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I am looking for a decent but relatively inexpensive tuner. I have a relatively low end (but to me very adequate) system: Vandersteen 2Ces, NAD 272, Cambridge Audio pre-amp (to be replaced with a NAD match for the 272), a music hall CD player, and a Pioneer Elite 45-A to play SACDS. I listen mainly to jazz, folk, and alternative country – but also have lots of R&B, blues, etc.I recently moved and gave away an old Teac or Technic PPL tuner which had been in the attic for years. My wife commented that she would like to have a radio and we now have NPR stations which are relatively close. They do a show on Sunday nights called Tom the Jazz Man and I would like to start listening to that and perhaps a few other shows (I have almost eliminated television from my life – I had digital cable but I am trying to reform).
Reading a bit at the Turner information center has lead me to consider buying a vintage tuner. I have found a Dynaco FM-5 Stereo FM Super Tuner Two! Van Alstine Mod on e-bay (buy now at $325) which is offered by Al at Plateau Audio and Kenwood KT-8300 Stereo Tuner for $299.
My new house is a 2 story with a very large attic space on the third floor. My living room listening area has 20 foot (or taller ceilings) and my plan is to put either an Attic InTenna or an APS-9B in that attic and have an electrician run coaxial cable down the wall. There are already some runs for cable and power to my security system. The house is brick but I would think I could get good reception. I live in eastern NC in the town that used to house much of Voice of America and can get many FM stations in my car. I am not so much interested in DX (although I wouldn’t mind listening to a baseball game or two in the summer) but mostly want high quality FM reception at night.
Should I buy a new tuner? Are the Dynaco or Kenwood overkill? I also have a NAK 2 TA receiver but I am now using it as a pre-amp on my second system so I can use the tuner. My experience with it (in a house about 2 miles away but a flat rancher and using just a "supplied with the unit" little antenna was disappointing) – I could almost never get a strong “stereo” signal.Advice from wiser folks would be most welcome!
Follow Ups:
hi michael,i haven't heard the dyanco, so i cannot comment. there was some discussion on it, tho, as to parts nla if it fails. may be something to consider. re; the kt-8300, i owned the kt-9900 - the bronze-faced iteration of that tuna. while it was a beauty, it was strictly average sonically. excellent sensitivity, tho. if yure willing to invest another $300 into it for mods by someone like bill ammons, you will then have one of the best tunas out there. i owned a bill-ammons-modded kt-7550, & it was one of the best, imo. and stock, the kt7500/7550 doesn't compare to the stock kt-8300/9900.
but, spending $300 to mod a $300 tuna means yure now looking at a substantial investment. mite be worth it, cuz it's so nice looking! ;~) however, if yure strictly concerned about sonics, & don't wanna spend a lot, here's a list of tuna that sound a lot nicer than the kt-8300, for the same money, or less - in some cases a lot less. these are ones i have actually owned.
sumo aurora
sumo charlie (w/rack handles)
hitachi ht-8000
nikko gamma 1
rotel rt-1024
mitsubishi da-f20
sony st-730es
sansui tu-517/717
sansui tu-719
meridian 204
philips ah-185
technics st-9030
technics st-8600/9600
pioneer f-91
luxman t-12of the ones on the list above, the hitachi, the nikko & the philips can be usually had for ~$100, sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less. definitely overachievers. all of these are near as-good-as-it-gets, imo. sure, i may have my preferences, but others may disagree. different systems & reception conditions can also play a part. but any will be better than a stock kt-8300 imo. if difficult reception conditions are a concern, the luxman, the philips & the technics st-8600/9600 aren't quite as sensitive as the others in my above list, imo...
re: antennae, if ya want to get the aps-13, i heartily recommend that one, but the aps9b will be equaled or bettered by the winegard hd-6065, imo, and at half the price.
hth,
doug s.
