Luxman T-117 Tuner

I just came across this old thread and find it interesting.

(1) In an eBay auction that closed yesterday, the T-117 fetched $400. NANDERSON bid $289, above the $225 price he thought it was worth. The Audiogon bluebook average is currently at $260, with a range from $180 (2 years ago) to $370. I think I have not seen it on eBay below $300.

(2) The negative comment on 5T50 is not unlike some similar ones that I have heard for the T-117 and T-110. I have all 3 of them. I would say that if any of these sounded so bad, they should probably be checked out by a qualified technician. Vintage tuners do need repair and alignment. My 5T50 was terrible when I bought it and the culprit was a bad ceramic filter. Once that's replaced and the tuner realigned, it's a different beast. These are all very fine tuners. The people who found them to be terrible probably had a sick tuner and didn't bring it to the doctor.

(3) The T-310 was an older tuner than the T-110 that was a step lower than the T-110. It was sold for more than the T-110 bcs it had AM and Dolby thrown in. It's still a good tuner. The T-88V was another step or two lower in the product line. It sold for less than half the price of the T-110 in UK, about 60% in the US.

I noticed the above commentor has zero feedback, so far, on Audiogon. So I thought I would offer this perspective from my years on Audiogon. $225 was the y 2001 average (the thread above is 1.5-years old) according to the internet survey done by Audiogon.com (the owner of this forum) for a T-117 in average condition on venues like Audiogon where Hello was selling their tuner. The price of the T-117 like other things on Ebay is not necessarily reflective of what they sell for on Audiogon and other venues and visa versa (the worlds could not be more different on many types and pieces of equipment). Do this with enough equipment and you will know this is true. If the T-117 is in excellent to Mint condition of course they will sell for more. ESPECIALLY in the euphoria that can get people swept away past sanity on Ebay. In fact, back when Hello was advertizing their tuner Audiogon had one sitting around for nearly 30-days unsold in Mint condition for $200. Context is everything.

By the way, the T-117 is a very fine, albeit somewhat cheap looking on the outside, tuner.

The fact that I have no feedback just means that I have never used Audiogon to buy/sell anything. It does not affect any of the things I said about T-117, which were simple facts and not involved any opinion. Everyone understands that there is a range in sale price of any used equipment. My point was simply to observe how the average has risen over the 2 year period tracked by Audiogon, and even Nanderson was bidding 30% more, and still not winning one. I didn't think the eBay sale at $400 was particularly "euphoric." One before it was $350, and others I have seen were generally over $300. Is it still possible to get one at $289 or $225, sure. I know at least one person who got it for under $100 in the last year, and it's in near mint condition.

Perhaps another point should be added to my last post. The price info on Audiogon really should not be overly depended on. Most items do not have enough statistics (less than 4 or 5 sales) to have a graph, bcs I have seen many graphs with as few as 4 or 5 sales. In many cases, I'm sure there were just 1 or 2 sales. I wish they would state the number in the database and people can see how unreliable the figures are, though they are still better than nothing. The other problem is that even with enough cases, the average was taken over 2 years, which often do not represent the "current" or "recent" market. A newly discontinued/replaced model would see price drop quickly over the period, and some old model may get rediscovered and become "hot" again. So if one pays price that's 50% higher or lower than what's in the Augiogon database, it doesn't necessarily mean that one is overpaying or being lucky. As long as the buyer/seller are willing and happy, it's a fair deal.

FWIW I have a T-117 and a Sansui TU-717 that I have AB-ed in the same system. The Luxman sounded better- not by much, but definitely better. Slightly "fuller" and richer in the midrange as I recall.
I live in a city with lots of stations, so I've never really tried pulling in distant stations with either.