FM Tuners

I use a Pioneer F-90 into a passive volume control to a EL84 SE amp. The sound is nice. I remember that when I got it I had seen somewhere that it was voted the 22 best tuner. From where I am some FM stations sound very good, even better than the Internet/raspberry pie/hifi-berry combo I also use for de-materialized music.

This thread inspired me to buy a $10 antenna

Amazon.com: Bingfu 75 Ohm FM Antenna and AM Loop Antenna for Pioneer Onkyo Yamaha Marantz Indoor HD Radio FM Radio Bluetooth Home Stereo Receiver AV Audio Vedio Home Theater Receiver Power : Electronics

and put my Sony XDR-F1HD back in on my office system. This tuner has regular FM and HD FM which is useful when my fav station does news. They basically re-read, NYT, WSJ, etc. Their HD frequency is 24 hours of music (but not as interesting as the DJ based regular programming).

The reception with this antenna is amazing. As I stated above, the best reception I have on my 4 tuners is with this Sony.

Anyways, this Sony is such a good tuner. Ebay has them listed for under $150. I have mine modified by the XDRGuy.com so maybe why this sounds so good. There is a switch in the back that the XDRGuy added that has a big difference in sound. I need to read up on what that switch does, but I think one setting is his mods.

The mods were only a few hundred dollars. I think I paid under $500 long ago for the tuner and mods as a package.

@yyzsantabarbara 

Thanks!  I would so love to take a listen to that Accuphase, but the explosion fallout I'll experience when I bring it home, haha - let's just say I really don't like sleeping on the couch. 😁

@imaninatural 

I'd hate to keep plugging it, but definitely would still recommend if you can stretch that budget (hey - I could always share some distant company sleeping on the couch, LOL) up to the $400-$450 with an MD.  That would make the search much easier.  However, if budget is a hard constraint, there are plenty of great recommendations on this thread - the problem will be finding one that meets your sensitivity/selectivity and sound quality needs.

BTW - I ran out of RCA cables so I temporarily swapped one from my Musetec 005 DAC to the Sony and this Sony sounds better than I have ever heard. I have always used RCA cables costing less than $100 on the Sony but now I think I will have to keep this Audience AU24 SE RCA on the Sony. The cable costs more than the modded Sony.

Modded Tuners For Sale (xdrguy.com)

When I first thought about a tuner, I didn't expect too much variation in quality. I was mistaken for sure and now that I know more about some of the differences it is hard to settle for less than a good match for my current system. It seems that I always end up paying a little more than I expected, and I suspect that I am not alone!

I've really enjoyed reading all these posts and look forward to them!

Thank you