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I am would like some opinions on which tuners are considered to be the best sounding. Based on your personal experience or from other sources. Tube or SS.
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and modded for under 500 bucks. Sonic quality can rival the average cd with a good broadcast. Please remember the antenna is also very important. No tuner is better than the antenna connected to it.I've owned numerous tuners and the modded Kenwood KT 7500 trounces everything for sound quality I've ever heard and by a margin. Find the tuner you like the looks of and is already a decent tuner. I like the looks of the Sansui TU 717 very much and these can be purchased off of Ebay for about 200 bucks. The one I have now I plan on having modded also as I think I like the way it looks better than my Kenwood even though the Kenwood looks almost brand new.
The tuners that costs thousands of dollars will do no better if as well as a modded tuner from the late seventies to say about 1980. Kenwood Kt 7500's are common and can be had for 75 dollars on Ebay. Get one with good cosmetics and send it to Radio X for a mod job.
Until I got this tuner I had no idea how great a FM tuner could sound. The stock 7500 is not good at all while the Sansui TU 717 is decent stock. There's plenty of more to choose from. Go to fmtunerinfo.com and check it out. Also on Yahoo is a group called fmtuners, these guys know more about FM tuners than is imaginable.
I strongly agree about modifying good vintage tuners. I now have a Sansui TU-919 modified by Antenna Performance Systems; its sound is so good that a number of people thought it was my turntable or CD. I also have a Sansui TU-717 modified by Stereo Surgeons which also sounds great. Links to both of those shops are on the home page of fmtunerinfo.com which I also highly recommend.
who is the mod company that you are talking about. Radio X?
Do you have contact information for them?I have a tu717 that is stock and is still one of the best tuners that I have had and listened to this last year. The Rotel RT990 BX that I just got is pretty good also
http://www.radioxtuners.com/You'll need to give Mike a 50 dollar deposit or send your tuner in. He's got a queue that takes several weeks for him to get to your tuner.
I highly recommend him as his work is very good and he is very reasonable. That's why he's always very busy. Few people these days can even align an analog tuner which is the minimum you should have done.
Your Sansui is an excellent tuner in both reception ability and audio quality. I mean this by modern standards. It does need an alignment and a tuner to perform like it should. At this age it's a good idea to replace the power supply caps and audio signal path caps while he's got it. With a few mods like this your sound will be right up there with the megadollar tuners of today. Plus your tuner looks alot better.
I think I'm going to sell My Sansui TU 717 as I keep saying I'll mod it but it just collects dust and as nice of shape as it's in someone will be happy to get it.
Accuphase makes the best tuners in the world!
Rohde und Schwarz made the very best tuners in the world .
More pictures of other German "Ballempfaenger" are here :http://www.ak-tubes.de/Tuner/Ballempfaenger/Ballempfaenger.htm
Regards , Alexander .
Alexander,Don't waste your time with him.
That's all he ever says, to any post.
Rumor has it, he has pom-poms and a skirt on when he posts.
The two best sounding stereo tuners I 'know well' are the converted Pioneer stereo Rcvr at Patrick Turner's. And the Kenwood simulcast* rcvr he redid for me with its power amps retained, with a kit decoder and good (huge mF ps things) coupling caps.they both make listening to 2 high quality FM stations almost 'a dooty' as in duty. low/zero DR compression, zero/some processing,
classical(some Jazz)/lots of stuff.
http://www.abc.net.au/classic/daily/stories/s1768613.htm - NATIONAL network /
and
http://www.artsoundfm.asn.au/.
the best MONO FM tuner I know well is a leak Troughie.
The best SS tuner? The early Sequerra the troughie's owner, picked up at an auction.
I have heard once / long time ago many good ss ones, for both bands.
the best sounding AM tuner I've owned, after being loaned another! was an AWE ss AM only wideband tuner, with a het.circuit, and a sunchronous one, and one other! plus filters and a woven indoor loop! and a clever christmas tree indicator, and a gain control!! No AGC!!! But Allen Wright has it back now - it gradually imploded.
