-tuning due to the difference in polarization i.e. vertical for the whips and horizontal for the wire dipole. Given the near identical design, i would venture to say that the Fanfare would react quite similar in overall performance. The Metz antenna, which is the company that builds the Magnum's for them, would also offer the same results.
One other hint. Look for a good tuner with a HIGH "selectivity" rating. Since most of your problem might be due to front end overload i.e. stations coming in on more than one point on the dial, stations bleeding through other stations, strong stations sounding somewhat fuzzy or furry / lack of definition, etc... this would be more important that ultimate "sensitivity". To achieve high selectivity requires a circuit that is of "high Q" design and tubes TYPICALLY don't fall into that category since they are broadband by their very nature. Sean
>