Coolest looking vintage tuner.....


Looking for a really cool vintage analog tuner with silver face, vu meters,tuning knob,nice illuminated features,etc...4 or 5 gang reception would be nice...any thoughts?
128x128phasecorrect

Showing 2 responses by ramstl

I'd go with the Mitsubishi DA-F20. It looks great and is often considered one of the better sounding tuners ever made. You can usually pick one up used for around $100-200.
Here is a bit more info on the Mitsubishi DA-F20:

The DA-F20 is an unusual-looking FM-only tuner whose front panel resembles an automobile dashboard. It has a 5-gang traditional tuning capacitor front end, and crystal referenced tuning with digital LED readout. It also has a discrete output stage and decent ergonomics. The DA-F20 has two wholly independent IF paths, each with its own detector, with linear phase LC filters in the wide path and standard 3-pin ceramic filters in the narrow path. Wide/narrow switching is done by a front panel switch that selects which detector output feeds the stereo MPX circuit. Our panelist Bob was able to easily mod the narrow filter path and install better filters in place of the original Toko filters, which were out of spec. After he replaced the narrow filters, it was necessary to retune the narrow detector. This, along with tweaking the RF front end, brought the tuner to fantastic working condition. Bob reports: “The DA-F20 is one of my top tuners. I like the tight bottom end and clean reproduction of brass and strings, and it's one of my most sensitive and quiet units in stereo mode with no blend or MPX filter applied. One of the things I like best about the DA-F20 is the ease of tuning, especially for an analog front end, digital LED readout unit. There is no complicated mechanism, simply 3 LEDS that let you glide through a station, and a lock indicator to let you know when it is dead-on. With numeric counter type readout, wide-narrow filters, and separate mono-stereo and muting switches, this is a tuner that gets it right for usability.” Our contributor Hank calls his DA-F20 “one of the most sensitive tuners I have. It can be bought and modded so inexpensively and made so good, it is virtually self-recommending. When the internal balun is removed, matched filters installed (or, even better, a Bill Ammons' Filter-Adder board or two), improved capacitors in the audio circuits added, and (it goes with saying) a good alignment, this tuner becomes a great tuner.” Our contributor Thomas says, "The DA-F20 stock is one of the best I've ever heard. The parts are of very good quality compared to its time companions (class of '78). The detector (wide) is discrete, as is the audio stage. The PSU is not bad at all. If you want to replace the coupling caps of the audio stage (which I recommend as a first modification), there will be enough space under the PCB.” See how one DA-F20 sounded compared to other top tuners on our Shootouts page. The DA-F20 usually sells for $150-200 or so on eBay, but a mint one went for a surprising $350 in 3/03.

BTW, there is one on e-bay now.