I had the Classe tuner. It was a good match with my Classe CP30 preamp, and I eventually added a Classe CA100 amp to round out this little system.
The tuner sounded fine -- more than adequate for the low quality material being broadcast. It was competent at pulling in stations while not being any DX champ. On balance, it was a satisfactory performer in a modest system.
Without having done any measurements or even any head to head comparisons, my general impression was that it was not as good as my McIntosh MR78 and my Magnum Dynalab Etude, but better than my SAE 8000 and my Acoustic Research Tuner.
After 10 years or so, the tuner stopped working. My local repair shop said it needed a custom circuit available only from Classe. But Classe had changed hands by then and the new owners would not support legacy sales. I was told the circuit was made in Europe but no replacement could be found despite having the relevant part number.
Of course the part could be sourced by buying a used tuner and swapping the circuit in. Instead, I just bought a used tuner off Audiogon and used that one as is, tossing the broken one.
After more years, I gave the three Classe pieces to my son, but he is not into hifi and threw them away during one of his moves. He said they were still working at the time. Sigh.
The tuner sounded fine -- more than adequate for the low quality material being broadcast. It was competent at pulling in stations while not being any DX champ. On balance, it was a satisfactory performer in a modest system.
Without having done any measurements or even any head to head comparisons, my general impression was that it was not as good as my McIntosh MR78 and my Magnum Dynalab Etude, but better than my SAE 8000 and my Acoustic Research Tuner.
After 10 years or so, the tuner stopped working. My local repair shop said it needed a custom circuit available only from Classe. But Classe had changed hands by then and the new owners would not support legacy sales. I was told the circuit was made in Europe but no replacement could be found despite having the relevant part number.
Of course the part could be sourced by buying a used tuner and swapping the circuit in. Instead, I just bought a used tuner off Audiogon and used that one as is, tossing the broken one.
After more years, I gave the three Classe pieces to my son, but he is not into hifi and threw them away during one of his moves. He said they were still working at the time. Sigh.