MY old Kenwood* had two AM circuits - and the new combined one is only down 3db at 13 k, the soft-curve is a reasonable match to the NRSCA's curve, AM is also good down under {:~)} !
WarmestTimbo in Oz
The Skyptical Mensurer and Audio Scrounger'Still not saluting.'
Read about and view system at:
Generally agree with Timbo.As I look back... by far the most satisfying tuner and the one that sings as I tap this in at the moment is my beloved 10B, closely followed by my humble Leak Troughline with a Paravacini decoder - both tuners are set-up to better than new spec. and are fed by a very large aerial array and local transmitter and play thru' an all valve/horn main system - IMHO when it's about the musical message, solid state doessn't have a snowball's chance in hell of competing on live classical music broadcasts from BBC R3 - which is a world class source - period.
Enjoy
FW
Eh?yes, very definitely.
Several reasons.
zero copy generations cf other recorded media.
Simple real-stereo miking - as mike forests with audiences are unusual.
In our case down here there is NO processing and no dynamic range compression apart from gentle progressive peak-limiting on big orchestras and operas.
less happens to the signal, and that is why.
Even 2gen R2r and DAT! tapes of live concerts can be quite serious sources. Ask TAS' proprietor!
JAZZ? yes, most of the local festivals.
I have a large 1957 Grundig with 4 full range drivers and EL95 push-pull power. I have fully restored mine and I'm delighted by the results. Warmish, with exaggerated bass, but in practice, it's a delight. As it's mono, and two of the drivers point sideways, everyplace in the room is the "sweet spot".But if you must have something that hooks into your existing hifi, I've used the Marantz 10B, MacIntosh MR67, MR71 as well as an old tube Sherwood tuner, and feel these are all very good sounding. The Dyna FM3 somewhat less so IMO
I have three huge German stereo or Hi-Fi radios. A Grundig SO-390 console has 2/13" woofers and 4/4X6 and is stereo w/EL-84 in push/pull circa 1964. I also have a Saba Continental- this unit is the biggest table radio ever made. Separate mono and stereo eye tubes! For big drivers at least 8/9 inches plus two small. Motorized tuning w/seek and volume via wired remote and an adjustable ferrite bar for AM-turn a knob and it rotates the antenna inside for best reception. You should see this thing! Huge-circa 1963. I just got a Telefunken from about 1960, mono radio but a stereo input for phono/tape. Some previous owner or tech botched some stuff and rewired it mono but I redo it some day. I love my German radios........ radiomuseum.org
Get thyself over to www.fmtunerinfo.com and commence to reading the huge amount of information on this wonderful site.These pholks have forgotten more about tuners than most people know.
hear hear! They have it broken into 2 types of reviews for each tuner. One part for the fidelity, and the other part for the DX ability. There is a heap of info there.
I have had a Pioneer F-28, a SUMO (GAS) Charlie, and a Scott 310E. The F-28 was adequate sounding and very sensitive, the Charlie is dead reliable (it still works) and the 310E sounds phenomenal. It's the tuner that told me that some stations broadcast a stable, believable stereo image. These tuners are now 40 years old, so they're not very reliable. If you buy one, expect to pay $500 or so. And you should immediately send it to a good technician who should replace and upgrade the caps, same with resistors, and align the unit. I think you will be very pleased.If price is no object, there's also the Marantz 10B (same comments as the 310E on service), a Sequerra unit, and Dynalab.
Good luck. I've got a couple of good tuners and no station worth listening to.
We have two GOOD sounding FM stations in Can('t)berra. One is effectively perfect but is mostly classical except 2hrs 2 afternoons and one whole evening. t'other has everything excepr C&W. HUGE Sighhhhh there ;-)!One further very weak FM station which is uni-student run and very leftie! and one AM very similar.
WarmestTimbo in Oz
The Skyptical Mensurer and Audio Scrounger'Still not saluting.'
Read about and view system at:
The Yamaha T-2 has some pretty impressive specs and fetches some big dollars on ebay for a 25+ year old SS model. Myself I'm content with my T-1 of the same vintage.
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