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Best tuner ever made?

Thanks abbydog. I didn't think I'd win that T-2 tbh. I just put in a maximum bid of £100 and bingo! I thought it would go higher. It makes up for a previous tuner purchase from Germany, a Denon TU-800, that was DOA because the seller hadn't packed it properly. Thankfully I got a refund on it and used the money to get the T-2, so it all worked out for the best.

I've also heard that some consider the T-2 up there with the CT-7000. However, the TIC Ricochet write-up mentions a lot of variability between individual examples. Luckily, the one I got seems to be a very good one, so perhaps it does sound as good as a CT-7000. It wouldn't surprise me. It has exceeded my expectations.

I have the FM2002 in my watch list as I'm interested to see how much it sells for. Way out of my league unfortunately...

Regards,
Nick
 
When it comes to very good tuners, I find its quite system dependent anyway (which is a really boring thing to say, but nevertheless true). I'm quite tuner mad and it doesn't cost that much to swap and change, so try to find the right tuner to match a system. They're lovely things and there are few areas of hi-fi left where tens or hundreds, rather than thousands, can get you pretty much to the top of the tree.

If you find one you really, really like, a service and alignment is definitely worth it if you find a good tech.
 
Does anybody have experience with simple Audio Note T zero tuner?
I have Mcintosh Mr67, nakamichi ST2 and couple of others but would like to get something small and recent (aligned) for bedroom listening (yep it came to THAT;)
 
Nick_G said:
Thanks abbydog. I didn't think I'd win that T-2 tbh. I just put in a maximum bid of £100 and bingo! I thought it would go higher. It makes up for a previous tuner purchase from Germany, a Denon TU-800, that was DOA because the seller hadn't packed it properly. Thankfully I got a refund on it and used the money to get the T-2, so it all worked out for the best.

I've also heard that some consider the T-2 up there with the CT-7000. However, the TIC Ricochet write-up mentions a lot of variability between individual examples. Luckily, the one I got seems to be a very good one, so perhaps it does sound as good as a CT-7000. It wouldn't surprise me. It has exceeded my expectations.
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Excellent point, that 30 year old super tuna might be a dried out old prune. These things need servicing, especially valves- my 48 year old Troughline has had much fluffing over the years to keep it sounding nice.
Regards,
 
TheDecameron said:
Excellent point, that 30 year old super tuna might be a dried out old prune. These things need servicing, especially valves- my 48 year old Troughline has had much fluffing over the years to keep it sounding nice.
Regards,
Click to expand...

I don't plan to get the T-2 aligned at the moment as it performs so well. I would guess it is up to spec judging from the sonics and reception capabilities.

Regards,
Nick
 
What a total waste of time this discussion is, none of these tuners have got any kilobites init?

I have a nice Creek, gets used most days, no aerial required - once plugged a big bit of speaker cable (NACA5 ;-)) in just to try it out and tuned a station 70 miles away like it was in the back garden. That's from in a city and I'm not top floor. So can recommend trying for those with tricky locations.

Also have an Onkyo Integra which is ok and an FM4 - used least.
 
trancera said:
Also have an Onkyo Integra which is ok and an FM4 - used least.
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The Quad FM4 is a funny one.
A lot of people say very bad things about it, often they say that it has no bass.

When I was going through my tuner phase I got one and I thought it was dreadful, the worst tuner I tried. Amongst other things - no bass, like everyone says.
But I liked the FM3 a lot.

More recently I have tried an FM4 again into a Quad pre-amp, and it is excellent.
So it seems that it is fussy about the pre-amp it is working into.
 
abbydog said:
I don't disagree with this but please don't disregard some of the very good European tuners. I'm trying to get my hands on a nice Klein + Hummel FM2002 at the moment. Heard one briefly and it was excellent. The Burmesters are expensive although extremely good while I like the Revox 760 and 261. The latter is a little under the radar here but can be exceptional and does not carry the premium of the 760, or the bloody Nextel. Some of the Restek, Wienschoff and Wega stuff that crops up on ebay.de also looks interesting.
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Never played with any high-end European tuners.
Would quite like a nice 760 though to go with the B77.
Basically, if it has lots of button, lights and (especially) meters I'll buy it :)

Some of the best Tandbergs look interesting too.
 
Jowcol said:
The Quad FM4 is a funny one.
A lot of people say very bad things about it, often they say that it has no bass.

When I was going through my tuner phase I got one and I thought it was dreadful, the worst tuner I tried. Amongst other things - no bass, like everyone says.
But I liked the FM3 a lot.

More recently I have tried an FM4 again into a Quad pre-amp, and it is excellent.
So it seems that it is fussy about the pre-amp it is working into.
Click to expand...

