Radio Road Which tuner to get and getting the most from it. Thank God, for the radio!

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RE: FM tuner recommendations

Posted by Brian Levy (A) on February 28, 2014 at 08:07:17

In Reply to: FM tuner recommendations posted by OakIris on February 14, 2014 at 08:18:47:

Criteria seems to be:
1) budget of around $200 - does this include tuner or tuner and antenna system?

2) sensitivity may not be a priority as you state you have decent signals for stations you listen to. Depending on the number of stations alternate channel rejection and selectivity may be more of a priority.

3) Tubes would be nice but not a requirement.

Later you mention you use 2 receivers but have not tried their fm sections. Why not? These would be the obvious starting place to determine what if anything you should get and whether you should even bother and simply go for an antenna. What receivers do you have? If sitting on a Marantz 18/19, McIntosh 1700/1900/4100 or one of a number of other great receivers you may already have a totl tuner. For instance the Marantz 18 uses the Model 20 tuner while the 19 uses the 20B tuner and these are right up there with some of the best. I have a Philips 787, a receiver that flies under the radar and its tuner if great. Equal to many tuners sell for 10x the price of this receiver. BTW, many times a receiver has a tuner section that is the same as one of the company's separate tuners and sells for much less than the separate tuner such as the Marantz 18 and 19 that go for about half the price of the 20 and 20B tuners.

If the receivers are not up to par, determine why and that will help in your search as that is a spec or aspect that may have a higher priority for you.

I live in a decent sized city and have fairly decent local listening. I do not need a tuner that is especially sensitive as I am not trying to reach 100 miles out so, a 5-gang front end and high number of i.f. stages and filters are less important. The more of each helps in sensitivity but reduces the quality of the audio as a general rule. These are attributes for those looking for distant stations, i.e. dx'ing.

A great tuner vs a very good tuner may not be that much different in the final listening experience. For instance, I used a McIntosh MR77 for decades. It is considered a very good to excellent tuner by owners. WHile I over the years had other tuners that excelled in some why, overall it had that near perfect overall balance that worked for me. A few years ago, I picked up a Philips 6731 then little known to me as part of a system I bought. Compared it to the MR77 and it was a toss up in almost every aspect. Sound was different, the MR77 being more laid back, slightly muted and for the first time I felt it was smearing the music and presentation slow. The Philips was more forward, on massed strings better separation but not like many other tuners that made them seem like just a group of violins each playing by itself with no co-ordination. Other tuners had similar differences but, went too far destroying that balance of sound. The Philips I learned after was one of those sought after by the crowd though not well known. However, in long trm listening there was something about it that seemed to make me lose interest in the music; something that did not occur with the McIntosh but, it took a substantial number of hours before setting in while with other tuners it took much less time. The swing for me was the Philips AM that is one of the best AM experiences I ever experienced and was the first tuner with an AM section good enough to actually have am in my system. It was a keeper and I sold the MR77 after owning it for something like 45 years (yes, that # is right).

I had decades ago bought a system that had a Sherwood S3000IV tube tuner and never pulled it off the shelf to try. I also had the matching amp that from experience knew it was excellent but my example needed filters so it sat. After some 20 years on the shelf, I finally had both gone through and the tuner blew me away. Sonics were excellent, sensitivity right up there with the MR as well as quieting. These tuners at the time were about 10% of the going price of the MR77 on the used market. Mistakenly, about that time I had decided that I was going to downsize and the first layer to go would be my tube gear. So, the Sherwoods went along with about 20 other pieces. A short time later on an offchance I decided to buy a Sherwood S3300 tuner. It was their 1st ss tuner and the circuit and design was used until they gave up US production almost a decade later. Sherwood was an engineering company and developed excellent designs and stuck with them, just making improvements and tweaks to make them better without going back to the drawing board for new designs that many times are not as good as a previous generation's. The circuit was still used in the SEL-300 tuner that does command princely prices today and the SEL-200 receiver. These were their last US lineup products. I had the tuner gone through before receiving it, it needed a couple of caps and the alignment was tweaked. Now, at the time the Sherwood tube units were coming out of the closet while the later imported Sherwoods had some following but these early ss units were almost never noticed or mentioned. Even today, they are under the radar and go for about as inexpensively as any tuner does.

