Are tuners getting worse?

Yes indeed. My listening room is in the lower level in my home and my tuner is a Pioneer 6500II. I can get any and ststions that are availably in my area with no problem using a 300 ohm ant.

Sorry to disagree, but I don't think tuners are getting worse. For me there are four reasons radio seems to sound worse then in the past: 1. Much more RF-pollution (mobile phones are the worst source); 2. Cable: I used to work for a couple of radiostations, and invariably the sound picked up with a 'normal' antenna was better than through cable (my tuner's got two, switchable, antenna-inputs. That makes comparison easy...); 3. Processing at the radio-stations: each station has it's own, distinctie sound-character. Things get worse when they tailor there sound for reproduction; 4. Radio is, on its best, always a medium with a limited bandwidth, a lot of noise and not much stereo-separation (compared to CD), so, switching form a CD to radio will always be a big difference. Maybe DAB will improve things, but I personally don't see it'll become a succes. Anyway, I wouldn't spend to much on a tuner, just pick something that'll fit within your budget, and don't forget to spend some money for a decent aerial, preferably not one of those camping-gadgets with a built in antenna-amplifier...

Very good point. There is so much more RF pollution that wasn't there 20 years ago. But A/V units made nowadays do not come equipped with the electronics necessary to weed thru the noise and pull in AM/FM stations. They put everything on one cheap IC. One of the better tuners I've always liked is the Kenwood KT6500. Doesn't really look like much but attach a $3 fm antenna and 3 inch piece of wire for AM and you'll have very few problems picking up stations. BTW, the best radio I have for AM is a transistor radio I found years ago. Actually uses a 9 volt battery so only have to change it once a year! Gets AM/FM and VHF channels 2-13. Use it constantly when outside.

Your other posts are right about the appalling quality of many FM broadcasts and the availability of FM chipsets causing most non-esoteric tuners to sound much the same. However, a lot of the "classic" tuners of the 70s/80s use pretty dire internal components and of course are beginning to suffer from problems caused by dry joints and failing internals - not to mention burnt-out dial lights. I'm not knocking old tuners (I use a Quad FM4) indeed I'd like to try a Yamaha CT7000 or a Pioneer 9500TX to see if it's an improvement, but probably I'd find a Naim NAT01 better than both (at a price, of course...) In the UK we have a more fundamental problem called Digital Radio - the Government is trying to free up the airwaves to sell off to mobile phone companies and the BBC is supposed to switch from analogue to digital broadcasting at some undefined point in the future. This will make all our lovely analogue tuners totally useless - old, new, cheap and Day Sequerra! The problem is that there will be no compensation and obviously our kit will be valueless on the 2nd-hand market. And at the moment, digital radio is supposed to sound like early CD - enough said. You think YOU'VE got problems, try living over here!

Michael Creek uses a Car Stereo FM Chipset. He claims that is where its at for a resonable price. A lot of people want great car FM, so that is where the new research is.