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!
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The Sony XDR-F1HD is very good in stock form. When modified by the XDR Guy, it is ridiculously good. Sensitivity and selectivity are unbelievable. The sound quality is top notch as well. I have a Philips tuner that is out for modifications/rebuild. It will be very interesting to compare the finished Philips to the XDR. The Philips has an unbelievable, sound quality wise, AM section. Never before has AM sounded so good, to these ears. |
I am currently using Magnum Dynalab 106, 102, 90 and an Accuphase t100. my favourite sounding is the Magnum Dynalab 106 then the 102 then the Accuphase t100 ending with the 90. Magnum Dynalab just sounds better than the Accuphase. The Accuphase is excellent and locks in great. But Magnum sounds more musical. Could be the tubes. |
I’ve had good Yamaha & McIntosh tuners. I’ve had three Magnum Dynalab FT-101A. They are really good. It wasn’t until I used a reference quality interconnect with it that I realized how very good that model really is. I wanted to take it up a notch so I skipped over the Etude & MD-90 and got an MD-102. I am extremely happy with the MD-102. It is a significant upgrade from the FT-101A. It has the upgraded audio section with big caps. This is my forever tuner. |
Back in the day the tuner was on the majority of the time , no time to flip records are you kidding,...My place was a drop in centre with a lot going on and with the tuner on more then the TV and turntable combined the convenience of this component was tremendous. The 1970s were bit of a blur though I do remember a couple of large Sansui receivers I owned until I discovered the Absolute Sound Magazine around 1980 . Some how I ended up buying a Sansui TU-X1 which I recently sold a few years ago . I had a notion that bigger had to be better and my memories of the large Sansui receivers influenced me. I never had it modified however I did have it aligned though I was always amazed of the sound quality of a good FM broadcast even using receivers back in the day it took a lot to better it . |
Hi, why don't have a look at tunerinformationcenter or Vintageknob Pretty informative with different biases. Most audio manufactures made a good tuner but some really stand out. The best i have heard: Accuphase 109v, Pioneer f-26, Sony j88B, Sony st-a7, Revox b760, Luxman TU-117, Tandberg 3011, Yamaha ct700, Kenwood 917, Sansui TU-919/717. All analog tuners even from same manufacturer sound different to each other, same does apply for early digital ones but to a lesser extent. I ended up with ST-J88B, an inspired design, easy to upgrade parts and service, if needed- most importantly beats most in sound quality and beauty. |
I’ll chime in on this very old thread. My current tuners are a McIntosh MR78 and a Marantz Model 20. I’ve also owned an Onkyo T9090II, Dynaco FM-3, and Magnum MD105, and I briefly had a McIntosh MR71 for audition (it needed a lot of work). For me, the MR78 is the best I have owned. The 20 has its charms and is as enjoyable as the MR78, but I still put the 78 as tops |
I've owned many good tuners and I wish I still had all of these. Here are my favorites: - McIntosh MR67 - tube tuner with a beautiful sound and soundstage. It was not a sensitive tuner - McIntosh MR 500 - excellent sensitivity and selectivity delivering a very quiet, clean listening experience - Mitsubishi DAF20 - very quiet tuner with excellent reception and a detailed but clean sound that is extended with no harshness - Heathkit AJ-1600 - excellent sound and reception, built like a tank - Marantz 150 - very cool tuner with built in scope. Mine sounded quite good but wasn't super quiet. Weak station reception was good but not excellent. |
I'm using a Rotel RT 2100 FM tuner. This tuner was made in the late 70s. Its nicely built and has the analog tuning knob and the digital display which i like. The tuner sounds great. Other great tuners i'v heard over the years. Mitsubishi DAF-20 Sherwood micro CPU 100 tuner. This Sherwood Tuner was made in 1977 and was really good. It also had the analog tuning knob and digital display. It weighed like 36 pounds. Google it Aiwa 9700 tuner from the 70s. Kenwood L-02T tuner. Yamaha TX 2000 Tuner from the 80s. Sony ST-A7 tuner. This Sony tuner was amazing. Its from 1976 and really built and sounded great. |
I haven’t owned a tuner in years. But in the late 60’s-70’s, when FM was as important as air or water, I never heard anything better than Sherwood. Could never quite take them seriously as Sherwood is one of the worst names for a hifi brand ever. Always made me think of a Montgomery Ward Signature or Sears Silvertone, decidedly lo fi mass market brands. But the Sherwood’s I heard sounded terrific. |
I have a Mitsubishi DA- 20 tuner that I have had for manu years. several years ago I sent it to Bill Ammons for check-up and alignment. I think that it is a beautifully musical sounding tuner, especially on classical music. I live some eighty air miles from a classical music station and the reception with this tuner is exceptional. I am surprised that no one has mentioned this tuner in the previous posts. Violin |
