What is the best FM tuner with remote tuning?

Well, I have owned the Fanfare FT-1A, I thoroughly enjoyed owning it and the remote is nice, but "none better" is not accurate; I have owned a Sansui TU-717 and curruntly use a Yamaha T-2 and place both above it for performance, but they lack the remote. I do find the Fanfare visually appealing.

Brianmgrarcom, very interesting...I have owned several tuners..inc. the Magnum MD-108, the only remote tunable one I have had was the Classe Tuner-1 which was very good. The interesting part, is that the two tuners I currently own are a Sansui TU-717, which I am about to do some upgrades on, and a Yahama T-2, that recently went belly-up. I did not have the chance to compare the Yamaha and Sansui..can you compare them for me?

Thanks, Jim

Hi Jim,

I will share what I can, which will not be much, my experience with the TU-717 was very little.

The 717 I had only worked on channels above 100, I did fix this later, but because of this I only used it for a very short time. Playing on memory, I think the 717 was a little more open (airy) than the T-2, maybe a bit firmer bottom end. I really like the T-2 b/c of its size, appearance and features, but would gamble that the 717 is a little better, not to mention the 717 is easy to upgrade as you are doing.

In stock form, how did you feel the 717 compared to the MD 108 and Classe? I suspect the 717 modded may be hard to beat.

The Creek is very nice. For a cheaper clone, the Cambridge T500 is the same Creek circuit design at half the price. Not much lost in sound quality if you use a good power cord, and put it on vibrapods...

The remote comes with the Creek, and is an extra $39 to $50 option on the T500, since those with other Cambridge gear can use that remote..

The Cambridge just does not have the manual over-rides of the Creek. Most people just use automatic anyway.

Gotta disagree Brian, but that's what's great about this
hobby! I agree that both the TU-717 and T-2 (especially the
T-2) trounce the Fanfare in DX'ing. No question. If DX'ing
is of primary importance then I'd say a vintage analog tuner
such as those mentioned by Brian is definitely the way to
go. But when receiving medium/strong signals I don't think
either comes close, let alone in the same league. I have not
heard better bass from FM than with the Fanfare locked onto
a strong signal, except maybe the Day-Sequerra Ref. Even the
MD-108 falls short here (although I like it's top-end a
little more).

I use the tuner section of my old Yamaha CR-2040 for my DX sessions. The sensitivity on that thing is crazy. Not the
best sounding tuner but given the distances of the stations
I usually try to bring in with it that point is moot. I'd
say the TU-717 is a little sweeter sounding than the T-2
but not by much.