Tuner Information Center...gospel?

Well guys and gals....here's my last foray into the fantasy. The one I will call the "Ferrari for the price of a Fiat"...and once again, it doesn't exist.

I picked up a used Kenwood KT-5020, #8 on the tuner shootout list, and after burn-in, some cleaning and hooking up to an antenna...well:

In my main system...quite simply a joke...extremely mid-fi at best. Dull, little bottom end, little top end and a muffled/veiled midrange. No sense of detail, no soundstage depth, no soundstage width.....think: mid '50's Wharfedale speakers........yuk!

But, maybe unfair...I'll try it in one of my second systems using KEF bookshelf speakers, wireworld interconnects and speaker wire and an older, but near the top Sony ES series two channel receiver.....well, it sounds just the same. Thought I'd compare the KT-5020 to the tuner in the Sony receiver...wow, the Sony sounds good by comparison...has bass, has top end, you can hear details like a singer taking a breath.....wanted to make sure...so on the same song kept switching back and forth from the Sony's FM to the Kenwood..yup not able to pick up the sound of the inhale at all on the Kenwood. Not only mid-fi, not very good mid-fi. The Mitsu DA-F20 they have ranked one notch higher is a much better "sounding" tuner.

So what am I to say, the #8 ranked tuner on the shootout is not even as good as an unmodified 717 Sansui...which I feel is good mid-fi. ......oh wait, now the smear on cymbals, I'm hearing now, is purely awful.

So,...kinda have made my own point to myself that I stated in the my first post.....the "something for nothing" dream of picking up a 200 dollar used Japanese tuner that is "state-of-the-art" in sound...heck better than the MD-108 is...well B.S.

Now before everyone starts defending their tuners....the Sansui 919, Accuphase 100, Mitsu 20..and a few others, aligned and modified are very good. But most on the shootout list are nothing special, and some of ones ranked lower..the MD-108, Yamaha 7000 etc. ARE pretty special. I've wasted enough time trying too many of these old, outdated tuners.........perhaps if I bought an old set of Wharfedale's??........

Hi Frank,
Email me, I have a RHT-10 you can hear in West Bloomfield! Hi Doug, I know I have to find the ST-9600 paperwork, but basement is messy post hot water tank leak!

hey whatjd, cool - don't bother w/vintage tuna. more for the rest of us! ;~)

seriously, you need to listen to several kt-5020's before you can make a determination as to how one should sound. or, at least get yours properly serviced & aligned. tuna's are far & away the one piece of audio gear that most needs to be serviced & aligned before a serious audition. don't get me wrong - i am not defending this tuna - i have never heard one. but i know i wouldn't be so quick to judge it, based upon one un-serviced sample.

again, the shootout list is only one person's opinion, in one person's rig. i certainly have disagreements with the shootout list, but that does not mean it's patently off base. example: while i *did* think my revox b760 was fantastic, i like my philips ah673 & mitsubishi da-f20 a bit better. and my revox b261, which was thoroughly panned on the shootout list was *identical* in performance to the b760 - i decided to keep the b261 & sell the b760. and, the tandberg 3011a *sucks* - i was happy to return mine in exchange for the b261 i replaced it with. :>)

as far as "ferrari for fiat" tunas go, here's a list of those i have personally tried that all cost me <$100, that i feel can stand shoulder to shoulder w/the best, sonically. some are not the most sensitive, tho:

nikko gamma 1
philips 185
hitachi ft-8000
jvc bx1100
aiwa 9700
technics st-8600
stromberg carlson sr445 (used w/mpx stereo decoder)
fisher fm90r (used w/mpx stereo decoder)
sherwood s3000-III (used w/mpx stereo decoder)

i have not tried the hitachi ft-920, or the mitsubishi da-f30, but i suspect they, too, are winners, based upon comments of those i trust.

ymmv,

doug s.

Well maybe old tuners aren't the best sounding tuners there are. I haven't owned all of them but have owned a dozen or so. I do know that my modded Kenwood KT 7500 sounds great and far better than my friends Magnum Dynalab that he paid 700 bucks for several years ago. He was quite disappointed as a matter of fact as it sounded no better than the old Denon 747 it replaced. I'm not putting MD down, I'm just stating what we learned. He paid 40 bucks for the old Denon at a hock shop. So I think a good modded vintage tuner can be a real bargain compared to many modern tuners. I think alot of people have also listened without these old tuners being serviced and also without a good yagi antenna. Both are mandatory imo.

Hey Doug! This is a duplicate post from another A-Gon thread designed to get to you in hopes of getting your opinion. The guy who has the Rotel RHT-10 NEVER told me before he sent it to me that it is the 220 volt version. When he sent the Technical Manual via e-mail, it made me worry about two things: 1) will it be costly to convert to 100v? and 2) it looks like the 220v version may be set up and optimized for European stations. Do you have any ideas on this? Would Joesph Chow be able to help? If so, do you have Joseph's phone number? Or, do you have someone else in mind I could turn to?

Thanks again Doug, as always you are a great help to a relatively novice FM guy like me.

Frank

PS, I contacted you this way because Audiogon is having problems with AOL e-mails bouncing back and it wouldn't go through to your e-mail.