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Classic Tuners....

foxwelljsly

foxwelljsly

Me too, I ate one sour too.
With the recent Brexit induced house price stagnation, it now looks like we'll be staying put for a while, so I am once again contemplating getting a good external FM aerial and a vintage FM Tuner.

I'm leaning towards a Leak Stereofetic, but wondered what other alternatives might be worth considering.

Troughline? (dubious about the complexity arising from 3rd party multiplex boxes and whether it's actually any better than the Stereofetic)

Quad FM2 or FM3? (know nothing about these)

Something else?

Only criteria is it should be old in appearance, not too enormous, sound great and stereo.

cheers
 
Troughline for me everytime. Once you have heard one via a good aerial its hard to go back to other tuners
 
What are you planning to hook it up to? The Quad FM 2/3 are cute as a cute thing, but has very low output and is far from sensitive. I have a FM3 but to my mind it really only makes sense with the 33. I’m using a lovely big silver 1973 Sony ST-5150 in the upstairs system as it makes far more sense in a modern line level scenario, plus is rather more sensitive (I can get R3 at full signal strength with just an indoir aerial).
 
Stereofetic is a pretty decent performer,by UK classic tuner tuner standards anyway, certainly much better than the Troughline IMO. It and the Quad FM3 were contemporary with the Leak a tad more expensive IIRC.
 
Look out for a Yamaha CT7000, regarded as one of the best tuners ever made, with great retro looks & amazing build quality but pretty rare (I own 2 of them).
 
Tony L said:
What are you planning to hook it up to? The Quad FM 2/3 are cute as a cute thing, but has very low output and is far from sensitive. I have a FM3 but to my mind it really only makes sense with the 33. I’m using a lovely big silver 1973 Sony ST-5150 in the upstairs system as it makes far more sense in a modern line level scenario, plus is rather more sensitive (I can get R3 at full signal strength with just an indoir aerial).
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It'll be running into an analogue line level input on a Linn Akurate 0, which has variable gain. It's unlikely to get a huge amount of use, but I like the idea of a really good vintage FM tuner on the rack next to all my shiny silver modern gear.

A massive Jap tuner is out of the question, I only have rack space for something the size of the quad or the Leak or smaller.

Incidentally, I love the look of the NAT 101, but I suspect it's vastly overpriced on the S/H market, it requires a dedicated separate power supply and isn't terribly good.
 
The Quad is cool, just be aware it is quiet as it is DIN level and doesn’t have an on/off switch. An FM4 might be a little easier to live with in a non-Quad system, but beware the leaky battery.
 
I haven't tried one but the Onix BWD 1 is supposed to be excellent. They come with a separate power supply box (SOAP) like the NAT 01/101. Similar small form factor too.
 
Any of the top of the range Jap tuners from the early 70s through to the yen-induced cost-cutting of the early 80s take some beating - Yamaha, Pioneer, Kenwood/Trio, Accuphase, Sony etc all made great tuners which are better than recent digital efforts. Have a look at The Vintage Knob and the Tuner Information Centre site for a general guide, though some quibble with the standings the information is very good. Also check the best of Europe’s models from Studer/Revox, Tandberg etc plus the top American stuff. Of the tuners I still have, my favourites are the McIntosh MR78, Marantz 2130, Yamaha CT7000 (just amazing build), Sony 5950SD and Pioneer 9100. Sorry, UK stuff doesn’t cut it and, sadly, BBC radio in both quality and content is in decline.
 
Just to poke an oar in: Consider the Armstrong 623 or 624. :) I'd guess these are cheap because most people don't even think of them. In practice, though, I suspect far more tuner-amps than tuners were sold.
 
Tony L said:
The Quad is cool, just be aware it is quiet as it is DIN level and doesn’t have an on/off switch. An FM4 might be a little easier to live with in a non-Quad system, but beware the leaky battery.
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Some Quad tuners need the output capacitors changing to suit <100k input amplifiers or you lose bass
 
Tandberg tuners are very good and worth looking at and another possibility is the Leak 2000 series tuner. Avoid the 2000 series amps though!
As Jim said, the Armstrong 600 series tuners also good. Sugden R51 another option.
 
foxwelljsly said:
Incidentally, I love the look of the NAT 101, but I suspect it's vastly overpriced on the S/H market, it requires a dedicated separate power supply and isn't terribly good.
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The 101 was usually sold with its partnering SNAPS, although it can be run from a hicap or any of Naim's power supplies - it's dead easy to dual-rail and use the whole hicap rather than the single rail it has by default. Being an all-analogue design it just needs the power supply setting to a very specific voltage. The bulbs used to die regularly but an simple LED upgrade fixes this.

Apart from that it's a really fun little tuner.
 
scolarest said:
Sorely rue the day I sold one of these:

https://www.meridianlegacy.co.uk/product/meridian-104-tuner-black/

Great little tuner
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Had mine for about 35 years but hadn't considered it classic!
Always thought it sounded great but recent upgrades to speakers and amplifier have shown just how good it is.
I make a point of tuning in to radio 2 each Thursday evening for "Bob Harris country" which sounds stunningly good.
Only drawback is limited number of presets (6).
 
Magnum-Dynalab-MD90-1.jpg


I recently unashamedly purchased a brand new Magnum Dynalab MD 90 tuner in a sort of two fingers up to the impending analogue switch off and a slap in the face to common sense and established best practice. Never has the background rustling of the Today programme sounded better.

But, there also exists a number of classic Canadian tuners from the same stable. The FT101A for example or the MD 108. Three VU meters (multi-path, fine tune and signal strength) combined with proper analogue tuning.

Full size though. But look at the meters.


This is also a fun resource - skip to the end for rankings.

http://www.fmtunerinfo.com/shootouts.html

The Revox does look interesting.
 
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