Top Ten Tuners of all Time??


To start this thread I vote for the Yamaha T 1. At its price performance,little to touch it period. Whats your vote?
ferrari

Showing 4 responses by ricktpt

Pioneer F-93, F-91 (Don't let anybody fool you, I can't hear the difference between the two, and I bet A/B testing would reveal that nobody else can either....)
Pioneer TX-9800/9500 II. The 9800 prevails in rural settings and the 9500 II has better selectivity.
Pioneer TX-9500 II
Pioneer TX-9800 (poorer shielding though)
Pioneer F-93 (listen for yourself and make your own mind up, it was a Recommmended Stereophile component. TIC appears to not like it because a Tuner Guru chose not to try to align it.....once.....)
Pioneer F-91 similar in some respects to the vintage H-K Citation, but in the end, a less refined version of the F-91. Listen first.
I've owned many tuners and receivers and the ones I didn't move along because they killed (these are usually multiples owned, but in the case of the Mac only one) the competition in both RF and Audio are:

Pioneer Elite F-93 (The American underground press damned it with faint praise, which was the FIRST thing that made it stand out to me.)
Pioneer TX-9800 (Not quite as well built as Number three on this list, but otherwise top of the mark.)
Pioneer TX-9500 II (Tied for number 2, really)
Pioneer F-28 Series 20 (its audio resembles the F-93, more than the F-91 Elite does, though the house sound remains throughout the line.)
McIntosh MR78 (The audio is spectacular.  The RF is less spectacular because the competition that it inspired has since raised the bar.)
Pioneer SX receivers (from 1975-1981 or thereabouts)

The main grievance against Pioneer is that it's a victim of its own success in terms of both accessibility and post War animus that's only recently been reignited for the same questionable reasons it prevailed (particularly in the Underground press) "back in the day".  Just because it's not arcane or Scandinavian unobtanium doesn't mean it's not the top of the mark.  But people get to like what they like...

I should probably add a Yamaha T-2 and an honorable mention for the M-D Etude to my above list.  I forgot about the T-2 because once restoration work was finished I put it away for a rainy day and recently brought it back out. Very difficult to work on and align, but once done, the RF is great and the audio is spectacular.  The Etude sounds GREAT, and the RF is no slouch, but not as selective as classic analog variable capacitor designs, at least in my experience.  A case can be made (and is made on the FM Tuner group page) that they're overpriced for what's contained in their internal parts, but if user interface/tactile positive feedback (a plus for the MR78 also, I confess, those two probably TOP that very competitive category for vintage tuners) are worth anything, those two are way up there.  Mass loaded flywheel tuning knobs are a thing of true beauty!