Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 Good, but not the best, even some of the cheapies beat it September 1, 2008
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
I live in North West NJ, which is a deep fringe area because it is blocked by hills.
I am a ham radio operator and have an 86 foot tower for ham radio use. My CM4228 is there, as is this CM7777 preamp.
Build quality of this preamp is good. The casing is made of metal unlike many of the others which are cheap and made of plastic.
Performance is good. It helps me overcome the cable loss of 210' of RG6 cable and helps pull in the weak signals from New York and Philadelphia.
I like that it has separate inputs for VHF/UHF.
But this pre-amp made me lose channel 25-1 (physical 24) and gave me dropouts on some other channels which were previously dropout free. No matter how I adjusted the antenna it did not pick up these lost channels. Previously I had an Antennacraft 10G212 which pulled in almost everything. The Antennacraft is also about half the price of the CM7777. I suspect it can't handle the overload from the nearby (~15mi) WMBC analog which contains zero programming that interests me. The good news is that WMBC is moving away come 02/17/09 so hopefully it will get a little better.
Channel Master used to be a great company that had some really great products, when they were owned by Andrew Corp. I have quite a few products from Andrew and their build quality is excellent. But CM had to be sold off when Commscope bought out Andrew, and last I heard CM closed their last US plant this year. So unfortunately I think the once great company Channel Master will be gone soon. The name will remain, but the products just won't be the same anymore.
Customer Support Problem August 17, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is a solid product, BUT.... the manufacturer, Crutchfield, is very stingy with support unless you buy directly from Crutchfield. I emailed a modest question about installation and they replied:
"Product Support Advisors are reserved for Crutchfield Customers. Since you ordered the item from Amazon I am not sure if it came from us or not."
Really lame. But a great product and were it not for the attitude, I'd give it five stars.
 Deep Fringe MUST-HAVE! April 29, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Using this together with a CM deep-fringe combination antenna, a DB-8 UHF-only antenna, and an old RadioShack combo antenna that just won't quit working. I'm combining the RadioShack and DB-8 with a channel combiner into the UHF input and the CM into the VHF input. Signal gained significantly. I'm on the other side of a 1000' hill which is between me and the transmitters at least 25 miles away, and am getting 18 channels (5 HD), not including the analog crap which I just can't watch anymore...
Antenna Pre-amp that others wish they were April 17, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is the pre-amp that all the others wish they could be. It has the lowest noise to boost available. If you're putting in an antenna, in the stix, this one pre-amp will be the difference between signal an no signal.
Great Product, Great Service from Company and Retailer December 26, 2007
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
I've got to believe the reviewer that had problems didn't hook this thing up correctly or follow the directions. I did the same thing myself and the results were awful. When following the directions, however, the results are simply amazing. I get stations - both analog and especially digital that I couldn't get before. I didn't do a signal strength comparison, but I'm guessing that it must at least double the signal. I called Channelmaster and talked to a real person in North Carolina who helped me prior to the sale. I ordered from Crutchfield's and got the unit the next day with standard shipping. I'm getting signals that, according to [...], show that I'm 20 to 30 miles closer to the towers. I could not be more pleased, and would recommend channelmaster products and Crutchfields anytime.
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