I've wanted a decent tuner for late night headphone listening of KPLU in my office. I was thinking about getting another T-85 like the one in my main system but was hoping to get something a little smaller. The T-2 has always intrigued me so I have been keeping an eye open for one. One popped up on that auction site one morning for a decent BIN price so I hit the button.
Description said it worked perfect so I was hopeful. Well it just showed up yesterday. What a beauty! I was glad to see it is in great cosmetic condition. I was not prepared for the weight of this unit, certainly not the tin can case used on my T-85 tuner.
I installed it in place of the T-85 in my main system. All the lights seemed to work so I tuned to KPLU, my favorite NPR station (Turn, turn, turn, I do miss the pre-program buttons of digital tuners just a little). KPLU came in crystal clear but was in news mode.
Spun it over to 102.5 KZOK, which is typically the strongest channel in the area, just in time to hear Plant sing the start of "Baby I'm going to leave you". Awesome! Although I'm only using a dipole, it sounds rock solid!
Later in the evening I listened to KPLU Jazz for several hours. Fell asleep in the chair and woke up about 1am this morning. I guess that is a good sign?
In addition to the sound quality, I have to say this tuner has an elegant look and feel to it. It’s much more subtle and simple then the t-85.
I believe it was over $700 dollars back in 1978? You could certainly get a much bigger and more impressive looking tuner for less money at the time. Looking at the lit readouts in the dark on this simple face makes me realize how special the look was to Yamaha. It’s quite the little gem with timeless quality.
The T-85 seems to have a little better DX performance. The T-2 struggled with a couple of stations that the T-85 locked onto with no problem. On local strong stations the T-2 simply sounds more like my other sources. This was with both using the same dipole antenna. Granted neither of these pieces have any work that I know of so they both could possibly perform better with some maintenance? I also need to get a better antenna!
I think the T-85 will go in the office and the T-2 will stay where it is. :yes:
Description said it worked perfect so I was hopeful. Well it just showed up yesterday. What a beauty! I was glad to see it is in great cosmetic condition. I was not prepared for the weight of this unit, certainly not the tin can case used on my T-85 tuner.
I installed it in place of the T-85 in my main system. All the lights seemed to work so I tuned to KPLU, my favorite NPR station (Turn, turn, turn, I do miss the pre-program buttons of digital tuners just a little). KPLU came in crystal clear but was in news mode.
Spun it over to 102.5 KZOK, which is typically the strongest channel in the area, just in time to hear Plant sing the start of "Baby I'm going to leave you". Awesome! Although I'm only using a dipole, it sounds rock solid!
Later in the evening I listened to KPLU Jazz for several hours. Fell asleep in the chair and woke up about 1am this morning. I guess that is a good sign?
In addition to the sound quality, I have to say this tuner has an elegant look and feel to it. It’s much more subtle and simple then the t-85.
I believe it was over $700 dollars back in 1978? You could certainly get a much bigger and more impressive looking tuner for less money at the time. Looking at the lit readouts in the dark on this simple face makes me realize how special the look was to Yamaha. It’s quite the little gem with timeless quality.
The T-85 seems to have a little better DX performance. The T-2 struggled with a couple of stations that the T-85 locked onto with no problem. On local strong stations the T-2 simply sounds more like my other sources. This was with both using the same dipole antenna. Granted neither of these pieces have any work that I know of so they both could possibly perform better with some maintenance? I also need to get a better antenna!
I think the T-85 will go in the office and the T-2 will stay where it is. :yes: