$500-600 Used Tuner

Good posts above.Dont forget the Mcintosh tuners.
I had a MINT MR-74 that smoked every other tuner I had heard.I paid $500 for it from a dealer.I have seen them for as low as $400.The Macs are beautiful pieces and hold their value well.

I purchased a Kenwood KT8005 tuner on Audiogon for $65. It was Kenwood's top of the line in 1973. It is large, heavy and looks gorgeous imho. I had it shipped directly from the seller to Don Scott, who cleaned it, aligned it and upgraded a few internal circuits for approximately $250. It is without a doubt the best value of any piece in my value orientated system. The sound is better than I ever thought possible from radio. It pulls in stations like a champ.

If you are serious about quality radio, I strongly suggest you contact Mr. Scott. He is a man of his word and very helpful.

Regards,
Paul

I just noticed that you failed to mention which late 70's tuner you have.
I thought all the responces here are good, and great ideas. I got a lot of ideas from the tuner info site. There are a LOT of tuners to choose or try to find or mess around with.
I have a sunsui tu-717 sitting on top of a accuphase t-101 right now. I much prefer the sound of the accuphase to the sunsui, but I can see where some might prefer a fully alighned and modified sansui to it. (just as some here have stated their preference over the magmun dynalabs).
The mac's are HIGHLY regarded, but then that throws in more complications/debate, as many fans of others state their preference over mac's.
And as many of these great tuners sound different, and have different strenghts, what is really cool is that , as stated above, is that there are some lines that have lesser tuners in the 50-150$ price range that sound almost as good, depending on what you want or need.
I guess what I am trying to say is that perhaps if you stated what you have and what perhaps you are trying to achieve that might make this thread really come together.

I love my MD100 too, but my old NAD 7400 receiver's tuner ($)section (4300?) is a beauty. Chase an old 7100 or 7400 just for this tuner. You'll be surprised! Selectable IF, cancellable noise-filtering, lots of presets, and a big weighted tuning dial! Yum.
Another ($$) is the Audio Refinement Complete Tuner. It's a beauty at about $500 used. Approaching the used MDs, though. ENJOY! Nothing like clean live feeds once in awhile, eh?

Basement, you can see his whole sytem, by clicking his link, he uses an old Sony.

I concur with above, spend time reading on the Tuner Web site.