Doug,Thanks very much for the helpful and informative post. After a lot of searching using google and e-bay, I have found two of the tuners (the Mitsubishi DA F-20 and the Technic ST 9030) that you mentioned for sale at a shop called AudioProz with a mailing address of:
779 Mt. Auburn St., Watertown, MA 02472.
I have e-mailed for price and condition. I live on the eastern seaboard of NC. The elevation at my house is about 70 to 75 above sea level and I am at one of the higest points in a radius of 25 miles. Reception of local channels that I am interested in (public radio) will not be a problem except for adjacent channels. A lot of new (religiously oriented) broadcasts are down low on the dial. I will investigate the winegard. The APS 13 is probably bigger than what I want to put in my attic.
Finally, how about the Marantz ST6000? It seems to be the only new (inexpensive) tuner that receives positive reviews.
Thanks again, Michael
Michael
michael,no problem. re: the tuna yure checking out, the da-f20 is one of my personal faves, at any price. as is the st-9030. but, do not let the pricing fool ya - the nikko gamma 1 & the philips 185 are really top-notch tuna, w/the hitachi ht-8000 so close that only direct a-b w/the others will find its sonics ever-so-slightly a hair off the pace.
i dint wanna bring this up, but since ya mention it, i happen to have three tunas f/s on agon presently, one of them a modded st-9030. (shameless plug!) go to audiogon & search "tuna" :> )
the winegard 6065 is an outstanding performer; i am sure it will be excellent in your situation.
i have never heard the marantz st6000, but some folk on the yahoo tuna site have praised it.
regards,
doug s.
Flatlander,Thanks for the information. I took your advice and e-mailed Van Alstine. The pics of the tuner look super. What is your opinion of the "musicality" (for lack of a better term) of the Dynaco. I have found a couple of tuners at reasonable prices but none are the units rated best for listening to music.
Are most of the newer tuners just dreck?
Michael
The Van Alstine version of the FM-5 sounds excellent: very detailed without being at all harsh. But it did not really "sing" until I had a directional antenna. I live close to the central business district where multipath is a real problem and had aim the antenna carefully to get a really clean signal to feed it.
I e-mailed Frank and sent him a link to the e-bay advertisement. He graciously wrote back and told me that it appeared to be a late version of one of his modifications. I quote his e-mail below. Based on his response, I wonder if I would be better off looking for a Kenwood KT-8300 or even buying the modern Marnatz ST6600? Again, advice is welcome!
"This appears to be the final AVA tuner circuit set we built for the Dyna FM-5 chassis many years ago. The original Dyna "guts" are gone and are replaced by our own original design. It was a VERY good sounding tuner.If the front end assembly (metal box under the large tuning drum) is still good, then it could be a very good buy. It did not have outstanding sensitivity, but in a decent reception area it is excellent. The "weak link" is the original Dyna front end assembly (not repairable). If that goes south the tuner is done for.
A test is to tune the tuner to inter-channel noise (not to a station) up around 108 on the dial and listen to the sound of the noise. If is pure steady "white noise" all is ok. If it has a cycling "sput, sput, sput" characteristic, it means the front end is starting to oscillate at high frequency and is not long for this world.
Note that there are no repair parts available for the original Dyna metal and mechanical bits and that we no longer provide service for these old units."
I have one of the Van Alstine FM-5 "Supertuner" tuners and a Harman Kardon Citation HK23. Several years ago, I did a pretty careful A/B comparison between them listening to non-commercial stations at the low end of the dial[here in Houston]. I was using my roof-mounted, very directional, Radio Shack 10-element antenna with a rotator.
The result: I could not pick between them. They both sounded very good. I ended up putting the Van Alstine in storage, because it has no interstation muting circuit and I was afraid my wife would fry my tweeters by tuning with the volume up.
One additional consideration is support. Van Alstine has very good support of their products, even old ones. If you are considering the Van Alstine tuner, call Frank. He can tell what updates, if any, are available, whether he can align it for you and, if you have the serial number, how old that tuner is.
Meant to say I counldn't use the tuner on the NAK.
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