The best sounding FM Tuner is.....

cant use another 3001a. sorry

Sedond, (or anyone with "a lot" of tuner experience) do you care to say which is your favorite tuner, stock or modified, for best sound and reception.
I have been looking for something better than my Mac MR-78 which I have had for over 15 years. It sounds excellent to me (I may have a good one) but "they" say others can sound better. I also need great reception to pick up the stations I like.

Thanks for any responses.
Martin

hi martin,

i dunno how to say this w/o being sorta insulting, but i cannot imagine *any* of the tunas i've listened to over the past coupla years that *don't* sound better than the mr78. reception, on the other hand, is a different story. the mr78 is acknowledged to be one of the best out there.

mind you, i have never heard the mr78. ;~) *but*, i *have* owned an mr77, which i had completely refurb'd. and the mr77 & mr74 are acknowledged by mcintosh afficianados to be the best sounding mcintosh s/s tunas. even richard modaferri, designer of both the mr77 & the mr78, has stated a properly aligned mr77 will sound better than even a modaferri-modded mr78. this info was related on the yahoo fmtuner forum.

so, i base my opinion of the mr78's sonics on my experience w/my refurb'd mr77. the mr77 was the *only* tuna out of a couple dozen i have owned over tha past coupla years that i would *not* be happy to have as my only tuna for sonic bliss. it had a flat soundstage, and lack of detail. it *was* sensitive, tho.

my fave tuna, for both sonics *and* sensitivity, is my modded harmon kardon citation-18. this guy yust does everything right sonically, *and* it's a signal hawk. other tunas i would recommend for sonics *and* reception, (my personal "class-a" list), include the nikko gamma 1, technics st-9030, accuphase t101, rotel rt-2100, mitsubishi da-f20, sumo aurora, roksan caspian, pioneer f-91, philips ah673, modded kenwood kt7500/kt8300, sony st es730s. these are the ones that make my personal class-a ranking for both sonics *and* reception.

others that make the reception grade, but are a tiny hair off the pace sonically, include the sansui tu-9900/tu-517/tu-717/tu-719, refurb'd tandberg 3001a, yamaha t-2, onix bwd-1 w/soap-2, revox b261/b760. note the sonic differences here are so slight that they'd be noticable w/my "class-a" list *only* in direct a-b comparison. any of these i could *easily* be satisfied with for long term listening. the difference here really *are* tiny.

then, there's the tunas that i consider class-a for sound, but a hair off the pace for reception. these would include the luxman t12, sumo charlie w/rack handles (non-rack-handle units not being aligned by its designer james bongiorno), philips 185.

also, an important note. except for the tunas i have noted as being refurb'd/modded, all these have had no recent work afaik. a proper refurb/alignment could easily have a major sonic/reception impact on these (or any) tunas.

the mr77 i owned, tho wery sensitive, yust dint sound good to me at all. my modded mcintosh mr65b tubed tuna, on the other hand, sounds great - in my class-b category, knocking on class-a's door. but you better be able to *see* the tower of the radio station yure trying to get! ;~)

regards,

doug s.

Hi doug,
Thanks for such a complete response!
Guess I need to hear more tuners!
Certainly no offense taken.
I'll do some research and try to pick up a selection from your lists for a listen.

I did buy a Kenwood 9900 with intentions to have APS modify it but it sounded thin and raspy, and I was afraid it didn't have the potential for greatness. I may have been too quick to judge.

Do you care to say who you would recommend for mods?

It's very helpful to get your opinion, in contrast to the ones on fmtunerinfo.com, since you have such extensive tuner experience.

Thanks again.
Regards,
Martin

hi martin,

i also forgot to mention the hitachi ht-8000 - another cheapie tuna that sounds fantastic, & has excellent sensitivity.

re: the kenwood kt-9900, i agree it is a miserable sounding unit stock - i owned one & was extremely disappointed. but, gawd, was it pretty! :>) i recommend it for mods, cuz the modded kt7550 i owned, (which isn't nearly as good stock as the kt-9900), was fantastic.

for mods i would recommend joseph chow or bill ammons. ed hanlon of aps does do good work, so i have been told by those i trust, but i, personally, couldn't send him my biz cuz he refused to provide answers to *any* questions you may have about what he does. i attempted to do biz w/him a coupla times, but didn't follow thru, cuz he was so rude to me, and accused me of trying to steal his "trade secrets"!?! the one time i did actually send him a tuna, it also needed repairs; he said he couldn't fix it, so he sent it back. the guy i sold it to was able to get it fixed no problem.

joseph chow adwertizes on agon. here's his website:

http://www.componentplus.us/pages/upgrades.html

and bill ammons' info can be found on the fmtunerinfo.com site. one caveat about mr. chow - you have to specifically ask him to replace & match the filters, it's not part of his normal procedure. (unless he's since changed this.)

bill ammons is *the man* when it comes to tuna, imo. i have also had decent results from stephen sank, who did my mr65b & hk citation 18, but i don't think he does filter matching/replacing, either... and, he takes *forever*.

regards,

doug s.