Tuners?

Doug: I think I will look for a vintage Tuner, I like your suggestion for the hk 18, I've always wanted to hear their vintage gear. I want a better tuner for my living room system, not only for the sound, I do love their apperance.

One thing about vintage Tuners (and other gear) is they have soul. It's like vintage car's. The new camero at a car show I went to looked great. then I looked at a 68 camero RS. God thats a beautifull car.
 
Doug: I think I will look for a vintage Tuner, I like your suggestion for the hk 18, I've always wanted to hear their vintage gear. I want a better tuner for my living room system, not only for the sound, I do love their apperance.

One thing about vintage Tuners (and other gear) is they have soul. It's like vintage car's. The new camero at a car show I went to looked great. then I looked at a 68 camero RS. God thats a beautifull car.
i hear ya about the look of wintage gear - cars included. don't forget motorcycles! ;)

the hk tunas are great sounding, even stock, imo. 18's are lookers and yust the most amazing sound when modded. not the best for tuning from one side of the dial to the other, tho. if you're having a hard time finding one, the 14's and 15's are cut from the same sonic cloth, if you can handle their looks - an acquired taste... they are a bit less scarce on the market...

doug s.
 
I was curious so I looked around for a good pic of the HK Citation 18 tuner. Wasn't easy to find, but I did find one with some digging, on a blog somewhere: http://blog.naver.com/PostView.nhn?...20097020421&redirect=Dlog&widgetTypeCall=true

Here's a copy of the external shot. There's a nude too!

HKCitation18tunerwithRevox.jpg
 
The McIntosh MR 88 is the only new tuner I put on a full equal with the classics of yore. The Magnum Dynalabs are excellent, but not legends. I like older Sequerras a lot for more modern tuners. The new Sequerras are still good.
Having owned the MA6600 with the TM-2 tuner module, which is the basic FM/AM/HD guts of the MR88 without the various options, my opinion is that it is worth about the $650 one pays for it. While a 'good' tuner, it is definitely not great and I would only spend the money on an MR88 if I had to have new McIntosh. The fact that I sold it and kept my fully "DeWick'd" MR80 and MX114 tells all. I'm with Doug on this one. If I'm going to purchase high-end new, I'll save my scheckels and get the Accuphase. And I'm buy American first if at all possible. That said, I would rather spend $2K on a TOTL vintage tuner and then have it gone through to make it 'better than new'. I'll use the $2-5K saved for more travel, wine, food..............
 
My favorite tuners....

Beautiful pics! Thanks for posting.

Tuners I now own:
Sansui TU-717 (PX modded)
Marantz 2130
Denon TU-850

Tuners I've owned but sold:
Denon TU-500
Kenwood KT-7500
Kenwood L-O1T (Bill Ammons modded)
Sansui TU-719
Sony ST-A6B (x2)
Marantz 20 (PX refurbed light mods)

Tuners on the selling block:
Onkyo T-4
Onkyo T-9

I'd love to have kept the Marantz 20 but I had too much cash tied up in it for the amount of time that I spend listening to a tuner, and I have several other nice tuners. Also the Chief needs AM for a certain fave station. And I need to fund a better DAC...
 
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I still prefer my older McIntosh tuners though. MR 80 is one of my favorite digital tuners of all and a classic.
never tried an mr80, so i can't comment. but, based on my experience w/the other "best sounding" s/s macs, unless i can find one at a steal of a price, so i can re-sell w/o taking a loss, i won't bother. the refurb'd mr77 i had, and the mint mr74 i had rank in the bottom 5% of the ~100 tunas i have owned in the past 20 years. there's a small handful of tuna i have owned that i found unacceptable as a listening source, these make that list.

i did own a beautifully modded and refurb'd mr65b that was a nice sounding unit. but, it was outclassed by a stock never serviced sherwood s3000lll, both sonically and reception-wise.

ymmv,

doug s.
 
Doug,

Love sound quality. Do consider I live 60 miles away either side of two medium size cities. The dial is full. Many adjacent channels. Sherwood tube tuners are excellent. I love HH Scott best of the tube tuners on FM Stereo reception and they sound nice. The 4310 being my favorite HH Scott. But I also know of many tube tuners which don't cope well with modern reception needs (and one of them happens to be one of the most costly of them all).
 
