2. misc-audio
  3. 166809-133822

Kenwood KT-5020 from Japan

So I bought a Kenwood KT-5020 tuner on eBay from a Japanese seller for what I thought was a decent price & free shipping. There are quite a few 5020s listed - all from Japanese sellers - for about the same $160ish price range. I received the tuner in short order, hooked it up and discovered - Japanese tuners do not have the fm tuning frequency range which we have in the US - it's a very narrow range from 76 to 90 MHz instead of our 88 to 108. Ok, I am not a sophisticated audio enthusiast, but I did my research and found the 5020 was highly thought of by some reviewers and was pleased to find several for sale on eBay but nowhere in my research did I find warning flags about the tuning frequency discrepancy between the US and Japanese market tuners. I started the return process w/ebay and was immediately refunded my money and never heard from the seller about returning the tuner. I find the whole experience curious and wonder if I am the only person to have bought one  of these Japanese tuners on the 'bay because searching with Google reveals not a hint of discussion about it. This discussion may be the only touchstone for others with the same experience. - Chris
civich

Showing 3 responses by civich

civich OP
3 posts
 
"To the point that getting that tuner back is an extreme and nearly impossible hassle for the orignal seller to navigate in any reasonable way."
    Yeah, that's what I assumed though I was more than willing to act on my end. But I think there is a bit of information shorting on the seller's end since none of these tuners being offered on the US market will work with our FM frequencies - but this information is not provided. Perhaps it is just ignorance on the part of the sellers - it certainly was ignorance on my part. 
     As far as the first response from stereo5 - the Kenwood KT-5020 tuner was sold in the 90s in the US and Europe. The KT-5200 referred to doesn't seem to exist though a KR-5200 receiver was sold in the 70s.
civich OP
3 posts
 
Thanks for the validation yogiboy! Yes, the fmtunerinfo.com site is my go-to for tuner research. If you dig deep enough and long enough a brief mention of the frequency discrepancy can be found (after the purchase in my case) and they allude to sellers possibly not revealing the Japanese market tuner limitations. 
civich OP
3 posts
 
The KT-5020s which were sold in this country do have the 87.5mhz to 108mhz range tuning which the owners manual reflects. I assume the ones with the 76mhz to 90mhz tuning were strictly for the domestic Japanese market and had a spec sheet which reflected that. I did not receive an owners manual with the one I bought so I can't verify that.
More to discover