$500-600 Used Tuner

If you can get by without remote control, you are in for a pleasant surprize. At $500-600 used there are so many excellent choices it will be difficult to pick the absolute best. Most of the best will be tubes in my opinion. McIntosh, HH Scott, Fisher, etc. I am using a modified Dyna FM3 that is wonderful and quite inexpensive. Good listening! Don

I agree with Magnum Dynalab FT-101A. I owned one new then upgraded to MD-100. Huge improvement, but retails for $1,600. Older Kenwood tuners, especially the KT-7500 or KT-8300 rival the Magnum models. These 2 are always on eBay for $150-400. I've used a KT-7500 for many years in a secondary ststem. It plays FM perfectly, almost as good as the MD-100. The key to FM enjoyment is a quality antenna. I use the Magnum Dynalab ST-2 indoor/outdoor antenna. I live in Pittsburgh, PA and do not have any reception problems with any local stations. We are lucky to have 3 Public Radio stations. WQED, WDUQ, and WYEP. One is classical, one is jazz and one is free-form music.

Good posts above.Dont forget the Mcintosh tuners.
I had a MINT MR-74 that smoked every other tuner I had heard.I paid $500 for it from a dealer.I have seen them for as low as $400.The Macs are beautiful pieces and hold their value well.

I purchased a Kenwood KT8005 tuner on Audiogon for $65. It was Kenwood's top of the line in 1973. It is large, heavy and looks gorgeous imho. I had it shipped directly from the seller to Don Scott, who cleaned it, aligned it and upgraded a few internal circuits for approximately $250. It is without a doubt the best value of any piece in my value orientated system. The sound is better than I ever thought possible from radio. It pulls in stations like a champ.

If you are serious about quality radio, I strongly suggest you contact Mr. Scott. He is a man of his word and very helpful.

Regards,
Paul

I just noticed that you failed to mention which late 70's tuner you have.
I thought all the responces here are good, and great ideas. I got a lot of ideas from the tuner info site. There are a LOT of tuners to choose or try to find or mess around with.
I have a sunsui tu-717 sitting on top of a accuphase t-101 right now. I much prefer the sound of the accuphase to the sunsui, but I can see where some might prefer a fully alighned and modified sansui to it. (just as some here have stated their preference over the magmun dynalabs).
The mac's are HIGHLY regarded, but then that throws in more complications/debate, as many fans of others state their preference over mac's.
And as many of these great tuners sound different, and have different strenghts, what is really cool is that , as stated above, is that there are some lines that have lesser tuners in the 50-150$ price range that sound almost as good, depending on what you want or need.
I guess what I am trying to say is that perhaps if you stated what you have and what perhaps you are trying to achieve that might make this thread really come together.