My Sansui TU-217 is needing a service I think. It stays in tune ok but when I change stations it is not as easy to tune in as it was. Nothing else has changed, signal strength is just as before. What has always been a little bit off is the dial does not quite line up with the station frequency such as BBC R2 instead of 89.9 is just over 90. Is this to do with alignment?
Are there any recommended analogue tuner specialists near Edinburgh?
Thanks
I enjoy a TU-217 here, myself. It gives very little away to my NAT02 on sound quality, whilst having the advantage of far better sensitivity than the Naim. IIRC, I paid roughly $US 1000. plus shipping and customs duty for the NAT02 (used) and $CDN 60. for the Sansui (also used).
Physical alignment of the pointer wrt tuned frequency consists of two relatively minor steps* in what is generally referred to as tuner alignment. Misalignment of the tuning dial pointer relative to a given tuned frequency is but a minor annoyance, whilst voltages to such as the IF coil and/or discriminator coil going off can make an FM tuner sound worse than AM. I had a Marantz tuner given to me (coincidentally by the fellow who I had purchased the matching Sansui AU-217 integrated amp from) that was so far out of alignment that listening to our best FM (CBC over here) made one feel as though one were having a minor stroke (which the CBC can well do on its own these days). I sold it off as needing an alignment and the bloke who came by to collect it thought it sounded fine!
WRT ease of tuning, there are a number of possibilities as to why your tuning has seemingly become more difficult. For one, the centre tuning meter may be out of alignment, meaning that, if you are using it rather than simply listening for best sound reproduction, it may seem as though the tuner has become more difficult to tune, when in fact it is just the centre tuning meter that has gone off relative to a given tuned frequency.
Unfortunatly, one need have a lot of test gear to do a full alignment. Most electronics repair techs don't bother (or haven't a clue) these days. I've never attempted such myself, however, if I did have access to the test gear, I'd certainly give it a go. Service manuals such as those provided by Sansui (and others from 'back in the day') spell this out in great detail.
* Typically aiming for both maximum signal strength meter indication and centre tuning indication at circa 90 and 106MHz frequencies (using an FM standard signal generator as source). Somewhat of a 'Catch-22', as those meters need aligning first.
