Picked Up HK Citation 3X Any Opinions?

Audioo

Active Member
picked up a working hk cit 3x with built in multiplexer. Heard this is one of the best tuners ever made. True false? Can it be tweaked to be the best. Would like your input.thanks
 
It's a great tuner, when in good order. One of the best tuners of the day on par with HH Scott's better, the better Fishers, Sherwood, and the pre McIntosh MR 71 tuners. Which makes it worthy. And up there with the finest of the day. Big issues will be today how selective is it in crowded dials and how well it rejects HD carrier noise.
 
I've had two and the HD noise rejection is poor; this is only an issue on some stations. I've got an MR 71 in the system now; its HD rejection is very good. Separation on the Citation also seems weaker, even after refurbishment and alignment. That said, the sound on headphones where separation is not so critical is nice on the C-III-X. All my signals are strong and I don't have selectivity challenges so I can't comment there. I like to listen to classic jazz and one great strength of the C-III-X is there is no high-frequency rolloff; the highs go all the way up as the designer Stu Hegeman intended. He was an early advocate of "ultrawideband" design. You can hear all the percussion details.
 
Don't have much to add.. built like a tank.. large compliment of tubes.. many IF stages.. Sounds great.. Not much on the mods... New caps, better audio coupling caps.. yada yada.. I haven't lived with one, only restore and aligned for customers.. Trial and error on types of tubes in the MPX and audio sections could also give improvements in sound, the only problem there is that you would be throwing off your alignment when you do it.
 
i would like to get it restored to optimum working condition at some point in the near future mr X. Will keep you in mind. Purchased it from a store who said it was working but you know what that means. Lol
 
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