advertisement


Leak tuners

Simon s

pfm Member
Hi

I have managed to get hold of a Leak 'troughline 3' tuner. Does anyone here have experience with these tube based tuners and how often do tubes need to be replaced ? The serial number is 21183 and i am not sure how to date this either. Anyone know an enthusiasts website ?

Cheers

Simon
 
Thanks Ian,

Just need to trawl through the archives. I had a quick listen and it sounded ok
and it looks as if new RCA sockets have been fitted at the back so a service may have been carried out at some point.

Cheers

Simon
 
I'm very happy with a Quad FM1 (see other thread in this room), and wondered about the valve life too. I have a couple of complete sets of replacement valves for the FM1 now and I leave it on permanently out of curiosity (only draws 15W total), albeit with heaters set to 6Vac* in the interest of long life. Since tuners use small-signal tubes usually run in a very conservative way they should last years; I've read that 20yrs + is not unknown. We'll see about that...


Enjoy the Troughline, I'm loving the valve-tuner experience. Had to press the old (PLL tuned) Harmonn TU9200 back into service whilst building a new offboard PSU for the FM1* and I couldn't believe how lifeless it sounded in comparison.

M.

* the one supplied expired early in a spectacularly smelly manner - rectifier failed dead short and killed the transformer :-/
 
Hi Martin,

My Troughline is not in use until i can get a new aerial fitted but from what i heard of it briefly it sounds spectacularly good with R3/4 recordings. I look forward to (re) discovering the joys of radio. Its been a while !

As for valve life its good to hear that they last longer than I thought they would 20years + sounds amazing !

cheers

Simon
 
On the assumption you've got all the info. you need, enjoy your wireless!

I know for a fact that the weak point in these tuners is the stereo decoder (in the stereo models- monos would need an external stereo decoder fitting...).

Hi-Fi World magazine first alerted me to these tuners in, oh, about 1993 and since then have periodically run articles on modern decoders, which can be fitted to the mono T/L2 and mono T/L3 models, externally, or internally on the T/L stereo models.

I remember Tim De Paravicini among others doing a decoder, but it was probably 10 years ago now.

If you did want a modern decoder, you could do a lot worse than speak to Nick at The Emporium: I believe he can fit/supply these.
He also offers a part-ex., your old, unmodded for modified stock.

Anyone interested in a Troughline should also factor in the cost of a decent aerial: your apocryphal "omni in the loft" or "bit of wet string" will NOT work! You must be thinking Ron Smith Galaxy or suchlike, in truth.

I've had my Troughline for about 10 years (in daily use) and it gets switched on/off every day. I haven't had to touch any of the valves so far. Mine is unmodified, although the temptation is definitely there!

BTW, this is the best tuner I've heard (and I work in a hi-fi retail outlet!)
 
My Troughline is still fine on its original valves, so I make that >40 years!
My decoder was built and fitted by Graham Tricker of GT Audio. Rather too expensive, but hard to fault otherwise.
 
i recently aquired a quad fm2 valve tuner , togther with a one thing decoder. The guy i bought it of told me the one thing is one of the best around .

so far , it sounds fantastic even with the "stop gap" aerial , which is a piece of coax i had lying around .

even with the crap aerial i am finding it more than a match for the Meridian cd player ! ..................whats it gong to be like with a decent one ..........maybe it will give the Orbe a run for it money !


try www.onethingaudio.com

bb
 


advertisement


Back
Top