Adcom GFT-1A Digital Tuner ? how good?


Anyone have experence with this tuner? How would u rate it?
jazzcatlewis
definitely the best tuna adcom ever made. their later tunas were less $$$, & had worse specs. s'phile, years ago, rated it *best sound, but only w/a strong signal*, in a tuna comparo they did. i had a chance to a-b my gft1a w/a magnum dynalab ft101 (not the *a* wersion) several years ago. to my amazement, they were pretty much equal, both in sensitivity & in sound quality. of course, i greatly preferred the magnums' ergonomics & appearance. :>) it took an onix bwd1 w/soap p/s to significantly better the adcom's sonics. and, no, i'm not really innerested in selling - for the $150-$175 i could prolly get for it, it really isn't worth selling - i may as well hang on to it for that 3rd system isle no doubt be setting up in the future... ;~)

doug s.

ps - jvia, if yuve ever heard a great tuna w/a great station (usually requires having a great outdoor antenna - i like the aps-13), yude be amazed at the sound-quality - easily good enuff for critical listening, definitely *not* background noise.

Sedond , I pretty much consider any fm to be background noise, and not what I choose for serious listening. I listen to a great deal of fm, but its usually doing while something else as well, like right now I'm listening to a morning jazz program while writing this. As far as good with a strong signal, most of us live in a fairly large city that for whatever reason, we can't put up antennas. I think most would be surprised at how good a lot fm is with a good outside antenna, but most of us cannot do that(a lot of communities don't allow outside antenna anymore).
I use a Terk antenna, something anyone can get and use and I can recommend. I think if I have a quote "high end,highly rated tuner by anybody" it should perform well in real world situations. And by performing well in real world situations, I mean providing selectivity and sensitivity at least as good as any of the analogs out there. Its not that big a difference, but you cannot fine tune most of your digital tuners, and it hurts their performance. I just sold a Revox 760, a lot more money yes, but in performed in the real world quite well(you can fine tune), a joy to listen to and a joy to use. But still not my first choice for serious listening. I have nothing against the Adcom, I have had mine for many years now, but as much because of its slim design and affordability than anything else.
jvia, i *need* an outdoor antenna, cuz i live in a rural area ~60 miles from the stations i listen to, & they're east of me, while i'm towards the bottom of a ~2000' ridge, on the western side! ;~)

there's one station i listen to - wpfw, howard u's (in wash., d.c.) radio station that plays a lot of yazz, world-music, & latin music, which i enjoy immensely, and there's lotsa times i can yust park myself in front of the rig & let the guy/gal in the booth choose the toons...sure, my cd-player & turntable sound better, but the sound from the fm-source is way-respectable, & it's easy to get inwolwed in/the music & forget about the electronics...

and, yes, i tink the revox tunas are great digital tunas - one of the few (are there any others?) that can be fine-tuned. i currently use a b261 in my bedroom, & it can be tuned in 0.125mhz increments. its sound is wery close to that of my onix, but it's a hair cooler - i prefer the warmer, almost toob-like quality of the onix...

regards, doug