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What are the best modified FM tuners of 2005?

1. Nikko Gamma Five, simply amazing: great stereo, adjacent-channel reception, very realistic sound.
2. Sony STS730ES, only a hair less refined than above.
3. Luxman T-02, as sensitive as any tuner encountered, great selectivity, and sweet sound, better than a T-9090II.
Tied with Accuphase T-101 -- hard to imagine a better tuner
4. Mac MR-74, just glorious, full-bodied sound although not as selective and sensitive as above.
5. NEC-710, throw away the CD player: it sounds better, very sensitive but a little noisy on weak stereo signals
6. Quad FM3, with an IF filter change, very selective but has poor sensitivity. Very low distortion and stereo separation as good as it gets. For the city dweller.
7. Fisher FM2421, a real sleeper and could very well serve as a FM station's air monitor.
8. Kenwood KT-5500 This cheap tuner with an added IF filter and better audio output caps does not deserve to sound that good for so little.
9. Tube version of MD-90 With IF filter changes and changing two resistors in the tube output stage, this tuner has amazingly good detailed sound -- stock, gritty.
10. Marantz 2120 The bass is deep and tight, and the blue lights are pretty
bdscott

Showing 2 responses by sugarbrie

sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
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My Kenwood KT-8300 now has all the IF filter circuits as sockets, so I can swap in and out any IF filters I want. The tuner IF filtering is now almost infinite depending what IF filters I want to use. It was already a great tuner in stock form.

The op-amp circuits are also now sockets, so I can use any op-amps I want to change the sound character. So the tuner can sound differently to taste.

Other internal parts, output caps, etc, have also been modified, replaced and/or upgraded, so it sounds better than stock. It already was one of the best sounding vintage tuners in stock form, now even better.
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sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
Actually Sherod, I believe Bdscott above can do some of the things you want.
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