Any good FM tuners around for less than $200?

Holly,
The FM tuner info site is a great place to start but I don't think they are the end all/be all when it comes to tuners, but definitely a great reference.

Basically you have to decide on a digital or analog tuner and do you have the space for an old school analog tuner. Analog will sound better, it's just warmer and more realistic sounding. I personally love the old smooth flywheel of an analog tuner too.

However, I have had a few good digital tuners (NEC T-710, ads T2, and B&K TS108). The B&K will probably be the easiest of these to find but I found the ergonomics a nightmare and thought the NEC was a better sounding tuner, while the ads just a was a pleasure to use...having said that, I prefer any analog tuner over these models. Perreaux also supposed to make a great tuner and I'd like to try one, but ultimately I know that analog is better.

Currently, I use 2 tuners and got them both well under $200 including shipping. I have an old Pioneer TX8500II and a Creek CAS3140 with a DIN/RCA cord. The DIN/RCA makes all the difference in this unit. I a/b'd the Creek against a Tandberg 3030 receiver and it was pretty neck and neck, while the Pioneer TX8500 is a rung or two below their flagship TX9800 which Absolute Sound magazine rated as of the the best sounding tuners of all time. I think it's all about how many gangs the tuner has...

Also, I've never got mine aligned either. When buying, I simply ask, does it tune in easily and strongly and does the station 98.1 show up truly as 98.1 or is the tuning way off. Maybe I've been lucky...good luck in your search.

Magnum F11...budget route...NAD

Not to be brusque, but Lou's advice is simply wrong. Analog is warmer and more realistic? Really? The only difference is generally varactors versus a tuning capacitor. An "analog" Dynalab uses varators... So does an "analog" Tandberg 3001. Confused yet?

With tuners, it's 95% about the design and alignment. FWIW, "alignment" has almost NOTHING to do with what shows on the dial. It is the 20 adjustments in the front end, adjustments in the IF strip, adjustments in the multiplex, you name it. These are very complex devices, and to even begin to under the terminology entails a very, very high learning curve.

If the original poster wants a good, cheap tuner, the Yamaha T70 or T80 is the way to go. These tuners will blow away any comparably priced "analog" with a flywheel by a mile. You need to spend 5x-10x the price to get a comparable "analog" tuner. I don't even want to get into what it would take to match them in an "audiophile" brand.

I am somewhat confused by analog vs digital when it comes to tuners. This is not the equivalent of tubes vs solid state, is it? Without getting really technical, what are the main differences - a dial vs a button, or....??

On another note, does anyone have experience with the Fisher FM-90X tuner? Someone has made me an offer of one. FMTuner Info mentions the tuner in their list of Fisher tuners; this is the only comment about it:

Our contributor Larry has an extensively modified FM-90-X which "sounds fabulous in mono - liquid, smooth, yet still detailed and with musical (but not authoritative) bass. This tuner has a very simple gain stage with a cathode follower, reported in many circles as being deleterious to the sound, but I find with good tubes and the mods it sounds great."

As far as I know, the tuner being offered to me has none of the 'mods,' whatever they are; the caps have been replaced with Auri caps if that makes a difference.

Holly

I had an FM-90X about 20 years ago, when it was about 35 years old. I was very pleased with its sound, and I remember it fondly. I did not do any realignment on it, and I suspect that it had never been realigned. At most I tested the tubes and replaced some, and lubricated the controls. It had no mods.

As you realize it is a mono tuner, but it provides a multiplex out jack which can be connected to an external multiplex adapter for stereo, as I described in my earlier post.

Re analog vs. digital, in the context of tuners that refers to the technology of the tuning circuitry. Analog tuners can tune continuously across the entire FM band, including the frequencies that are in between stations, while digital tuners tune in discrete steps. Analog tuners often have "slide rule" type dials and no pushbutton presets, and digital tuners often have digital/numerical frequency readouts and pushbuttons, but some analog tuners (having analog tuning circuitry) provide digital frequency readout and/or pushbutton presets.

The vintage tube tuners from the 1960's and earlier are all analog, of course.

Regards,
-- Al