NO ONE'S done a more systematic comparison of tuner performance than these guys at Tuner Info Center including mod/upgrades: http://www.fmtunerinfo.com/ |
I’ve been lucky try some good ones. After lots of listening with Quad electrostatic speakers I choose a Toshiba Ft 920 (over top Marantz- which I found had a too “blooming” bad. I’ve been lucky? to choose reference level MIT Oracle cables,p,i,s; and Spectral Ref gear. That 920 still amazes friends who come over to listen. |
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... |
Accuphase McIntosh Denon are three of my favorite tuner makes that I have owned and listened to for long periods. The Denons I have in mind are digital (equal to 4 and 5 gang)and the others are analog. Ive had many in between ones, spoken highly of or not. Another one I really like is a Nikko. Dynaco made some nice beautiful sounding tuners so did Sansui and Pioneer (sx models). The shootouts started to become meaningless to me some dont even get mentioned in the top 50 and they are synonymous with doing everything a ’top tuner" should do well and maybe even more. |
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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. |
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I've never heard the Tandberg 3001A, but it appears to be almost visually identical to the 3011A that I bought a while back (with the exception of three extra buttons on the front of the unit and 8 gangs instead of 5). What I do wonder is where the tuner.com site got the $2200 price tag for the 3001a from. An early 1980's review that I saw in regard to the 3001A and its matching amplifier listed the 3001A for $1195. A full $500 more than the 3011A sold for during the same time period ($695). Given that the only real differences between the tuners appear to be 8 gang stages for the 3001A vs 5 gang stages for the 3011A (as well as a few extra buttons for the 3001A), it seems plausible that the ($1195) price for the 3001A is more accurate. However, if there was a significant difference in the exchange rate between the U.S. Dollar and Swedish Kroner, that might explain the nearly doubling of price at some time during their production. Then again, this would have also accounted for a huge increase in the price of the 3011A as well -- from $695 to $1390. Just more grist for the mill. |
The Sansui 9900 is a beautiful looking tuner. If you take inflation into account in the modern day, the 9900 would probably cost you a few thou to replace. The TU-717 remains the real Sansui bargain though; a great sounding tuner which can be had for under $300 in excellent condition, and offers most of the aesthetics of the 9900. From the '70's though, I'll still take my Marantz Model 125; a visual feast for both the eyes and ears -- especially with a blond cabinet. |
I just purchased a Tandberg 3011A and think it's a great piece of gear. It's beautifully built and has a lush midrange reminscent of a well designed tube tuner. I've been comparing it to my also recently acquired Revox B 261, as well as a Marantz 125 that I have had for some time, and find that it compares favorably with both. All are well designed and built quite well -- the Revox in particular is an absolute tank worthy of the "built like a Swiss watch" moniker. Of course, my bargain of the Century tuner -- an NAD 402 with original box and manual for $58 -- also stands up well against this considerably more expensive competition. Then again the 402 was raved about by the British audio press back in the early 1990's for its impressive spec's and clean design. As for the Onix BWD-1, I have never owned one, but have read many positive reviews in regard to it and look forward to acquiring one somewhere down the road. As for the 3011A, they usually sell for between $225 and $450 depending on condition. The only problem that a number of people have mentioned is that the 8 presets for the tuner stations go bad after a time and need to be replaced. Unless that is, you don't care about having them fixed, since they don't appear to harm the manual tuning or sound of the 3011A in anyway. The touch of the tuning nob on the 3011A bespeaks the quality of manufacturing that the Swedes are known for -- a heft and precision usually only found on very expensive gear. JimmyBlues |
