Tuner Information Center...gospel?

Although I hate to have to do so, I agree with Whatjd. I too noticed this overwhelming "vintage" bias to the point where you are ridiculed if you do not share that opinion. I am not saying that many of the older tuners did not have superior parts and build quality as they surely did with the greater emphasis on FM in those days. However, like Whatjd, I too had an MD-108 that I also have since sold, that easily outperfomed a few of the "vintage" tuners suggested by that group that I bought and that were modified (Sansui, Mac and HK Citiation to name a few).

I sold the MD-108 when I thought I was going to be moving to a state where there were no good FM stations. Then, my wife and I decided to stay put so I recently bought a modified Rotel RT-990BX tuner as what I thought would be a stop gap measure until I bought another MD tuner. The Rotel had Black Gates installed in the audio section and power supply, had upgraded silver wire, better diodes and an IEC connector installed to allow aftermarket PCs.

Thinking the Rotel would just get me by until I could find another MD-108, I hooked it up and was BLOWN AWAY! Hooked to the same mediocre MD ST-2 whip antenna that my MD-108 was (I have a 11" Yagi and rotator that I hadn't installed yet when I decided to sell the MD-108), the Rotel had even better sensitivity and gave me 90% of the sound of the MD-108 for a tenth of the price!

So, I went on to the subject forum asking whether anyone there thought the flagship Rotel RHT-10 "Michi" tuner (my Rotel was the step below the RHT-10), either stock or if similarly modifed would significantly improve on the RT-990BX since I had the chance to pick one up.

Needless to say that I was completely ignored. One guy e-mailed me off-line with a little help but that was it. And trust me, this isn't a forum where people are shy about giving their opinions!!!

I stand corrected Doug, you have always been one of the few willing to give advice without hesitation and I do appreciate it. Yes, I did wonder whether the reason I got so little response was unfamiliarity with the Rotel - but heck, these guys seem to have heard EVERYTHING out there so I figured that wasn't it. Maybe you are right.

I will say this 990 BX is a killer for its meager price. The RHT-10, although not priced very low (2/3 of retail) is LITERALLY brand new (20-40 hours at most played and placed back in the box and stored for years).

Your thoughts?

Thanks for pointing out your previos response and for all of your valued advice.

Frank

Hey Doug! This is a duplicate post from another A-Gon thread designed to get to you in hopes of getting your opinion. The guy who has the Rotel RHT-10 NEVER told me before he sent it to me that it is the 220 volt version. When he sent the Technical Manual via e-mail, it made me worry about two things: 1) will it be costly to convert to 100v? and 2) it looks like the 220v version may be set up and optimized for European stations. Do you have any ideas on this? Would Joesph Chow be able to help? If so, do you have Joseph's phone number? Or, do you have someone else in mind I could turn to?

Thanks again Doug, as always you are a great help to a relatively novice FM guy like me.

Frank

PS, I contacted you this way because Audiogon is having problems with AOL e-mails bouncing back and it wouldn't go through to your e-mail.