Are tuners getting worse?

Very good point. There is so much more RF pollution that wasn't there 20 years ago. But A/V units made nowadays do not come equipped with the electronics necessary to weed thru the noise and pull in AM/FM stations. They put everything on one cheap IC. One of the better tuners I've always liked is the Kenwood KT6500. Doesn't really look like much but attach a $3 fm antenna and 3 inch piece of wire for AM and you'll have very few problems picking up stations. BTW, the best radio I have for AM is a transistor radio I found years ago. Actually uses a 9 volt battery so only have to change it once a year! Gets AM/FM and VHF channels 2-13. Use it constantly when outside.

Your other posts are right about the appalling quality of many FM broadcasts and the availability of FM chipsets causing most non-esoteric tuners to sound much the same. However, a lot of the "classic" tuners of the 70s/80s use pretty dire internal components and of course are beginning to suffer from problems caused by dry joints and failing internals - not to mention burnt-out dial lights. I'm not knocking old tuners (I use a Quad FM4) indeed I'd like to try a Yamaha CT7000 or a Pioneer 9500TX to see if it's an improvement, but probably I'd find a Naim NAT01 better than both (at a price, of course...) In the UK we have a more fundamental problem called Digital Radio - the Government is trying to free up the airwaves to sell off to mobile phone companies and the BBC is supposed to switch from analogue to digital broadcasting at some undefined point in the future. This will make all our lovely analogue tuners totally useless - old, new, cheap and Day Sequerra! The problem is that there will be no compensation and obviously our kit will be valueless on the 2nd-hand market. And at the moment, digital radio is supposed to sound like early CD - enough said. You think YOU'VE got problems, try living over here!

Michael Creek uses a Car Stereo FM Chipset. He claims that is where its at for a resonable price. A lot of people want great car FM, so that is where the new research is.

Take a look at this model on Ebay sometime. Its a beauty, I cant imagine anyone who would not like it. All the stuff from 20 Years Ago Ruled. I dont have much interest in todays hi fi - every typical receiver I see, for example, looks like a cheap black plastic vcr - Boring!

I disagree, in part, with Satch. His argument about RF pollution is correct with respect that large corporation owned FM stations (those that own many top pop 40 stations for example) deliberately compress the signal so it sounds like garbage, if another station within the 1Mhz or 2 of your station is strong or close to you it can have an influence but not if it is farther than that unless it is very very strong. If you listen to a good local fine arts station through an outside antenna connected to a good tuner it will sound great. Very very very close to CD sound. But just like the argument about the poor not being educated so that is why they eat bad foods is wrong. They are educated it is their source about foods is bad. It is called Corporate America. I heard on npr (FM!!) that there is nearly a 100% correlation between the rise of fast food advertizing (education) and the fast food industry and fat related diseases. You really deserve it to your self to find someone with an exceptional tuner and a good FM station (probably are next to none that play the pop stuff) signal to take a listen at what a free music library is all about and as important what democracy is about (I guarantee that across many university FM stations across the country are topics and guests discussing those topics that NO TV station would allow to air).