Your thoughts/experience with very good, cheap tuners?

I have the Sony XDR-FI HD that was modded by the XDR guy. It has the best reception of all my tuners. I do not use this tuner much anymore. It sounds best with a really good RCA cable. I used Audience AU24SE. I may sell this unit.

I bought a refurbished Sanusi TU9900 about 2 years ago. It is a warm sounding unit and very enjoyable. I paid $750 and will be keeping this one.

Around the same time, I bought an Accuphase T-101, like this one,

Accuphase T-101 For Sale | Audiogon

but the unit I got was modded by someone who seemed like a tuner genius. I paid $1300 for my unit which I knew that was a lot, but I wanted to hear these mods. What I got is an incredible unit. If I had owned this modded unit before the next tuner I list, I would not have bought that one.

I ungraded my Magnum Dynalab MD102 to the MD 108T for $5000. I have a great local station I listen to, so I wanted to hear it on a great tuner. It is a slightly warmer sounding and better sounding tuner than the Accuphase T-101 but not 8X better. My modded Accuphase is not warm, more of a very clear sound. The MD 108T has the worst reception of my 4 tuners. I use the MD Signal Sleuth with the MD 108T and it improves the reception.

Both Onkyo and Yamaha made great tuners in the day.  Mc was also considered pretty good, but they are expensive used.  Onkyo T-9090 II or 4055 are probably pretty cheap used.  Check on AudioMart and you might find one.

Yamaha had a T-2 that was also considered pretty good.

Obviously, the Sequerra was among the best, but even today they are REALLY expensive, and they break pretty easily.  Not sure if you can get parts today for it.

Cheers!

The man wants a “relatively cheap” tuner. I don’t think that’s going to be a McIntosh or a Sequerra or even a Magnum Dynalab.

second the cambridge audio.  a lively dynamic sounding tuner.  

jusam, I think the first question should be what is the quality of local FM sources?  Unfortunately the quality of FM seems to have diminished, both signal quality and content, over the past 10-20 years.  So unless you live in or near a major metropolitan area or have a couple of interesting college stations nearby, is it worth pursuing or will almost any tuner be up to the task?

If you are fortunate to be close to quality signals (on both counts) then my best advise is to review this site for recommendations which fit your budget.

http://www.fmtunerinfo.com.