I am looking for a tuner that has GREAT reception and an analog sound. Perhaps, with tubes as is my other equiptment. Thank you for your, highly regarded, advise!
I have the Marantz 20B, Sansui 919, Sansui 9900, Kenwood L-01 and L-02 and have heard most of the other great tuners. By far the best I have ever heard is the Kenwood L-02 in about every respect.
Have a accuphase T 101 but better to have a Kenwood or sansui or Mac. Comparing f.e. kenwood 8100 with the T 101 choice is easy.This T101 is much too light the T100 too dark in sound.Accuphase is for the name and outside attractive that´s it. Kenwood or Sansui Macs a.o. much better balanced for all kind of music.Have upgraded tuners and the result with a kenwood or sansui is a joy. No accuph.can match them but need be upgraded. They better the sound of cd-player(sony 707/505es).An older analoque tuner-good quality original-is with an upgrade unbeatable..
Don't over look Accuphase T100's and T101's. They are outstanding and built like a tank. I picked one up on Audiogon a couple of years ago based on the writeup in FM tunerinfo.com. It was better than I expected and much better than any previous tuner I had owned. Excellent front end and very neutral and balanced sound, much like very high quality tube gear, not thin and washed out like a lot of the more recent tuners.
2nd on tunerinfo.com Lots of great analog tuners to be had cheap on ebay! Sansuis & Luxmans in addition to the already mentioned Mac and Scotts. Cheers, Spencer
for tube tuners, budget is a factor... the scott 350's can occasionally be found for cheap and sound great. the mac mr-71 was the last (and considered the best) of their tube tuners and sounds gorgeous but costs a lot more (unless you're ok with a cosmetically flawed one since the collectors pay $$$ for perfect cosmetics). with any tube tuner, make sure you have access to a tech who can align it. The older ones will probably need it to sound their best.
The best is the Marantz 10b. after that Tandberg 3001a, Macintosh 78, 80, Top Magnum Dynalab. There are other great lower priced tuners(Tandberg 3011a,Carver TX11a, Luxman T110, Pioneer 9100).
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