Tuner recommendations

Hello Nrchy,

I spent many years without a tuner and built an all McIntosh Magnepan system for records. Well I got the bug for FM again, both for N.P.R. news & talk as well as music. I shopped tuners on A-Gon and eBay for a few weeks. I bought a Pioneer Elite in perfect condition for $55.00. What a steal. Then I put up "THE BEST POSSIBLE EXTERNAL ANTENNA" I could find. I get perfect FM, and I am very happy.

You can buy the greatest tuner made, but without a quality antenna, you will be cheating yourself on sound quality. I bought the least expensive fanfare and put it on my patio cover. Get a good used, high quality tuner at a bargain price, and put the rest of your money into a great antenna and that should do the trick for relatively few bucks.

Hope this helps

You really don't need to spend a whole lot on a tuner. I do suggest trying for a classic tube unit. I do however like the tuners that show digitally what station I am listening to.

I have a very old vintage Fisher tuner that had been restored and it works great.

I am quite surprised by some of the responses. At any rate, I will give my vote for buying a good vintage tuner. Like you Nrchy, I hadn't used a tuner in my system in years, then in 2000 I decided to purchase one again, one of the best moves I have made in audio, I use my system far more than I had in the past.

As has been suggested above, spend some time on the FM Tuner Web site, but don't get to caught up in the 'reviews'.

I have music channels on my Dish, the quality is no where near that of my tuner. You have already proved to yourself that you enjoy using a tuner in your system so I'd continue the pursuit.

As for suggestions, I second the Sansui TU-717, it is a very good tuner and plentiful. I am very pleased with my Kenwood KT-917, but they are hard to find and more expensive.

Some of the best inexpensive tuners are early 80's Sony's. Just compared a Sony ST-J75 to my Kenwood KT-7300 and they were both excellent sounding, but the Kenwood was slightly better IMO. A nice feature of the Sony is the pre-sets. In my daughter's system she has a Sony ST-J44 and it's a great tuner as well considering I spent $20, inc. s/h. In my main system I have an 80's Sherwood TD-120 (paid under $30)which when I compared to the Sony J-75 sounded better! Didn't pull in weak stations quite as well, but within the context of the associated equipment sounded superior. Comparing these inexpensive older used tuners to modern inexpensive tuners, i.e, Marantz/Nad/Yamaha, and it's no contest. (I've owned the Creek T43 and the MD something in the past, but didn't have the opportunity to compare.) No need to spend a fortune on a tuner. Just make sure you have a good antenna as mentioned above. One thing you will sacrifice w/ an older tuner is convenience. The Sony's ST-J75/J44/J5 and the Sherwood are really good tuners for peanuts. The Kenwood does sound nicer, as I'm sure does many other vintage 60's/70's tuners, but will cost more $$.

Nate, search the forums here for some useful past threads on this topic. One outspoken expert warns everybody off MD, which he says is junk.

I just recently re-introduced FM to my system and it's musically one of the best things I've ever done. And a great outlet for gear flipping, if you are so inclined. Tons of stuff out there for very little money. And the older tuners are really sexy.