Tuner Information Center...gospel?

Sorry, guess my dislike for that shade of blue-green may have had influence,..more a fan of verdigris.

Well guys and gals....here's my last foray into the fantasy. The one I will call the "Ferrari for the price of a Fiat"...and once again, it doesn't exist.

I picked up a used Kenwood KT-5020, #8 on the tuner shootout list, and after burn-in, some cleaning and hooking up to an antenna...well:

In my main system...quite simply a joke...extremely mid-fi at best. Dull, little bottom end, little top end and a muffled/veiled midrange. No sense of detail, no soundstage depth, no soundstage width.....think: mid '50's Wharfedale speakers........yuk!

But, maybe unfair...I'll try it in one of my second systems using KEF bookshelf speakers, wireworld interconnects and speaker wire and an older, but near the top Sony ES series two channel receiver.....well, it sounds just the same. Thought I'd compare the KT-5020 to the tuner in the Sony receiver...wow, the Sony sounds good by comparison...has bass, has top end, you can hear details like a singer taking a breath.....wanted to make sure...so on the same song kept switching back and forth from the Sony's FM to the Kenwood..yup not able to pick up the sound of the inhale at all on the Kenwood. Not only mid-fi, not very good mid-fi. The Mitsu DA-F20 they have ranked one notch higher is a much better "sounding" tuner.

So what am I to say, the #8 ranked tuner on the shootout is not even as good as an unmodified 717 Sansui...which I feel is good mid-fi. ......oh wait, now the smear on cymbals, I'm hearing now, is purely awful.

So,...kinda have made my own point to myself that I stated in the my first post.....the "something for nothing" dream of picking up a 200 dollar used Japanese tuner that is "state-of-the-art" in sound...heck better than the MD-108 is...well B.S.

Now before everyone starts defending their tuners....the Sansui 919, Accuphase 100, Mitsu 20..and a few others, aligned and modified are very good. But most on the shootout list are nothing special, and some of ones ranked lower..the MD-108, Yamaha 7000 etc. ARE pretty special. I've wasted enough time trying too many of these old, outdated tuners.........perhaps if I bought an old set of Wharfedale's??........

Hi Albert,

Understand what you are saying, and as you can see in my post I am not questioning the man's honesty. Just feel that people are taking the shootout as being the last word on tuners.

Also, I trust my own ears. Most of the tuners that I have had were "tested" on a system based on Maggie 20 and a CJ ART.

I know the Magnum is expensive, and we would all like for there to be some magic that makes a used 200 dollar tuner better...it just isn't so.

Some of the tuners he has above the Magnum, if modified and aligned, can be very pleasant.

Perhaps he had a bad MD-108. I am not trying to over-hype the 108...I sold mine,...but it was/is better than the many others I have had.....and as I said, a modified 919 or Mitsu 20 will come fairly close for less money.

Viridain,...interesting approach.