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Greetings to All,
I am currently listening to a SS Kenwood KT-8300, #44 out of 84 in the latest shootout at http://www.fmtunerinfo.com/shootouts.html. There are many other tuners that are listed higher in the ratings which now are way off the charts pricewise due to these ratings. I have the 8300 attached to a Cayin TA-30 (no longer in production), a wonderful EL-34 integrated tube amp and the sound is very acceptable; but, I was wondering what other SS or tube tuners you have found that are "sleepers" and affordable for under $200 which I could try. How favorably would your recommended tuners compare with those in the fmtunerinfo ratings? Would a SS tuner be a better match with a tube amp or not and why not? I would appreciate knowing about your top 3 recommendations and your reasons for liking them.
Follow Ups:
nt.
These can be had for around $20 on ebay. I had one for a while and upgraded to the TU-X501 (honestly not much different). Very enjoyable sound. Other tuners I have used include Magnum Dynalab FT101, Onix TU-39, McIntosh MX110 and a few others.
If you can change some parts & swap tubes, nothing I owned comes close to the EICO Classic 2200 FM Tuner. Follow my review on that tuner for the mods & perform a search on this site.The tuner sounds better than some CDs on the right station. A high quality CD is better though.
the stock FM-3 used ceramic PECs (Packaged Electronic Circuits) for FM de-emphasis, which roll of the treble (often down about 4-5 dB at 10 kHz). David Berning published a modified circuit in Audio Amateur magazine many years ago which was within 0.5 dB at 10 kHz, which makes this a very good sounding tuner (Berning compared it to a Marantz 10B!) for very little money.
I picked up a Citation 15 for $50 on ebay, spent another $50 to get it working and it is a fine tuner for little money. Good sensitivity, and selectivity and sounds decent. Build quality is VG. The Advent gives you a good tuner, with a little less sensitivity but you get a phono/pre section and amplifier section thrown in. Also sounds good but less reliable. Get the service manual and be prepared to fix it. The FM3 is available cheap cheap cheap and once you spend a little time aligning it you have a pretty good low cost tube tuner $30-$100 depending on condition.My vote for low cost tuner with a little higher budget is the Quad FM4
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the T-35 and it is superb. You can find these on ebay somewhat frequently for a good price.
... don't even bother with stereo. I have a 2000 I paid $50 for and a 3000 I got for $30 in its original box. I had to touch up the discriminator in the 3000 and clean tube pins in the 2000. They sound excellent. Absolutely excellent. They are mono, and they are NOT of the RF performance calibre of the big boys, but they sound really, really good.They ARE a bit of an acquired taste cosmetically, though.
...stunned by the rich presentation this tuner provides me on good FM; mono! Consistently much more enjoyable than cd's.
I concur, I have most of the tubed Sherwood tuners and I like the sound of the S-2000 the best. I even prefer it over my Richard Modaferri modded MX-110.
nt
If you dont need the profit from selling the Kenwood, Keep it. It's one of the best I've ever heard. Mine is not for sale. I'm keeping it.
bb
nfm
add that sending it out to have it aligned and modded would help the sound quality greatly. As a matter of fact that tuner fully modded is considered world class in both reception and sound quality. I use a modded Kt 7500 that is one piece there's no reason to sell.At minimum you should have it aligned and maybe a few caps replaced. Mike Williams of Radio X is very reasonable and this alone will help the sound quality significantly. Also if you're not already using an antenna on your roof it would be a great idea if possible. Even the little Radio Shack antenna they sell for 25 dollars will outperform even the expensive indoor types. If you've got good quality broadcasts from your radio stations like I do you may find yourself listening to fm alot, I sure do.
I'd rank the sound quality of a good broadcast through my Kt 7500 as near cd quality. Even the bass is surprisingly accurate and powerful. Whatever you do you've got one of the best foundations for a world class tuner ever built. Check out the fmtuner group on Yahoo, they'll tell you whatever you need or could possibly want to know. They'll also tell you pretty much what I just did. Cheers
The KT-8300 sonically betters 90% of the tuners available (I have one). It is transparent enough to hear minute differences, yet sweet and musical enough to never offend.The early top-line SS Kenwoods from the KT-7000 to the KT-8005 are more than a bit better, being IMO the true budget kings.
check out the Kenwood KT-5020 on fmtunerinfo. It has good specs, was inexpensive, is relatively unknown, has good sound and they like it(in their top 10 I think). I bought one new years ago for the specs since I get bad reception and have to use an indoor antenna. It, of course, only helped a little. But it's a nice economical tuner.
I am and have been using a Heathkit AA-32 tube amp with a Heathkit AJ-14 transistor FM stereo tuner since the mid-1960's. The AJ-14 has 3-gangs, 4 IF stages, and a ratio detector similar to tube circuts. This Heathkit tuner surpasses in musicality & reception my Sony ST-5150 & Pioneer TX-8500II tuners that are well-rated on the fmtunerinfo site. These often go for under $25 at auction (look for one with the optional wood case) & Heathkit still sells copies of the original assembly & operation Manuals which contain DIY without instruments & instrument alignment instuctions.
nt
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Harry
Here's a sleeper: NAD 4300. A very good tuner for less than $200. Better than some other highly-ranked tuners, but not as good as the top ten or so. Particularly easy to use as well (with 6 presets). The tunerinfo guys never got around to reviewing it.
I totally agree with you about the NAD 4300. It is a sleeper. I will go even further, and state if the FMTUNERINFO guys had taken the time to test it it would have been in the top 10, easily. I have an Onkyo 9900II, A Kenwood 5020,& 990 (Both top ten tuners) and Magnum Dynalab FT101 A (Etude). I also have to use an indoor antenna, and under that condition, the 4300 blows all of them out of the water in reception, and is the equal in sound quality.
Get one if you can before everyone figures out just how good it is.
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