O.K., I know some of old audiophiles can have a golden glow to our memories...that said,


I have been fortunate to own a fair amount of items that have been well thought of.  That said, I seem to have a memory that may be unrealistic.  With the top Magnum and other SOTA tuners, I still have a warm memory of the Classe Tuner 1 that I had owned.  I believe some had said it had its roots with Linn....not sure on that one.  If any of you have had any experience with the Classe Tuner 1, what is/were your thoughts and experience?  Thanks. 
whatjd
 I understand all to well.  My two sons have grown up with, as much as I could afford, the best....meals, schools, cars..etc.  I gave them both decent stereo systems when they were in High School.  They both have passions for some things, but the sports car and audio bug of mine..did not pass to them.  Where I can listen to a great piece of music on a great system several times over, they seem to be more into watching an ordinary quality film several times.  C'est la vie. 


I had the Classe tuner. It was a good match with my Classe CP30 preamp, and I eventually added a Classe CA100 amp to round out this little system.

The tuner sounded fine -- more than adequate for the low quality material being broadcast. It was competent at pulling in stations while not being any DX champ. On balance, it was a satisfactory performer in a modest system.

Without having done any measurements or even any head to head comparisons, my general impression was that it was not as good as my McIntosh MR78 and my Magnum Dynalab Etude, but better than my SAE 8000 and my Acoustic Research Tuner.

After 10 years or so, the tuner stopped working. My local repair shop said it needed a custom circuit available only from Classe. But Classe had changed hands by then and the new owners would not support legacy sales. I was told the circuit was made in Europe but no replacement could be found despite having the relevant part number.

Of course the part could be sourced by buying a used tuner and swapping the circuit in. Instead, I just bought a used tuner off Audiogon and used that one as is, tossing the broken one.

After more years, I gave the three Classe pieces to my son, but he is not into hifi and threw them away during one of his moves. He said they were still working at the time. Sigh.
Perhaps it is just an old f____ memory, but I liked my Classe Tuner 1 a great deal.

I had Classe equipment and looked for one of these used for at least two years. I don't think they made many.
Sorry, I've owned the Classe 6 preamp and the Classe DAC-1. Was not aware Classe even made a tuner.