Do all FM tuners need alignment eventually?

My Kenwood 917 is 30 years old , I had a part replaced recently and it did not need alignment. BUT every case will be different, tubes will need more maintenance PROBABLY. A friend just bought a 1968 Sherwood tube one that had the original tubes in it. If it needs it it needs it, if it sounds good and pulls in the stations you want I wouldn't bother.

I believe that my 1954 REL Precedent tuner, which is a complex design using 15 tubes, has never been re-aligned. It works beautifully, and I cannot imagine it ever having worked any better (aside from occasionally when an intermittent problem abruptly appears, which is obviously unrelated to alignment).

During the 1990's I also had numerous Scott and Fisher tuners from around 1960 or so, and a McIntosh MR71 and two Marantz 10B's from the 60's, most of which also worked well without any realignment.

Regards,
-- Al

http://www.fmtunerinfo.com/
Try this site for more info on the subject of fm tuners.
-Steve

If it isn't broke,why fix it.

I have some vintage receivers that work great.If the are no signs of a problem,I can't see any reason to have it done.If it is not doing a good job of picking up stations,that would be a reason to.Another reason to have it done would be poor left to right channel stereo separation.Of coarse any poor sound problems may be an alignment problem,or part/parts going bad.

My take on it is this: a solid state tuner would probably not ever need a realignment unless it was shipped (and jostled around) or one of the internal components have failed.

A tube tuner might need realignment if certain (but not all) tubes fail and need to be replaced (tubes in the IF stage, MPX, etc.). And if a station keeps drifting when you try to lock in on it, it may be time for a realignment.

Here's some Tips for Evaluating Your Tuner's Alignment from the H.H. Scott tuner site that might prove helpful: http://hhscott.com/cc/tuner_tips_FM_stereo.htm