Why spend megabucks on a tuner?

Much depends on one's musical preferences and what is available locally in FM broadcasts. I live in the Boston area, which has a number of tunable stations, including university and college stations that are less compressed than some commercial stations. And it is a treat to listen to live broadcasts of the Boston Symphony. An FM tuner is a very important and pleasureable part of my system.

You don't have to live in a big city. Eugene, OR has 4 terrific FM stations, all public and locally owned.

KLCC is owned by Lane Community College, is the NPR station, plays an eclectic mix every weekday with specialty shows all nights and weekends.

KRVM is owned by the Eugene 4J school district, has student DJs every weekday, and specialty shows with adult DJs weeknights and weekends. KRVM was the 13th FM station in the US and the first in the Pacific Northwest. They're celebrating they're 60th anniversary this weekend.

KWAX is owned by the University of Oregon and is all classical, all the time, one of the few left. An incredible joy to listen to.

KWVA is also owned by UO, and is the student station. 24/7 college craziness, and I mean that with all love, as I used to be on their board of directors. :-)

KWAX and KWVA don't compress, and I don't think the other two do either. They all stream, so you can catch them wherever you live. During my Year in New York they were my lifeline.

So I have a modded Yamaha T-1 and a Pioneer TX-8500MkII, because I have great stations to listen to. They aren't megabuck, but neither is the rest of my system. Those who, like me, have great stations and megabuck systems probably have megabuck tuners. Lucky them!

David

I have just now replaced an accuphase T-105 with an accuphase T-101, bought for about 350 usd. Wow, what a difference, even on highly compressed pop-stations. One do not have to spend megabucks on FM-tuner, but it is worth to buy a good old analog tuner. I listen a lot FM-tuner, mostly a local classical music radio-station. Live concert broadcasts are really very nice and very enjoyable. Life broadcast has somehow more soul than many extensively processed lifeless cds.

You don't have to pay mega dollars for a great tuner. I have found in thrift's and even on craigs list thoughout the years good finds on the cheap. My first find while in NYC was a Mitsubishi DA-F20 tuner going for the price of 25.00 the cab ride home cost almost the same. My next find was at a mission thrift in Pensacola Fl, a mint Kenwood 8300 tuner for a price for 20.00 the only issue was that they wrote the price on the top case in a thick white paint that I finally scrubed off very gingerly. Take your time and hunt around and on your travels you never know the great deals out there.

i spent micro-bucks on my tivoli #3 radio. i added the stereo speaker, and split the subwoofer output in two so i have two sub's as well. i have this four piece system arranged on either side of my bed. i get alot of stations, especially late at night, by moving the tuning knob VERY slowly across the dial. we have two university based stations, NPR, an indie-jazz station, and just got a 24/7 classical station with a VERY strong and clean signal (miami,fla.). i am partially disabled, so after dinner and cleaning up the kitchen i am VERY tired, and brush my teeth and lie down for a nap. when i wake up there are my half-dozen primo stations to choose from, with ALOT, trust me on this, to listen to- specialty radio shows from news, music, music commentary, record reviews, beethoven, prog-rock, heavy metal, the BBC... i could go on and on. one guy does big band from the late 30's thru' the early 60's, with alot of recorded radio shows from the 40's and 50's. if i get bored with his show i switch over to WVUM and listen to Ornette Coleman, Mingus, etc.
the classical station plays a million peices i never heard of before, so this is a literal gold mine.
as for expensive tuners, i would have to agree that all you want is good reception, not dynamics and detail which is apparantly not there. but don't let that stop you from expanding your musical vocabulary. my radio has paid for itself a hundred times over, unlike my gigantic system in the living room- i just laid out $3,000 to repair a mono-block amp. my last amps went back to the manufacturer
3 times. my transport has been repaired twice. the system is so sensitive to a drop or surge in power, let alone "musicality", that i hold my breath every time FP&L starts playing with their transformers- which is quite often.
meanwhile every OTHER electrical device in the house hums along just fine. but definitely get a "nice" radio and check out what's available in your area (unless you live in northern Montana, but then again they may have some good stations too).