Following along Haoleb's theme, unless a remote is a must for you, I suggest you go to the vintage tuner site listed above and do some research on some vintage tuners, finding one that appeals to you.
I owned the Fanfare FT-1A for over a year and thoroughly enjoyed it. A couple of months ago I did the research I mentioned above; in doing so you will come to learn that some of the best, if not the best, tuners were made in the past, much like cassette decks.
I purchased a Yamaha T-2 on eBay for $368 and it betters the Fanfare's performance at every level. As for features, the Fanfare has remote and presets but the Yamaha has other tuning features that the Fanfare lacks. The Fanfare has 4 gangs, the Yamaha 7!
I also have a Sansui TU-717 mentioned above and agree that this performs quite well also. I haven't spent a lot of time with it, but the time I did, if pressed, I would put the Sansui's performance above the Fanfare as well, without doubt for pulling in stations.
I have no experience with the MD's, but before buying the Fanfare I was comparing the MD's, everything I read placed their performance on par with the Fanfare; I chose the Fanfare because these reports said the performance was the same but the Fanfare came with remote and presets to boot.
FWIW, a bit to my surprise, I have not missed the remote or presets. If I was using it as the person states above, while sitting and reading and wanted to channel hop, then it may be more important, but I can spin the dial and be to a station very quickly.
Understand, I was very happy with the Fanfare, you can search past comments made by me.
I owned the Fanfare FT-1A for over a year and thoroughly enjoyed it. A couple of months ago I did the research I mentioned above; in doing so you will come to learn that some of the best, if not the best, tuners were made in the past, much like cassette decks.
I purchased a Yamaha T-2 on eBay for $368 and it betters the Fanfare's performance at every level. As for features, the Fanfare has remote and presets but the Yamaha has other tuning features that the Fanfare lacks. The Fanfare has 4 gangs, the Yamaha 7!
I also have a Sansui TU-717 mentioned above and agree that this performs quite well also. I haven't spent a lot of time with it, but the time I did, if pressed, I would put the Sansui's performance above the Fanfare as well, without doubt for pulling in stations.
I have no experience with the MD's, but before buying the Fanfare I was comparing the MD's, everything I read placed their performance on par with the Fanfare; I chose the Fanfare because these reports said the performance was the same but the Fanfare came with remote and presets to boot.
FWIW, a bit to my surprise, I have not missed the remote or presets. If I was using it as the person states above, while sitting and reading and wanted to channel hop, then it may be more important, but I can spin the dial and be to a station very quickly.
Understand, I was very happy with the Fanfare, you can search past comments made by me.