Is an old Denon 800 tuner as good as a new Fanfare?

All things being equal, the arbiter of the performance is the aerial. If you are on a fixed budget or have a certain investment, and are in a house, an external aerial like an APS and a rotor with proper cabling will MOST PROBABLY outperform the same investment in a tuner and a dipole. In an urban location where you cannot mount an outside directional antennae the performance will still vary according to the type of internal aerial, especially if it has an ability to limit bandwidth and/or be oriented. This is very much a definable but complex topic. Finally you should consider the condition of the tuners you are thinking of purchasing..... Tell us more about your situation....

Sorry I wrote it late last night. What I meant to say was that one should first purchase the best aerial and connecting cables for your particular situation, and then spend the rest of the money on the tuner. If you don't get a high power clean signal into the tuner, your investment will be greatly compromised.

Before you put big bucks into a tuner make sure that(a)you have stations worth listening to, and (b) those stations put out a decent signal. You might also wait a few months to check out the new " satillite radio " service available shortly from XM Satillite or Cirrus. Conventional tuners will not work with this format. They promise to deliver about 100 digital quality stations to home or auto receivers. The monthly fee is supposed to be $10 to $12.

I live in Europe in a big city on a high ground location. the signal are strong from those station I listen to. Under this circumstanses Is a Fanfare wip antenna enough or should a big investment in roof antenna be better then spending more money on the tuner?

Ulf-

I don't have any experience with the whip but it has been reviewed well. Another alternative for your situation is an inexpensive Radio Shack (I know these are available in the UK) powered antennae. This can be tuned to limit the bandwidth to just the frequency you are listening to. This helps to reduce multipath and front end overload from other stations which is probably the issue in your situation. Also with the multipath meter on (many) tuners you can aim even dipoles to have lowest multipath.

Ulf,
There is a big difference in Tuners. I now have the Fanfare after listening to several different tuners. The Fanfare is a great value for the price. ( other great tuners for 2 - 3 times the price of Fanfare). Since you have good reception the Fanfare should sound as good as a CD on your system. I have not listened to the Denon, however it is unlikely that it will compete with the Fanfare.
Steve Noble