Why does the Marantz 10B Tuner sound so amazing ???

The 10B tuner came in at an incredible sum of money ($650.00) back in 1965. The unit would be the cause of financial ruin for the Saul Marantz company and eventually required the sale to Superscope to keep the doors open.
I beleive, the incredible talent of Dick Sequerra, Sid Smith, and Mitch Cotter (yes Mitch Cotter), and the use of those priceless Marantz power supply transformers (they dont wind em like that anymore). Take all of this and couple it to the famed Marantz all tube audio circuits and you have magic.
As a personal note, I think my McIntosh MR-78 on the last run CG series, not AD series, is overall the better unit. RF wise it is definitely a better unit and through an all tube system manages to sound close to a tube tuner.
But if you need the nth degree of ultimate musicality, its gotta be the 10B.......Frank

Is it possible that the fase from the signal when passing the circuits is playing an great roll????

My father was one of Sol's early customers on Long Island. He bought everything from him, constituting my introduction to hi-fi.
Besides the pre and power amps, he decomissioned his venerable Fischer tuner, which got me really mad because we always listened in the dark except for a winter fireplace. The light of the tubes threw varied eliptical patterns on the walls and ceiling because of the protective cover. The Fischer had a beautiful bird holding a note in its beak, on the glass front plate, lit by the tuning bulb. I loved it and the Marantz was boring to look at.
But when the Masterwork Hour came on, announced by a particularly magisterial 'Sleepers Awake' and stentorian announcer, it was a new world. And WQXR was even better. He kept the old one, plugged into nothing, for mr to look at.
Like Sol, this sonorous tuner was the financial ruin of my father. My mother was sick and tired of his audio addiction, which she cruelly noted, had taken hold of me at a tender age. The man with the golden arm had nothing over golden ears.
I have an interesting frying pan that constitutes his death mask. I use it for Jello.
Like Sol, he sold out to (more exactly, traded-in for)Superscope. Out mit der tuben, in mit der solidaten state.
Gone were the evenings with the radio.
Shortly after, we were burgeled. Gone his top of the line monster receiver. Ha ha ha, they left behind the old Browning and Fischer.
Last year, he came to visit me. I have the McIntosh MR as well now, quite happily. Listening to my tubes he said, boy what a stupid trade-in I made back then.
I cannot really compare the Mc and the Sol, but I hope I can someday.

The guy that calibrates all of my test equipment recently purchased a 10B that was in very good shape. After going through and aligning it, he was utterly amazed at the sound quality. He directly compared it to a few well respected tuners head to head. When telling me of the results, he kept laughing about how much better sounding the Marantz was than anything he threw at it. Amongst the big name tuners, the oft mentioned MR 78 was one of victims that he made specific mention of. He also mentioned another Mac tuner that it beat, which he said is a better tuner than the MR 78. Seeing as how i've already got almost 20 tuners as it is, i'm not in the market for any more*. Sean
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* Well, maybe just one more. I've always liked the Sherwood Draco Micro-CPU 100, but never owned one. Designed by Larry Shotz, i would have to imagine that it at least sounds decent and had good sensitivity.