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Tuners that do it?

In my 30+ years as an audiophile I have owned a few tuners that had good specs and received good reviews in the audio press. Generally, I was never satisfied with any of them and found they never matched my turntable or other source components for audio quality. I concluded that high-quality sound was just not possible with a tuner as the source.

But recently I bought a Harman Kardon TU910 tuner on ebay and its excellent performance in my reference system has caused me to rethink the whole issue. The sound is well balanced, the midrange is literally marvelous, the focus, imaging, and depth of the soundstage is quite impressive. I was listening to a local jazz station last night and my thought was that I'd never heard sound this authentic from a tuner before. I know that my particular tuner is not the best one out there, nor is it highly rated, but for some reason it sounds way better than other tuners I have tried over the years. My antenna is not anything special, so I know it can't be related to that. It has me wondering how good the sound quality may be using more upscale, highly-rated models.

I welcome any thoughts or comments on this topic.

Happy Thanksgiving to All!
plato
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muzikat
926 posts
 
I love my tuner, Magnum Dynalad MD90 at the moment. I have owned a Naim tuner in the past, also a couple of other lesser models. IMO a good tuner with a decent antenna and signal from a good station, preferably college or NPR, is as good as any other source. Especially live broadcasts.
Have Fun!
Dan
plato OP
1,543 posts
 
Dan, I think you're right -- I am happily enjoying this discovery. I had some Christmas music on this morning and it sounded great.

BTW, Muzikat, have you seen Cat Stevens' Majikat DVD?

Frank :)
warnerwh
539 posts
 
Go to fmtunerinfo.com. You'll learn alot and they have a rating system for sound quality of the tuners they've tested. Many people are modding vintage japanese tuners. I use a modded Kenwood Kt 7500 and listen to a local jazz station with sound quality that rivals cd's. That's how good it can be. I asked Jim Rivers, one of the people who run fmtunerinfo.com, about the way my modded 7500 would compare to any of the stock tuners. Apparently it's better than any including the high dollar Accuphase. Cost? they can be found for 300-350. The antenna is important too. For that an outdoor is really the only way to go if you want the very best quality. Another benefit is that you won't ever feel the need for an upgrade as you'll know it's as good as it gets. The quality is good enough to do serious listening if you have a station that delivers a quality signal.
etbaby
138 posts
 
I just purchased a magnum dynalab 106T. This is a tuner that has sound quality second to none. I have owned Mcintosh MR 78's, Mcintosh 7083, Yamaha 7000's, 800's, and this tuner is all that the audiophile magazines say it is...fantantic. Listening to FM is fun again.

Etbaby
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