The best sounding FM Tuner is.....

Just saw the Day Sequerra website. Good looking tuners. Was told it is sold out til June..

www.daysequerra.com

hi bart,

save yer money, & do not purchase *either* tuner. there's literally dozens of vintage tuners that will outperform either of these, and the most expensive will cost ) go here for great tuna info:

http://www.fmtunerinfo.com/

here's the forum site for tuna:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fmtuners/

regards,

doug s., so many tunas, so little time... ;~)

I have never personally seen, touched, measured or listened to a Marantz 10B. The gentleman that calibrates all of my test equipment happens to own one though. After aligning the unit, he not only told me that it measures better than any other tuner that he's ever repaired / calibrated in most every respect, but that the sound quality is also unmatched in most every respect. Given that the complexity of design and production costs that this product brought with it are what brought Saul Marantz to his knees financially, forcing him to sell the company, i can believe that this is a truly astounding product. That is, when it is fully aligned with all of the circuitry working as it was designed. Then again, i'm taking someone else's word on it, but i've never had to doubt their word before.

As far as the fmtunerinfo goes, i've had some very different results than what they've reported. On one tuner, i commented to them that it sounded "tinny", like a transistor radio. They posted this and responded back on their website that the tuner actually sounded very good and was quite full bodied sounding. After comparing the tuner to several others, in one of the other reviews they referenced this tuner and said that it had somewhat of a "solid state sound". Yet if you read their main review of this tuner, it says "we think it sounds great but two of our contributors think it sounds bright". Bright is not the same thing as lacking in warmth with a glaring upper midrange / hot lower treble.

Another tuner that they absolutely trashed is a very nice sounding unit. If it sounded as bad as they said, i would have been a fool to buy the four of them that i have. I actually heard a demo where we were comparing the signal directly from the turntable feeding the broadcast station's transmitter and then listening to the broadcast over the air via this tuner. It was as close as one could get. Is the tuner "ultra-sensitive", "fancy" or built like a tank? Not by any means. Does it sound good? Most certainly, my answer is a resounding "YES" !!!

Speaking of sensitivity, the tuner that i spent the least amount of money on has the most sensitive front end of any that i've ever used or owned. The fact that Larry Schotz designed the front end, the manufacturer touted the sensitivity of this unit as being the high point of the design and one reviewer stated that "the sensitivity exceeds the theoretical limit" should tell you something. The tuner website said "they were pretty good values when new and still sound pretty good on strong signals". All i can say is that it sounds better on using a 6' piece of wire as an antenna on a distant station than my Magnum does using a highly resonant FM antenna mounted on the roof of my building.

Another tuner that i had, and that they referred to as the first "super tuner", measured better than any other tuner ever made in some respects. Yet when i listened to these tuners, the sound quality from unit to unit was anything less than consistent. Given that i've owned well over a half dozen of these specific tuners, some of them at the same time, i was able to do many "head to head comparisons" between them. Super tuner it is not, at least not sonically. Why did i have so many of them? I kept reading about what a great tuner they were, so i bought a bunch and was going to keep the pick of the litter. I ended up selling all of them out of disappointment. One guy was so unhappy with the performance of the tuner, that i gave him his money back and i kept it. I'm going to work on this one in the near future and hopefully improve the sonics.

Another tuner that i have that sounds very nice has some very obvious "digital" flaws to it. It probably doesn't measure all that well compared to some of my other tuners, but there i still keep hanging onto it.

If there is one thing that i have learned out of all of this, it is this. One of these days, i need to clean house : )

If there is another thing i've learned, it is that these guys are doing the best that they can with what they've got to offer their sonic observations. All mass produced gear have tolerances that cause some units to measure and sound quite different from the next. On top of that, atmospheric conditions vary from day to day and even hour to hour, so relying on "over the air" test results can be somewhat less than conclusive. Other than that, i appreciate the time and effort that they put into performing these tests and sharing their observations with us. At least with these guys, we know that they aren't afraid to point out flaws and / or amend previous statements that need correction as their levels of experience and equipment exposure increases. Sean
>

sean,

your comments about fmtunerinfo.com yust reinforce what i believe to be true about *all* audio gear, only more so, for tunas. :>) it's the fact that system synergy, tastes, & room is key. it's more-so for tunas, because you also have to take into account your location, as the same tuna can sound different, depending on location/signal.

the reviews & comments on the fmtunerinfo site (especially jim rivers' "shootouts") should only be used as a guide - i, too, have different results for some tunas than what's posted on the site, tho some i agree with. a couple examples:

1) the revox b760 rates really well, while its identical-sounding (imo) sibling the b261 ranks poorly. i owned both, & they were absolutely identical - both supurb, if not quite up to the standards of my faves. i kept the b261 & sold the b760 cuz i preferred the ergonomics of the b261, if not the looks.

2) the tandberg 3011 rates pretty well, but i found mine to be worse than a pedestrian adcom gft-1a. (the adcom, btw is at least as good as any magnum-dynalab ft101, imo...)

3) the mitsubishi da-f20, is ranked at the top of the "m" class, yust below the bottom "c" class tuna, the revox b760. imo, the mitsu is definitely a better sonic performer than the revox, & at least as good from a sensitivity standpont as well. other tuna that i like better than the revox, that are even further down on the "shootouts" list include the sumo charlie & the pioneer f-91. i also like my technics st-9030 better, but it's been modded. but, based upon my experience w/a stock st-8600, which is not as good a tuna as the st-9030, i would surmize that even stock, the st-9030 would be at least as good as a revox b760. other tunas that i think are at least as good as the b760 include the sansui tu-717 & yamaha t2.

re: the review "shootouts" done by jim rivers, you must realize this is one person's opinion, based upon results obtained w/an all-toob system in a 12x14 room. and, you must also realize how close the sonics are, of the tunas he likes. what is telling to me is something like this one example - the pioneer f-91 is presently ranked 43rd out of the 79 tunas reviewed up to this point. jim, referencing the f-91 to his top-ranked kenwood l-02t says this:

"...In a large room, in a big sound system, I might choose this Pioneer over the L-02T...."

this (and my own personal experience), tells me that there are really more similarities than differences between good tunas. vintage tuna is cheap enuff so that you can buy several, keep the one(s) you like, & sell the rest, w/o losing any money. you certainly don't need to drop big bucks on something like a md-108. ;~)

and it's also enlightening to know that jim rivers' absolute fave tuna - better in his opinion than the accuphase t109v, kenwood l-02t, etc, is one that can be picked up for less than $100, and modded w/less than $100 worth of parts. (or pay someone like bill ammons ~$300 to do one up for ya, if yure not into diy.) i'm talking about the kenwood kt-7500, one that in stock form ranks near the bottom of jim's shootout list. i happen to own one of these, modded by bill ammons. it *is* nice - it makes *my* personal class-a list; but it's not my fave! :>)

doug s.,
so much tuna, so little time...

Tandberg 3001A--- One went for over $900 on ebay. The sound is remarkable. A living presence type of experience. Vocals are rich and deep. I wouldnt part for mine for $2000. Just my opinion.