The best sounding FM Tuner is.....

I AM PUTTING MY VOTE IN FOR THE OLDER YAMAHA TUNERS, T85, T80, THEY REALLY LIVE UP TO WHAT THEY SAY ON THE FRONT, "NATURAL SOUND" I NEVER LISTENED TO FM BEFORE MY T85 TUNER BECAUSE IT WAS "JUST RADIO" NOW I CAN TELL WHERE THE DRUMMER HITS THE HIGH HAT AND HOW HARD BY THE DECAY OF THE SOUND. AN OUTSIDE FM ANTENNA REALLYYYYYYYY HELPS.

I own both a Yamaha T-2 FM tuner circa 1978 (bought new for $800.) and a Denon TU-800 AM/FM tuner circa 1989 bought used for 200.(originally sold for 500.-600.). Both these tuners are very sensitive and are available on the used market for reasonable money. The Yamaha is the better of the two. They both have the tube like sound. In fact, I bought the Denon to replace a McIntosh MR-67 tube tuner. The Denon was an A Class tuner according to Stereophile in the late 80s.It is a good tuner but it is not the McIntosh. It doesn't even come close. I have never heard a better sounding tuner than the MR-67.

A second to Gasman's review above. I also have the Fanfare FT-1 using the balanced outputs and am extremely happy. You will think a CD is playing when the reception is strong. This is worth the cost!

my experienceis....... a harmaon kardon citation 15. it sounded like the studio feed. it wasnt that reliable, perhaps the repairer was below standard. when i switched in mono after a repair, left and right channels were out of phase! next...the tuner in the marantz mokdel 19 receiver was excellent. then lately, my friend purhcased a magnum dynalab ft101. he is a dyed in the wool radio afficianado who has worked at a couple of stations (kppc+kpfk), and also instantly hears the copression/limiting schemes used by the different stations. of course he has an fm beam AND a rotator. he has yet to stop raving about the mag-dyn. oh yes, i bought the hk form him.

Without a doubt, the Marantz 10B from the 60's had the lowest distortion, superior quieting, fabulous separation and(too bad!) a need for alignments far too frequently. Not being a big FM fan here in Mpls/St Paul, I never really listened to it very often. The stations here just don't have great audio quality or variety. I sold mine to Audio Classics last year for @ $1100.