tuner better than turntable ? thread.


Hi,I started that thread a few months ago, and had said the top turners sound better than top turntables.

Well, I have to clarify, tuners like the Dynalab 108 and 109
in their stock form are very good but not as good as the best tables, but

a modified tuner with teflon coupling caps will actually
exceed the table, In my opinion.

I did not know that the my friends tuner had been modified.

I didn't realize till another friend bought a 108 and it didn't sound any where near as good as my friends 109 so
I asked him why, and my (jerk)friend just told me about the
teflon caps he had installed. Dooooooow

The modified tuner is about 30-40% better! than the stock
tuner.
It was more extended and way more transparent!

By the way, teflon caps are expensive $40 to $200 ea., depending on values but if you have a vacuum tube preamp or tube power amp, you can upgrade your
audio equipment to a new level without selling your pieces.

It will transform your unit with extension especially top end, and with transparency that will amaze.

Just make sure you substitute the coupling cap with same value (uf) and voltage rating.

Enjoy.
jimpcn
I'm actually tempted to agree. Under the best circumstances (live broadcast, no compression), a tuner is the closest thing I've heard to the real event. I'm not even trying to explain it. As pointed out above, the frequency range is limited to 15khz.

Maybe the pros (no heavy processing, mastering, etc...) outweigh the cons (limitation to 15khz), esp. since after a certain age, it's hard to hear above 16khz.

My experience is based on evening BBC broadcasts, I don't know what it's like in other countries.

It's also worth remembering that FM is dying pretty much everywhere and that quality programs are very rare. Investing in an expensive FM tuner doesn't make any sense unfortunately.

JB
I answered that other thread about a week ago. I currently don't have a turntable in my system but a near SOTA digital set up that I enjoy. My MD106T on certain broadcasts out performs my near SOTA digital system. I have owned turntables in the past because I am 57 years old and I plan on buying a modest turntable sometime within the next year. I will then report what I hear with a modest TT.
I don't understand the foundation for the OP.

I've got a fairly decent tuner (by any standard) without mods. Are you suggesting that I can mod this tuner as you did and actually 'improve' (not just change) its performance? Are you sure? Or have you just brought up the level of the reproduction capability of YOUR tuner? Have you actually compared your stock/improved tuner with any other high end tuners? Are you sure its improved, or is it just compensating for other components/speakers your are using, i.e. synergy?

And, while you are at it, assuming you respond, what TT's/Arms/cartridges were you using for comparison. And what recordings were you using.

It is hard for me to imagine a comparison between tuners and TT's (etc) based on what we are hearing today, if for no other reason than that stations are now broadcasting digital recordings. Vinyl hasn't been used in years. So what you are saying is that your tuner playing a digital recording sounds better than a vinyl recording over your vinyl system in your room and that it is a duplicate of the recording. Hummmmmmmm.
Their seems to no concept of band width in the starting OP. FM only has so much room to put the audio signal through. Its been a while but I remember that it is done mainly in two ways. First is the frequency cut off of 15K HZ which depending on how that filtering is done might not be that bad by it self. But we know that vinyl can go way beyond 15K.

The second way to "fit" the audio signal is to limit the amplitude of the signal, i.e. limit the dynamics. Now vinyl does that too but FM does it much more - it must to fit into the FM standard.

FM is a more "processed" format no matter how good the audio starts out.

That's not to say that way too much vinyl isn't overly processed some where in the chain, it is, but the format at its best allows for more than FM. I think a lot of material has ben produced "radio ready" (and now CD ready) and that's what you get on the vinyl product, not good.

FM is designed to be at a disadvantage to vinyl in two important ways.

Terry