At 79 , tried most all of them. Someone mentioned the McIntosh MR-67 as end game and excellent. The one who followed the last tube tuner McIntosh,made is the MR-71 which is the same except it has one more tuning gang for a bit better reception. Hooked up to my MA 7900 McIntosh amp pumped thru vintage JBL speakers it is the finest FM radio sound I've ever heard.Mine was completely gone thru by an old Mac guy and has original McIntosh tubes , looks brand new. NAXA amplified rabbit ear antenna. It sounds as good as any cd on my Denon DVD A110 player but not quite the quality of an SACD disc. Live up in the AZ hills at night station only broadcasts 500W but perfect.
Finding a Great Sounding FM Tuner
The site to visit is fmtunersinfo.com It is unbelievable of the info at the site. About 90 tuners were compared for best sound. Trouble is top ten FM tuners cost $500 and more on eBay. Why a FM tuner? Well, the station does all the work playing different records or likely CDs. FM does not sound near as good as a record, but for casual listening ok with the right tuner. Many FM tuners do not sound good and distorts the audio. FM station quality audio is not near what was in the 1960s and 1970s. Competition was fierce and stations had audio engineers. Most FM stations were all tube generated audio too. Opti-Mods were carefully adjusted unlike now too. As stated top ten tuners are $500 to $1K- too high cost IMO for FM. However, a few slipped thru the cracks so to speak. A Merdian 504 is in top 14 and we are splitting hairs here. I bought one for $140 but usually cost $200. They are rare though. Cost was $1350 in 1991. The Mitsubishi DA-F20 is a cheap top 10 tuner but failure rates are high- no good. The sleeper is a Hitachi FT-8000. It was not in the Shootout page but mentioned as better sounding than the stellar Hitachi FT-5500 MKII in Shoutouts 2.0. I owned both Merdian 504 and Hitachi FT-8000 and both are great sounding equal in audio performance. The FT-8000 are not known for failure and cost $150 to $220 on eBay.
- ...
- 79 posts total
I listen to about 3 hours of FM each weekday. I have 3 tuners in the house. - Magnum Dynalab MD108T - Sansui TU9900 - Accuphase T-101 The MD sounds the best but the 2 vintage units are not far behind. The Accuphase was customized by a tuner genius in Santa Monica. If I had gotten that first I would not have gotten the much more expensive (and new) MD 108T. I also use the MD-ST2 and MD-ST3 indoor antennas along with the MD Signal Sleuth. The antennas are essential, and the Sleuth does improve the signal. I am very close to the Pacific Ocean with mountains to the east of me. I have compared the MP3 versions of the FM station streams, and it is much worse in quality to the over the air FM signal I get. I have been listening to radio of about 50 years and the sound I am getting today is the best I ever heard. A function of the station (KCRW) and my gear. I also heard the HD Radio stream of my fav station with the great little Sony XDR-F1HD (modded). The over the air HD radio was WORSE than the online MP3 stream, which was worse than the over the air FM signal. The Sony XDR-F1HD had the very best FM reception of all my tuners. With a very good RCA interconnect it was almost as good as the Sansui (comparing only FM not HD)i. I gave away the Sony.
|
@dynacohum I to have a line of site to HRB along with ERS, CRB, JIB all of which are non-commercial and or listener supported and play any kind of music you might be into with exceptional sound quality. I’m currently receiving with a Magnum Dynalab MD90 which I bought new a few years back from Audio Advisor. The sound on most days is almost as good as any of the physical media I listen to, quiet, tuneful with great imaging I might add and I pull it all in with the aforementioned Radio Shack amplified antenna I’ve had for thirty something years. I’ve had HH Scott, McIntosh and a Pro-Ject Tuner Box S in here all with great results. I think were still quite lucky to have great FM available to us in the Boston area. I love crustycoot's collection of gear! You need to post more pictures of his and your systems!
|
- 79 posts total