A tuner is much like a preamp in that it either allows you to hear, or gets in the way of your hearing, the signal from the radio station and the music it is broadcasting. The hardware and software used by the radio station would be the only limiting factor to sound quality if you had a high end seperate tuner. You can usually receive better signals from longer distances with a seperate and you can get a better ability to reject strong signals on adjacent signals. Sound quality is also important just as with any amp/preamp and have sonic signatures such as cold, warm, good bass etc. You can buy some vintage analog tuners for $300 +/- which will walk circles around the sound of a typical receiver. But if you don't listen to the radio much, why bother with the hassle?
Question about seperate tuners
I have never used one of these. Im not sure i ever will for that matter either, not one that costs maybe over 300 bucks, i dont listen to the radio much
If i went out and bought a 300 tuner, what could i expect as the most significant change compared to the tuner on my AV reciever?
Does it recieve frequencys that much better? How do they sound compared to a good CD source?
I see some pretty expencive tuners out there. I would assume there is some quality about them that is leaps and years beyond my AV reciever's tuner...
please forgive if this is a dumb question, but i have never in my life heard one of these.