Doug,

Love sound quality. Do consider I live 60 miles away either side of two medium size cities. The dial is full. Many adjacent channels. Sherwood tube tuners are excellent. I love HH Scott best of the tube tuners on FM Stereo reception and they sound nice. The 4310 being my favorite HH Scott. But I also know of many tube tuners which don't cope well with modern reception needs (and one of them happens to be one of the most costly of them all).
i'm presently ~45m away from my main stations. the sherwoods still do ok receptionwise; definitely not as well as my s/s faves, on the really difficult stations. i have never had the pleasure of hearing the 4310; i have owned two sets of refurb'd 310d/335's, one set done up by foster blair. i'd rank them up w/my modded mr65b; the sherwoods were still better. much more detail & extension, w/a still lovely smooth tone.

regarding extremely difficult reception conditions, my lowly sony xdr-f1hd is definitely the best. too bad its sonics are merely so-so - and this w/a tube buffer stage between it and my (tube) preamp - otherwise its good for background music only. not far behind receptionwise is my rotel rht-10 - but this sounds fantastic! since i have been using it the past several months, (recently modded/aligned), i have only had to switch to the sony twice to deal w/one particular station that is intermittently noisy; before, it was more like twice a week, regardless of which other tuna was on the shelf.

doug s.
 
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PS: Gota love that Fisher in the photo above!

And it sounds as good as it looks. The second I have of these, identical in appearance, has a weak multiplex, the weak point of these Fisher tuners.
But this one is flawless in looks and opperation. Has a dual antenna hookup: one for normal (local) and one for DX'ng.

Harry
 
Not sure it's a steal but there's been one on the San Diego Craigslist for awhile... guy's asking $520 for it.

John
 
yamaha tuners

Hello everybody!

Because of Im a Yamaha fan currently I have a 3 yamaha tuners:

Yamaha T560
Tx 680 RDS
and TX 530 but of course I would like to buy a Yamaha TX 1000 its a big tuner!
 
I need to find a steal on an Accuphase T-100 since I recently had a C-200 and P-300 fall in my lap.
Couple of T-101s on Audigon for a similar price. Not enough difference between the T-100 and T-101 to worry about. As it is almost impossible to find cosmetic repair parts for either, you might want to pick the one that has the best cosmetics if you are going for a "keeper" can always get the electrical bits repaired.
 
Couple of T-101s on Audigon for a similar price. Not enough difference between the T-100 and T-101 to worry about. As it is almost impossible to find cosmetic repair parts for either, you might want to pick the one that has the best cosmetics if you are going for a "keeper" can always get the electrical bits repaired.

You could be right. I originally was thinking a t-100 because it has the matching black panel at the bottom. Otherwise they are very similar. It's close enough to be an excellent option. Like you said, it is hard to find this old gear in good cosmetic condition. Thanks!
 
Sumo Charlie - works when it wants to!
Hitachi FT-8000

Bought the Charlie from DAK back in the mid 1980s. Ran it through a Pioneer SA-8800 integrated amp. Was an amazing change from the old Pioneer and Kenwood receivers I had. Still have the Charlie, but it lays down more often than not. Had too many bad solder joints in the power supply section. Got most of them taken care of, but now something in the RF section is "screws-loose".

I think the SA-8800 is up over my shop. Volume pot is whacked on one channel.

Just recently got the Hitachi after reading thru the Tuner Info site and stumbling on it on eBay. Sounds pretty nice for $50.
 
Oh man, threads like this make me realize just how much gear I have. Let's see, for tuners I have:

Dynaco FM3 - fully recapped and sounds pretty good. Reception is good and strong but selectivity is just so-so, Boston is a tough area in that respect because there's just so many stations. I suspect this one will be leaving my possession sooner rather than later.

National Criterion - A rare AM/FM mono tuner that represents National's attempt to get into the hi-fi business. It's big, heavy, and looks oh so 1950s. From a performance standpoint it is excellent, I have an Eico MPX unit on the shelf that I might try with it to see how it does with FM stereo. I actually have two of these beasts that I got as part of a package deal with a pair of the matching amplifiers.

Sony XDR-F1HD - I was surprised by this little guy, what it lacks in sound quality it more than makes up for with performance. There's also a couple HD stations I've found that I enjoy. Definitely a keeper.

McIntosh MR67 - Unless FM makes a huge comeback I think this will be the last tuner I ever buy. Mine needs some work (weak tubes, original capacitors, and a so-so alignment) but even as-is it sounds lovely. It's on the bench currently getting the work that it needs taken care of.
 
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