It has small poly caps (220nf IIRC) in line with it's output and needs to see nothing lower lower than 50k on the input impedance of the pre amp. The impedance on the Quad pre is 100k, so no audible bass roll-off and better sound. Most SS pre amps these days are 20k or lower and therefore sound bad with the stock FM4.

Replace these with 1-3uf caps and it will work great into any amp.
 
Robert said:
It has small poly caps (220nf IIRC) in line with it's output and needs to see nothing lower lower than 50k on the input impedance of the pre amp. The impedance on the Quad pre is 100k, so no audible bass roll-off and better sound. Most SS pre amps these days are 20k or lower and therefore sound bad with the stock FM4.

Replace these with 1-3uf caps and it will work great into any amp.
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Yes; there is enough room under the PC board for a couple of 2.2uf metalized film caps and this is what I did to my QUAD FM3. Like ROB says, shunting the original output caps means the FM3 can do bass into any load.

My Little QUAD FM3 sounds quite respectable into just about any load. It doesn’t look like the stuff of ultra high-end dreams but given the quality of most FM broadcasts (even the Posh classical live to air broadcasts), its performance is more than anyone could ask for and the little FM3 just looks so cute.

I sold my first “79 build” FM3 after 10 years of faithful service. It took me a month to regret selling it and 2 years later I found my second “late 75 build” FM3 and this one wont be leaving my collection of gear – ever.

LPSPinner
 
stevec67 said:
A Leak Troughline with a decent aerial and an aftermarket FM stereo decoder is up there with the best. Maybe THE best. You do have to restore a number of them though, they are 40 years old after all.
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Yup. The crappy stereo decoder in the Troughline stereo (Germanium transistors!) is not up to much. Bought mine a few years ago. One short circuit electrolytic in the decoder, but alas, Mr Twiddle had got there before me and 're-trimmed' everything coz the fairies had obviously been in one night and made their own adjustments. Replaced the 'lytic but no idea how to align it. The Troughie seems to need a direct wired connection to the transmitter for decent signal strength but...

....the sound is to die for! Especially the bass.

A while ago Tim De Paravichini did an offboard decoder for this tuner? Looking for the circuit. Any ideas?
 
Any of Pioneer's TOTL multiple IF Bandwidth AM/FM Tuners like the F-93 (ignore what you read on the Tuner group-they were carrying water for "some" folks not liking that it mowed down a Day-Sequerra in that Stereophile review), TX-9500 II, TX-9800 are as good as anything else I own (well over a dozen tuners, including an MR78) or have worked on/heard. The one sympathy I have for that decidedly problematic Tuner page (I'm a member, btw) is it's the BROADCAST end that (like Colonel Colt with making Men equal) creates the biggest differences in what one hears on Terrestrial FM. The 93, 9500 II, 9800 (it's less well shielded, but aligned they're all RF monsters) and MR78 are my reference standards. I do my own alignments and when aligned they all hang with the best I've used. Good luck with your search. If money's an issue, the F-90 isn't bad, but it doesn't belong as high up on that list as it's been placed. I'd swap the 90 and 99x for the 9500II and the 9800 and put the 93 somewhere in the top dozen or so. Once again, personal biases/preferences will shuffle those top two dozen with little else to which to attribute statistical differences. Being rare and expensive won't make a tuner automatically better. NOT being rare or expensive doesn't automatically make a nameplate bad. Common sense can save your bank balance if you'll just let it...
 
I like the sound from a Trio KT 917 FM tuner as well as the Trio 600T, really enjoyed a Yamaha T2 tuner that also sounds very nice but sold it to a fisher on here a while ago. There are so many good tuners out there and with good alignment and a service they sound quite good but add a decent ariel to make them really sing.
 
I had a Accuphase T1000 a couple of years ago which was exceptional talk of FM switch off made me sell it,wished I hadn’t now.
 
What about a Sony ST88 tuner?
Maybe not high end but pure joy to use and look to. Today were fm is mp3 over the air it’s decent enough for me :)
 
An important point with tuners is that many of them use the same IC's front, end modules and quadrature transformers so a certain sameness to most of them is to be expected...

The combination of a CA3089 IF and quadrature IC, MC1310P stereo decoder (and/or the many equivalent parts) and Toko quadrature coil was/is found in probably 80% of solid state tuners from around early 70's to this day;)
 
_webwasher said:
What about a Sony ST88 tuner?
Maybe not high end but pure joy to use and look to. Today were fm is mp3 over the air it’s decent enough for me :)
Click to expand...

I had one of them, together with an ST88 Amp in the Seventies. They weren't the highest fidelity, but as you have said they were great to look at and use.

Jack

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