PHOTO: Office system, 2005, trying out three tuners: McIntosh MR67, MR77 and lower right, Revox B160
Harold,
When I was settling on vintage tuners in 2004-5, the Revox B760 was among my first choices. I hadn't heard one for years, but remembered the sound as dynamic and open and liked the specs and controls. The build quality is Swiss and just fantastic. The reviews on the Tuner Info. Center place had it n the top 10 for sound. However, as these were expensive to buy, and appeared to be complex as well as 30 years old, I became concerned about repairs. It's details, but many of the ones I looked at had broken switches and cosmetic problems- the strange rubbery Nextel coating on the cabinets scratched, broken toggle switches, and the pushbuttons had lost the lettering. Still, if you're looking for a lifetime tuner purchase and willing to invest, have patience and find the very best one having recent service you can.
Liking the Revox approach to tuners, but a bit shied off the B760, I eventually bought a low use Revox B160 for under $300- which was $1,000 in 1988, has 7 power supplies, 30+ presets and just Swiss all the way through-beautifully made. All my friends who have heard it immediately preferred the B160 to my 1974 McIntosh MR77, which is still a very good sounding tuner. Today, I'd probably look for a Revox B260 (-Not 261) which is the B160 with more filters and controls- a better DX machine apparently. Both these can be made remote controlled with a Revox B208 and I see the RDS boards on German Ebay that display the station and program information.
Happy Hunting!
Cheers,
Bambi B
