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The huge vintage tuner thread

That's the award I was going for, Johan.

With the lights off, the green and red glow from the McIntosh combined with the glowing tubes of my conrad-johnson amp looks (and sounds) just fantastic.
 
Stevie A said:
Hi Ross,

In what way do the tuners you now own better/differ from your departed nat 01?
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The NAT01 was a fine tuner, but nothing out of the ordinary. It had limited bass depth and was rather two dimensional. It was better than the Quad FM4, but probably not as good as the Yamaha T-1, which had a sweeter sound and was much, much cheaper second hand. The T-107 on the other hand sounds clearly better than the 01 in every respect, deeper bass, and tighter, faster highs, three dimensionality, blacker background (all those hi fi things) as well as a more solid sound and a more natural sound. The McIntosh has similar attributes, although it has subterranean bass and its ability to produce accurate tonality means that it sounds frighteningly real, especially with announcer's voices, which have more of the "in the room" presence than I have heard with any tuner.
 
Well, my new toy has just arrived. A little re-arranging of the system, some fiddling with a crude dipole aerial and voila!

IMG_1201.jpg


The sound - excellent!

The matching SA-9500 amp (how shallow I am!)is on it's way from the states. Will be interesting to see how it compares to my trusty Nait.

Cheers

Adrian
 
On this ' Tuner ' thread, I always had good performances from Sony models, as long as you had a well sited FM aerial. My first was an ST80F. I liked the sound and the design. It later became an ST88 to match the TA88 amp. Never owned one of those... My best Sony model was a ST3950. That sounded fabulous and I loved the operation and readout, with an LED in the tuning cursor to show correct tuning. Susequent Quad models and Denon worked well , but didn't have that Sony ' magic' . The Quad FM4 gave a good performance, but to be honest my favourite of all time was the original Acoustical/Quad FM 1. Just waiting whilst the valves warmed up and listening in a darkened room took me back to old radios from the '50s and ' Journey into Space ' .
 
Fear not, Martyn, your very FM1 is still doing a sterling job here; it is just delightful - and sounds fantastic on its new PSU.

Now - this week's journeys have brought yet another tuner into the household; the matching Quad AM2, serial no. 4824 (1962). It's immaculate, having spent many years in a loft in its original packaging! Here it is with the Acoustical FM1:

AM2.jpg


I cannot wait to listen to Test Match Special, broadcast to the Colonies on 1500metres.
 
Today I received another huge vintage tuner to add to my collection, to keep my McIntosh MR74 company.



It is an Accuphase T-101 in excellent condition, with not even a scratch. So far it sounds excellent, even better than the Mac (which is already a stunning tuner), and a lot more sensitive as well. I will also have to compare it with the Accuphase T-107 digital tuner in the other system.
 
RossB said:
I just picked up this McIntosh MR74 to add to my collection of Accuphase T-107, Meridian 204, and Yamaha T-1 (after selling the NAT01 and the Quad FM4, two overrated pieces of equipment).

The McIntosh is in excellent condition and sounds superb, although I may have a bit of work done on it once the novelty has worn off (such as replacing the tarnished RCAs and the skinny power cable, replacing the caps etc).

55_3.JPG
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I was wondering about the date of the introduction of these:
NAT01/02 (I think the 01 was 1986)
Meridian 204
Quad FM4

- how would you compare them exactly?
 
Anyone ever try the AR FM Tuner? Produced in the late sixties by Acoustic Research, they were the cat's meow here in the states with only 1.6 µV of signal required for 50dB of quieting. Like an idiot, I sold mine before I had a really good hifi to hear its capabilities.

regards,

dave
 
I was wondering about the date of the introduction of these:
NAT01/02
Click to expand...

I think I had the first NAT02 in London. I remember telephoning all the London dealers after I read a review by (I think) Chris Frankland in HIFi Review. The only shop that would take my order was a young upstart - the cornflake shop Windmill St. I collected the Nat02 5th April '89. It cost £698!

I still have it.


Cheers,


DV
 
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