Best Inexpensive Tuner?

It depends on the tuner. Some tuners can benefit from simple tweaks, others need more work. A simple tweak would be to disconnect an unused something like an antenna outlet. A more involved tweak would be replacing components in the IF strip. Don has experience with many tuners. If anyone is interested email me and I'll send you a before and after of what he did to my Accuphase performance-wise. Don's kind of like a Dr. He needs to examine and apply his experience before he can apply science. But, he doesn't need to give away his secrets!

Again, I have listened to a couple of tuners, and still do not feel this Luxman I have (T 110u) isn't a slouch. I listened to an Accuphase T 100. My friend, and I compared
these two in his living room. We both felt that the bass was a little deeper, and bigger with the T 100, and it might have been a *litlle* richer, but the Luxman's bass was solid, and tight, and deep enough. We both felt the Luxman was crisper in the midrange, and a little more dynamic
I did not go home feeling like I had to have a new tuner. I felt the Luxman was still a very, very rich sound, and not thin like some claim. The soundstages were really indistiguishable, yet I feel the Accuphase would beat the Luxman, but not in every category. Because I like dynamics, I am happy with the Luxman on a good Jazz station, because of the midrange.
A tuner without any IC chips, the Accuphase, I am sure has an edge, but with the newer chips, there seems to be more control, and dynamics. The Accuphase has a huge transformer,
and that is a lot of the reason that the bass is so big, and I have to have good bass, but the Luxman, is a very, very good sounding tuner, and good bass weight, with good control.

Oops!!! I am now buying the Accuphase from my buddy, who was disappointed with the Accuphase, but after listening to
this a little more, I will have to conclude, that it may be a whole 'nother level of sound quality. I don't want to altogether compare, because both are very nice sounding. I tend to look for break neck dynamics, but I can see that, that isn't the criteria. The separation, timbral accuracy, tonality, deep bass, and 3 dimensional sound, are definitely there. I keep thinking I have a trained ear, but I get along better when I just realize I really don't know.