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What are the best tuners each company has made, and how you started?

I know this will be subjective and biased towards what a person currently owns.........but that said, what are the best model tuners you have owned.  Best, meaning sonics first, but if you want to include reliability and looks...that is understandable. 

My top tuners are:   
Magnum Dynalab 108
Magnum Etude, 101A
Sansui TU-919 & 717
Fanfare (not sure of the model number)
And there were some good ones from Sony, Marantz, Pioneer, Kenwood, & others.  I 
even had a Heathkit for you old timers to remember.  And in thinking about this, I have likely 
owned more tuners than amps, CD players, turntables and most anything else....except speakers.

I have enjoyed much for radio and tuners throughout my life, but really must thank my parents 
for getting me an early Emerson AM/FM table radio that I could pick up great AM rock & roll 
stations on....and welcome the "British Invasion" on WLS, KIOA, KAAY, KOMA and others. 
Between those stations and Ed Sullivan, my interest in music became a permanent part 
of my life.  And even though I was into Rock, the Sullivan show introduced me to Jazz, Classical 
and some of the best comedians of the day.....thanks Ed.


 
whatjd

Showing 2 responses by lou_setriodes

lou_setriodes's avatar
lou_setriodes
698 posts
 
Hi Ed,
I too have owned a bunch of tuners over the years and it’s tough to compare one against the other when you don’t have the chance to a-b them, you can only go by your recollection of how you liked a certain tuner.

However, for the past 2-3 years, I’ve used 2 tuners and a-b’d them all the time and it was truly amazing how close in sound many good tuners really are.  The PS Audio ST-1 tuner I just sold was virtually indistinguishable from my trusty NAD 4300 tuner, while I greatly preferred the NAD to a Quad FM4 and to a lesser extent over a Perreaux TU-1.

I like analog tuners over digital ones any day of the week but some digital tuners are really cool though.  Some of the better sounding digital tuners I’ve had were:  NEC T710, B&K TS108, Sumo Charlie, ads T2, and the Perreaux.

The best analog tuners I’ve had were:  Creek CAS3140, Pioneer TX9800, Sansui TU717, Mac MR71, Dyna FM3, PS Audio ST-1 and a Tandberg 3030 receiver

I’d like to get rid of the NAD because it doesn’t match in color but I don’t want a huge tuner and not much else is really better sounding. I also had a Yamaha T1 and MD FT101A which were nice as well but I don’t think any better than the analog tuners I mentioned.

Wants:  I’d love to try a Meridian 504 if I could find one at a reasonable price or another Sumo Charlie as I sold it prematurely or an Onix

Ed, any tuners that you’d still like to try?
lou_setriodes's avatar
lou_setriodes
698 posts
 
+1 for the REL Precedent, it looks so awesome!

grinnell, I have to take the fm tuner info site with a grain of sand sometimes. I use it for validation, but it’s not the end all / be all for tuners, IMHO.

I say, if you like a tuner just get it and check it out. I’ve heard some nice sounding tuners that were ranked lower than others that I thought sounded great!

The B&K TS108 is very highly rated on their site, but ergonomically a nightmare with all the same sized tiny buttons and hard to read graphics. I kept hitting store thinking it was a tuning preset because it’s in the same row as other presets & it kept throwing off my stored stations. 

The PS Audio ST-1 was a real keeper and an excellent tuner, but I bought it as part of a whole PS Audio stack so it became part of the sale. Looking back, maybe I should’ve kept the tuna ;)
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