Are Tuners - Audiophile quality

If you are not sure you want to sink some major $$$ at first, and want a hint of audiophile quality. Find a used Onkyo "Integra". The mid 80s models sell on eBay from $50 to $100. (from low to high: T4017, T4057, T4087); the early 1990 models from $100 to $150 (T4500, T4700. T407). The newest is the T4711 has RDS $250 used. The best ever is the T9090-II which is going to be $350+ used. There is also a T9090 for about $250. Also get some decent interconnect cables.

Hey Dcaudio. I live in Charles County, Maryland 40 miles southeast of you. I have two extra Onkyo Integra Tuners if you want to give it a try sometime (a T4017 and T407).

As far as David Rich, It does not matter to me to much how it looks inside as long as it sounds good. I would not spend the extra money to get neatly made solder joints under a case I will never open if it sounds the same. A good example is the Creek T43 and Cambridge Audio T500. These are basically the same tuner inside, the Creek uses a few higher grade parts and is made in England instead of lower cost China for the Cambrige. Same FM Chipset. Mike Creek designed the Cambridge by taking his T43 and experimented by seeing where he could cut corners without compromising the sound quality. I have heard them both (own neither). The Creek does sound slightly better, more noticeable with weak stations. With strong stations it is harder to tell. You get this improvement at a cost of $699 for the Creek versus $259 for the Cambridge. Is it worth it? Yes to some, and I guess nothing wrong with that. The only annoying thing about the Cambridge is no manual over-ride tuning, however the Chipset does do a very excellent job of gradually blending the highs in stereo on weaker stations to eliminate noise and switching to mono on very weak ones. So the Creek is a better choice if you live in a more rural setting. In an urban area with lots of stations it matter less.

SDCampbell: The FM frequency band is between TV channels 6 and 7. So any good VHF antenna should work whether also for TV or just FM. The fact that some FM only roof antennas cost more means we are all probably getting ripped off.

The biggest problem it the strong 99.8 rap station bleeding into your 99.4 jazz or classical station, not TV 6 or 7 bleed in. I have never lived in an area with either channel (anyone?). The better tuners reject the false signals. For folks living in Massachusetts there is an FM station that can be heard up and down the whole dial when not tuned to a particular station. It is WFCR I believe. It's up to the tuner to cut it out. An antenna is not going to help.