Meridian 504. I did nor include this tuner on list as it is very rare for sale. It is a very good sounding tuner rated in top 13 on fmtunersinfo.com. I think it is better than top 13 as it replaced a Hitachi FT-8000 that is in top 10 and an audiophile used the FT-8000 to replace a top 5 tuner (Sansui). Both tuners sound about identical. The Meriden has better receiver sensitivity thus replaced the FT-8000. I live in a fridge FM reception area thus for most the FT-8000 is sensitive enough. I highly recommend this Meridian 504 tuner.
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.
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- 79 posts total
- 79 posts total