Your other posts are right about the appalling quality of many FM broadcasts and the availability of FM chipsets causing most non-esoteric tuners to sound much the same. However, a lot of the "classic" tuners of the 70s/80s use pretty dire internal components and of course are beginning to suffer from problems caused by dry joints and failing internals - not to mention burnt-out dial lights. I'm not knocking old tuners (I use a Quad FM4) indeed I'd like to try a Yamaha CT7000 or a Pioneer 9500TX to see if it's an improvement, but probably I'd find a Naim NAT01 better than both (at a price, of course...) In the UK we have a more fundamental problem called Digital Radio - the Government is trying to free up the airwaves to sell off to mobile phone companies and the BBC is supposed to switch from analogue to digital broadcasting at some undefined point in the future. This will make all our lovely analogue tuners totally useless - old, new, cheap and Day Sequerra! The problem is that there will be no compensation and obviously our kit will be valueless on the 2nd-hand market. And at the moment, digital radio is supposed to sound like early CD - enough said. You think YOU'VE got problems, try living over here!
Are tuners getting worse?
Equipment Reviews in Stereo Review for last several years seems to indicate that FM performance even in premium receivers is not up to performance of several years ago. If I want a good stereo FM tuner should I be looking for something from the mid-80's? Any suggestions on good models/vintages for picking up on an auction or classified?