Are Tuners - Audiophile quality


I am a high-end listener. I have a stand-alone analog Kenwood KT-1000 tuner (15 years old). This was $ 500 in 1984. Very good reviews. I packed it up in 1985 due to the horrible quality from the tuner. I recenlty dusted it off and plugged it in and found that it still is e
dcaudio
Continued - equally bad. My tuner produces the sound of a $ 100 turntable (including arm and cartridge) and less than any CD on the market. Does anyone know if you can get "audiophile quality" from a tuner. Any recommendation of a tuner that produces such quality. Thanks,
Yes, you can !
But there are only 2 ways:
- You go and look for an old one ( Marantz 10 B, Fishers etc )
- or when you like new ones it is very easy, because there are only a few out there
Naim NAT 01 and 02, Dynalab 108 ( maybe the lower ones too, but these I don't know ) etc.
These are really able to transform an antenna signal to something really impressing when you listen to it.

But it is not cheap.
Cheap models sound cheap , unfortunately.
Classe use to make an FM tuner. I think it retailed for $5000.00. I would consider this an audiophile piece. I saw one used once for $4000.00 at a local stereo store.
Most of the "junk" that you are hearing is the quality of the signal being broadcast. Believe me, i have looked at more than a few tuners internals ( Magnum, Musical Fidelity, Quad, Citation, NAD, Pioneer, etc... ) and none of them are "real impressive" in terms of engineering or quality of parts. After really starting to "dig" into a lot of gear more frequently, i am becoming more and more disappointed with the overall design, build and parts quality of a LOT of "respected" audio gear. If the EE's that are designing audio gear were working in the RF field, we would still be using tin cans and string.

As such, it is possible to find a tuner that sounds good, so long as the local broadcasts are up to snuff and you've got a decent antenna system. In my opinion, i would not spend a LOT of cash. Quite honestly, we've only have one station here in Chicago that produces a top notch signal. To be totally truthfull though, i was BLOWN AWAY by how good FM can sound after hearing this station on a decent tuner though. With that in mind, the rest of them could be handled by a tuner of much lower quality without ever noticing much of a difference.

One suggestion though. MOST of the old "super tuners" from the 1970's / early 80's tend to sound like a "transistor radio" (literally). Supposedly, some of the old Yamaha's sound pretty solid but can't speak from experience. I'm sure that some of the Mac's might be worth checking into ( PROBABLY better build quality too ) but their price may not be worth the investment if your local FM selection & broadcasts resemble a cesspool. Sean
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