I did not expect the S3300 to be as good as the S3000IV, as often the case when companies went from tubes to transistors. Well, I was wrong. The S3300 IS the S3000V converted to transistors and every bit as good and even better. Better, to the tipping point where while the S3000IV was the tuner that convinced me the MR77 could go but, not enough to make it go, the S3300 made me decide it would go as it did not introduce the fatigue I experienced with the Philips, had an even more balanced sound than the 77 and I had the Philips for backup. Over a year I found the Philips was almost never turned on and it like the MR77 was sold. The little and little noticed Sherwood had won the day against my long term heavy weight and what the TIC had classed as something like #6 in its preference list. A couple of years have passed and I do not miss one bit either the Mc or Philips. The question remained with me whether there was a difference and how much between the early and later S3300 did weigh on my mind so, I ended up buying a 2nd unit and had it also gone through, again only a couple of caps and a tweak on the alignment was needed. I now had the version with the FET only nomenclature and the last variant using FET with Microcircuits (the version used in their SEL-300 and 200 tuner and receiver) and running side by side I could hear or experience NO differences using the same antenna and downstream system. The quality of the units about a decade different in manufacture was the same, no cost cutting, no cheapening in any way.

I would obviously suggest if looking for a separate tuner that meets your priorities, seeking out a S3300 and have it gone through. The total cost more than likely will be well within your budget of $200 with enough left over to look for one of those indoor antennas such as the Beambox (think that is what it is called) or even the downpayment on an outdoor antenna though starting with a simple folder dipole ribbon may prove to be enough given your comments.

Now, if the antenna issue is a big issue and you have few or limited options for a really decent antenna such as a yagi, then consider a range of tuners that were equipped or designed to work with such a handicap. These generally have a very sensitive front end such as you would experience with a car radio. These usually have some provision to use either some internal antenna or the ac line cord and have a shorting strap between the fm antenna terminals such as the Yamaha CT610II or a terminal clamped on the ac line cord that can be connected to the fm antenna terminal such as the Sony TA-5055 tuner. I have both of these and these systems work as well and better than a folded dipole ribbon antenna in each case. The little KLH 18 also is in this group. They each have quite decent performance, good enough for a day's easy listening to Saturday at the opera or a 2nd system as a permanent tuner. I have the mentioned Yamaha and Sony and the receiver version of the KLH 18, the 27 and each works very well with these antenna options. Do not expect all tuners to work as well so just clamping a jumper from the fm antenna terminal to the ac line cord of any tuner may not do anything such as with my MR77 or limited such as with my Fisher TFM300.

Then there is the of the wall suggestion. There are a few portable radios with stereo outputs and even stereo on the headphone jack. The of course have built in fm antennas and some have a provision for an external. Sensitivity is generally better and depending on model the other relevant specs may be as good or better than most dedicated tuners. Sound wise they can be competitive with the average home based units. These include the Grundig/Eton Satallite series such as the 800 and their S350/S350DL units. I have a pair of the S350DLs bought for other reasons as I needed a portable in case of a power outage and my existing portables while still working are OLD. I have tried them as tuners into my system and for the then going price they were not too shabby, as decent as some of the dedicated tuners. The 350DL I have recommended to a few persons who wanted a system tuner, had need for a portable and had a very limited budget and for a couple as they lived in apartments or assisted living facilities could not deal with any complex or any type of antenna. I use one of the 350DLs in the living room/living space as it is where I "reside" due to my illness and have it plugged into the amp used on my television for fm and while the system is limited as a whole the fm does as well in delivery as my downstairs dedicated system. The is a guy in the US who offers filter mods for the 350DL to improve either the dx capability or the audio. It is available as a plug in kit (as I understand it) of installed in your unit. The costs either way are reasonable and one person who has had the audio mod I communicated with told me it replaced a Marantz tuner in his main system and he sold it to recouped the purchase price of the radio and mod.
I have not had the mod done though thought about having a dx mod done on one and the audio mod done on the other. If in my downsizing I were to get rid of all other tuner sources I likely would get the audio mod as the radios are not on the downsize disposal list.

Sorry for the long discourse but there are many variables and options and if you are not aware of them and focus you will get a shotgun set of responses and these could lead you on a path of a room full of pieces in your search. Hope this helps in some small way.



Don Brian Levy, J.D.
Toronto ON Canada

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