Good digital tuners

These are the digital tuners I've personally experienced:

Sony XDR-F1HD
Pioneer F-9
Pioneer F-90
Yamaha T-85
Onkyo T-4120
SAE 8000 (analog w/digital readout)
Kenwood KT-880D

I still prefer my Kenwood 600T analog to any of these, mostly for cosmetic reasons, but also because I prefer a tuning knob to buttons. All of these tuners perform well (in my area) and sound great.
 
I have owned quite a few top end digital tuners in my time but I always stuck with my mint Sansui TU-9900, it recently came up with a problem and now won't play a stereo signal, mono comes out of the speakers even with the stereo lamp lit up, I asked a question about it a year ago on the tuner info group on Yahoo and i've just never got around to fixing it yet.

I had gotten rid of all my digitals but then picked up a Yamaha T-1000 and a T-1020, I'm using the 1000 at the moment and just got the 1020 back from my sister after a year or so loan, tonight i'm going to set them up in my system and use a brand new Acoustic Research splitter I found at goodwill to split the signal from my mast mount antenna, it will be interesting to see which unit sounds better.

The 1020 is supposed to be directly under the Yamaha T-85 in quality and has a very similar signal strength meter, I used to own a T-85 but it never impressed me with sound quality even after an alignment, the T-1000 has grown on me and I rather like the sound quality it has, I'd need to set up my system in a bigger room to hear differences in the soundstage and depth but that will have to come later.

My experience with digitals has led me to say the best sounding units I've ever heard are the Sansui TU-D99X and the Kenwood Basic T-2, both of which I sold to a buddy and can't pry them loose from, Oh well, they made more than a few.

Mark:yes:
 
Seen a few posts for the Sony XDR-F1HD. There are some previous posts to mod it. Not bad for <$100 w/remote. Picks up a lot of stations. I have one in one of my systems running to a tube amp > Klipsch currently.
 
As much as I enjoy the Sony ST-J75, my recently acquired ST-J88B has a bit more soundstage depth. Both are very quiet.
 
The two tuners I have currently in use are both Sony.
The 444ESX, and the S707ES. The 444 is a great sounding tuner, the 707es is freaking amazing, and looks really nice too. LOADED with features, and pulls in stations easily, even in a basement lit up with flourescents. I can't believe I'm the first to mention this one!
 

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Pioneer TX-9800? Oh, sorry, you wanted a DIGITAL tuner......but everyone loves the giant aluminum flywheel (weighted, of course!)! :D

Seriously though, I can only think of one digital tuner, made by Pioneer. The F-91, which is part of the Elite series, is a fantastic sounding tuner. I had the chance to give it a critical listen, and yes I know, why would I do that, it's just FM. But I think that the sound is about as clean as the TX-9800, and the station lock is as good too, being as it is digital. I am still a big fan of the old analog tuners though....I love the way they glow!


-Jason

Another vote here for the F-91 and also for its later/bigger brother the F-93. I had a 91 which I sold to get my first F-93 - now I have 2. They are unbeliveably sensitive and selective and they look very nice too. Don't believe the fmtunerinfo review about the sound quality. I find them to be very close in sound to my Mac MR77, although not quite as "warm".

I listen to it all day, every day in my office. If I didn't like the sound, it would have been gone 2 years ago....

jblnut
 
Another vote here for the F-91 and also for its later/bigger brother the F-93. I had a 91 which I sold to get my first F-93 - now I have 2. They are unbeliveably sensitive and selective and they look very nice too. Don't believe the fmtunerinfo review about the sound quality. I find them to be very close in sound to my Mac MR77, although not quite as "warm".

I listen to it all day, every day in my office. If I didn't like the sound, it would have been gone 2 years ago....

jblnut

Fmtuerinfo is a tremendous source but it good to get other input. Thanks!
 
The best sounding solid-state tuner I've ever owned (analog or digital) is the Luxman T-117. The only tuner that I've ever prefered (for sonics, not reception) over it is my Mac MR-67, but it is tube and analog.

I have the T-03...essentially a 117 and although I wish it had the yamaha noise reduction circuitry, the sound is just mindblowingly awesome. best sounding tuner I've heard.
 
Here's an obscure one -- the Marantz ST-50. It bests several rebuilt TOTL models from my collection. One on the bay right now -- its silver, mine is black.

dew.

I have one in Champagne Colour - nice looking, really very good, easy to use & tuneful but the Onkyo T4970 (similar to the 9090) is sonically better & I always go back to the Onkyo after a swap.
 
Jvc t-m1

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This is an awesome sounding FM only digital tuner,the width is of a mini size but it's quite heavy and very well built.It was in a friends garage for years,sadly he couldn't find the matching amplifier.He told me he bought it new around 1979/1980 and it was part of a rare expensive JVC Diamond series (never heard of it).
I've looked it up on the internet and can't find much about it.
It sounds incredible,nice wide soundstage with lovely deep bass,it's just as good as my analogue Pioneer TX-9800 and my digital TOTL Technics ST-G90 on FM.
 
This is an awesome sounding FM only digital tuner,the width is of a mini size but it's quite heavy and very well built.It was in a friends garage for years,sadly he couldn't find the matching amplifier.He told me he bought it new around 1979/1980 and it was part of a rare expensive JVC Diamond series (never heard of it).
I've looked it up on the internet and can't find much about it.
It sounds incredible,nice wide soundstage with lovely deep bass,it's just as good as my analogue Pioneer TX-9800 and my digital TOTL Technics ST-G90 on FM.

JVC made some good stuff which was not generally available to the US public. The very interesting posts of AKER JVC_GRAZ can attest to that.
 
hi ryuuoh,


i have recently bought a denon TU-1500RD,whats ur opinion when it is compared to denon Tu 800?? Does the old sound bettet then the newer TU-1500RD??

Thanks

Raj
 
Hello,

Something that has a Silicon Labs Si4735 or better yet a Si4770 part in them. All the rest I see shown here, other than the now obsolete Sony HD are really old technology. Some have only 5 favourite stations = rediculous. That was when they had no flash memory in MCU's, stored in a very small static RAM.
Seriously, a new tuner design will have minimum 20 presets. I have 20 in my design and I will add another 10 to make it 30. RDBS is a nice to have. Variable stereo blend is a nice feature for those far away stations. Selectable IF filter BW is good for strong adjacent carriers, the list goes on. What are you willing to pay for a decent current tuner.?

Rick
 
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I suspect the number of decent current tuners is now very small unfortunately. I don't know what the recent Yamaha TS-500 and TS-1000 tuners are like but they look good and (in Europe at least) include RDS and 40 presets. I can't see any provisional for wide & narrow IF settings though.

Regards,
Nick
 
A couple more very good digital tuners.The UK manufactured FM only QED is from around the mid 80's,and needs a good dust off! Whilst the rare TOTL Technics ST-G90L is from the very late 80's.


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I suspect the number of decent current tuners is now very small unfortunately. I don't know what the recent Yamaha TS-500 and TS-1000 tuners are like but they look good and (in Europe at least) include RDS and 40 presets. I can't see any provisional for wide & narrow IF settings though.
Regards,
Nick
From what I've read from several knowledgeable engineers over the past few years, most all new tuners are based on pretty much the same chipset and it is not all that great. And, being a chipset rather than discrete components, there is limited ability to fix the problems. A noteable exception is, of course, the quite expensive Accuphase. There is also McIntosh and Magnum Dyanlab, which are not up to the Accuphase level.
 
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