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

I am usually listen to rock , but I find my self mezmerized when I hear classical music on the 10B, the instruments sound so real and beautiful. I own many high end tuners but none have the musicality of the 10B . It simply Plays music like a fine musical instrument. What did they do in the design , parts etc. to make this piece sound so great ?
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rontube
44 posts
 
Yes it is that good unless you believe the tuner experts at a certain web site then the 10B is only so so. Ha!

Ron-C
hagtech
175 posts
 
There was a really good article on the 10B several years ago in Vacuum Tube Valley. Or was it Sound practices? Higly recommended reading. Dig it up.

Aside from the exceptional tuning front-end and all-tube circuits, I think the big difference may have been the six IF stages. Yeah, six. Far more than anything else you can buy. And I believe the filters might have been phase-linear, resulting is the cleanest and most selective IF bandpass possible. Another plus was that I think they used a discriminator circuit instead of the usual FM demodulator.

So it probably isn't the front-end or the audio back-end that makes the sound so clean. I'd wager the sonics are due to the linearity and bandwidth of the IF strip and demodulator circuits.

jh
kharl1955
13 posts
 
YES! Great tuner!! Magic !! I picked mine up directly in Long Island City when it was new!! I think they moved to California soon after that.
lewm
13,009 posts
 
I have owned two of them in my audio lifetime and now make do with a Luxman T110. If you don't live in NYC, what good is it to have the world's finest tube tuner? Here in Washington, DC, there is one good FM station with decent quality FM music broadcasts, but that is IT for FM. This is what keeps me from buying another 10B.
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logenn
91 posts
 

The 10B, Mr 71 and Mr 67 are all wonderful and a pleasure to listen to for long periods.

If you have a few good stations in your area, any one of these
classics would fill the need quite nicely.

With the iconic 10B, however, you have an amazing midrange with a large
soundstage and layering that is hard to duplicate. The magic could be in its hand made point to point wiring, custom built power supply and dream team design it.

With a good antenna, it does things digital struggles to achieve if ever.

If you change out the optocouplers, which are available on e-bay, replace the sweet and lush 6jk6 tubes as needed they can be reliable. The alignment is very solid and rarely needs work
if they have not been absused.

Let's hope for a few more good stations.
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