The most interesting aspect in having these types of posts is how depending on the popularity of certain tuners, they will immediately experience a boost in their prices. I remember years ago when the founders of the by invitation only AudioMart magazine (the largest used audio magazine in the world at the time) were invited by The Absolute Sound's publisher, Harry Pearson, to write an article on pieces of hi-fi gear which would be considered to be classics in the future. Virtually every piece of gear that they chose became an instant classic: gear like the Levinson ML-2's, SAE Mk VIB, Acrosound 20/20, Electro Research A75, Paragon E preamp, Krell KSA 50 etc. Was it that these pieces of gear were so much better than the myriad others which had competed favorably with them? No. It had far more to do with the respect that TAS readers had for Walt and Lennice, and the fact that their choices were based on very good gear to begin with. However, much of this equipment has appreciated exponentially, because of enthusiasts' "perceptions" of this gear, more than how good it actually was. This is not to say that much of the gear chosen was not quite good in its day. However, most of it is now ancient, and well in need of expensive servicing. Yet, that has not prevented many who've purchased such pieces of gear, from spending a small forture on them, or the subsequent services which the prior owners had managed to avoid. The lesson here, is that there is quite a bit of excellent gear that has fallen underneath the radar of the would be classic hi-fi buyer, and as such still remains a bargain. However, the moment that this gear starts getting "talked up" it will experience a similar rise in price, simply based on the perceptions of those who want a piece of gear that others have acknowledged to be a cut above the rest. The following are my choices for top 10 top tuners. And I know that there are at least a hundred other tuners which can match or better these, however, it is my perception of these tuners (having even owned some of them), which dictates my suggestions here. It is certainly nice to be able to dabble in something as enjoyable as used hi-end audio, without actually going broke in the process. Purchasing some lesser known but also popular tuners such as the Dyna FM-3 or Onkyo T 9090 (that while excellent don't have the same cache as a Day Sequerra or Marantz 10B) will get you sound quality that is nearly on par with the best, yet at a fraction of the cost. These types of tuners are still considered to be a relative bargain -- especially if their cosmetic condition is less than perfect. However, the prices of some of this more esoteric used gear have become stratospheric based on buyer's perceptions, meaning that our perceptions oftentimes outweigh our good common sense. For example, there are the thifty, yet savvy amongst us who can put together a collection of very nice sounding and aesthetically pleasing tuners, for what one enthusiast might spend on a minted out Marantz 10B or Scott 4310. However, is the person with either (or perhaps both) of the aforementioned tuners going to enjoy them more than the person who has 8 or 9 more affordable tuners? (Tuners capable of nearly equal sound quality?) It would all depend on the people involved. However, in most cases, unless the people with the more expensive gear are well heeled, they may find themselves constantly at odds with the large sums of money that they've spent for the more esoteric gear -- especially when considering that it is decades old, and that repairing certain parts which go bad, may turn out to be impossible, simply because the parts are no longer available. However, with the less expensive tuners, if they experience a similar failure, there's far less invested them, so the losses will be on a much smaller scale. Once again, it all comes down to our perceptions of these pieces of gear -- which in essence all serve the same primary function -- that of listening -- and the secondary function of being aesetically pleasing. Or is it the other way around? Once again, that's a matter of perception too. Marantz 10B Scott 4310 Sequerra FM Reference McIntosh MR71 Modafferi modded Revox B 760 Revox B 261 Tandberg 3001A Marantz 125 Naim NAT-01 Leak Troughline 2 w/Internal or external stereo decoder |
Thanks Brian. General advice to all A'gonners (sic)...read all the posts. I happened upon this thread while researching an amp, but I just had to send a quick note because of my experience. I guess it was a response more to a certain magazine than anything else and a thanks to a hi end retailer in NY named Frank. It's a process that doesn't end until you're happy...I'll just leave that hanging. |
Geor, I posted to this thread back on 10/11/2000 and I mentioned I was just venturing into tuners and ended with giving a "plug" for the Fanfare. In hindsight I am grateful I purchased that tuner as I have greatly enjoyed using a tuner since that time, but the Fanfare came and went; I agree, nothing special. Since that time I have owned a Yamaha T2, modified Pioneer, Kenwood 917 and currently I own a Luxman T-117. |
The Magnum Dynalab FT101 Etude taught me that Sereophile Recommended Components lists were to be approached with a huge crystal of salt. I bought a Fanfare rated 'A' by Stereophile and was disappointed, so Frank at Audio Outlet sent me the Etude (once rated class C, I believe). A-B comparison from a rooftop antenna through a high end splitter totally eliminated any doubt. It is by far my most used source over the Meridian 508 and, yes the LP12s. |