TUNERS..anyone?

Hey Craig- I have PBJ's on my 1A !! spooky huh????
I did have my Micro Purls on the 1A but just last week put them on my Planet CDP.
Keep them coming guys.Looks like the Yamaha T2 is a good bet so far.

As in other threads, I will say that I have owned tens and tens of tuners (just about everything including the Rotel RHT-10 that I later had Don, you know who, modified (this is the tuner you might see being commmented on in several discussion threads on tuners). It was very transparent and yes, had, detailed bass but it was not as involving as my tube guys) and have yet to find one that is more musical and involving than a good tube tuner BUT.....if you do not have it aligned (afterall we are talking about a 33+ year old electronic device and what of anything would you own of that age without getting it some maintenance updates) and as or more important, forget listening to one without getting the best tubes for it such as Mullard Gold Pins and the better Telefunkens. Those commenting on the sonic quality of the better tube tuners without these caveats is sort of like saying that "I drove a Porsche 911 and did not think it performed very well" without telling you or maybe were unaware it was running on 87 octane fuel and the plugs had gone 15K miles beyond their recommended limits.

The Meridian 504 tuner is excellent. I've seen them going for less than $900. According to "Stereophile" back editions, it was one of the best and got a solid class"A" in the recommended components issue (if you believe those guys) I had one for a while and it was a darn good tuner provided you were receiving a good broadcast. It even cleaned up weaker ones well. It also has a very smooth sound similiar to their CD players.

I will step out and slightly disagree with Bob in that those he listed are not the best value for your buck, unless you are wanting to purchase a new unit, and even then I question if there aren't some "hidden" gems much cheaper.

I will say again that your best bang for your buck is a vintage tuner. Being that these tuners are used, obviously, they can be purchased at cheaper prices than new ones, for the most part, clearly there are exceptions.

In the 70's and early 80's some incredible tuners were being made. In comparison for example, the Fanfare, which I owned, has a four gang front end and the T-2 I replaced it with is a 7 gang front end; not that this is the end all to tuners design.

Don't get me wrong, I greatly enjoyed the Fanfare for the year I owned it and you can find my comments on Audiogon to confirm this, but I never compared it to anything either.

There have been several on here to praise the T-2 along with me, I must point out that there are many other vintage tuners I feel would make people very happy as well, I just happen to have chosen the T-2. I also have a Sansui TU-717 and this also is a wonderful performer, probably the best of the three I have owned at pulling in stations.

As for using good interconnects and power cords, I have no arguement with that, vintage tuners genrally have fixed power cords though. BUT, if the tuner isn't good out of the box w/o "tweaks", how much better is one that is???

With some research, IMO, you can get a vintage tuner cheaper than some of the newer tuners mentioned and stand a good chance of having a better product. Consider this, the T-2 listed for $750 way back in 1978.

Hi Phil! In response, I know you really liked the bass in the Fanfare, but I don't think it has an advantage over the T-2 in bass.

By the way, unless I have several copies of the Stereophile with errors in it, the Meridian 504 was a Class B tuner. That said, I had the big brother to the 504 the 604. It was a very nice solid state tuner, a little time to get use to on the ergonomics, but none-the-less nice.