[doug s.]

BTW, doesn't Clear Channel own half the stations in the US?

yure right; i dunno the percentage, but clearchannel owns a *big* piece of the fm pie.  (if the neocons get their way, this will also apply more & more to *all* forms of media.)  and, yure also right about commercial radio in general - most of it sucks royally - both sound quality and programming.  which is why 99% of what i listen to is non-commercial.

regards,

doug s.

[DARTH AUDIO]

Chicago public radio. Great jazz music.. I have a vintage Knight tube tune with Mullard tubes. great sounding.

[djbnh]

Various radio available in the NH/Boston markets. The to and from work commutes are good times to think while listening to Christian radio. At home I use a 1960-61-ish Fisher 800-B receiver as my tuner, which is somewhat of a waste seeing what else this exceptional unit has to offer. Love those cat eye tuner tubes [EM84A], but good luck finding any replacements that are affordable. FYI - the Fisher also supports the extinct "FM-AM stereo" system that was used briefly during the late 1950s and early 1960s.

[warnerwh]

Right now I'm listening to a Denon TU 800 that just came in the mail. Looks like new, paid 50 bucks shipped.  It's very good but my modded Kenwood Kt 7500 that Jim modified for me sounds truly excellent listening to NPR jazz here locally. With a good antenna it sounds better than many cd's and is my main source. In Portland we have three stations that broadcast good quality, one jazz, a classical and a pop soft rock jazz station.  Good enough to keep me happy for many hours a day.  I'll be selling the Denon TU 800 on Ebay starting tonight if anyone wants one, these are fairly rare.

[DavidS]

Been drooling over modded Kenwood (7500 or 8300) or Sansui (717 / 719) for some time - keep seeing them come up on audiogon or ebay.  Just wondering how much of an upgrade one of these will be to my old NAD 4160 tuner (from late 80's) that I have never much cared for.  Will sound and signal see significant improvement?  

Of course could go other way and look at one of the satelite radio receivers - although it seems like this might take some time to evolve as a quality sounding format.

I am in Victoria and we have CBC (1 and 2) on FM, a nice jazz station out of Seattle, KPLU, that I get fine in car but need to do some attenna things to get in house, and a pretty good University station for more jazz and alternative rock.  Wish I had one of those alternative adult format stations in the area that plays combination of folk (like Iron and Wine or Greg Brown), blues, softer rock (like Wilco or even Steely Dan) and jazz (like Modeski Martin or Karin Allyson) - heard one of these in Bend Oregon this summer was great.

David

[warnerwh]

David: The modded Kenwood 7500 is a truly outstanding tuner, pulls in stations like nobody's business and has a signal to noise ration that has to be in the 90's.  You can also have the filters changed and it can be modded so you can change them at will for picking up stations. The sound quality wins hands down and I've owned a number of older tuners. According to Jim at fmtunerinfo.com it sounds even better than the Accuphase that is currently at the top of shootouts at fmtunerinfo.com.  Of course those are all stock tuners. You should go there and check it out. Your NAD tuner is easily outperformed by many vintage tuners, some of which you can get for about the same money you could sell that nad for.  An outdoor antenna is certainly highly recommended.  Be careful though as I don't dx and I ended up with an antenna that I need an attenuator for as my reception is TOO good.  Also the most knowledgeable group of people regarding tuners can be found at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FMtuners/
These guys know more about tuners than you'll probably ever care and are very helpful. They've come up with good solutions for me when nobody even over at audioasylum could.

[BeeBop]

...no offense bee-bop, but i'd put 'em up against *any* m-d tuna. send yer m-d out for mods to hear what a good tuna *should* sound like; the m-d's are certainly nice to look at! ...

None taken, Doug. Which MD tuners have you auditioned in your home? Actually MD doesn't seem to invest a lot in appearance. Have a look...

http://www.magnumdynalab.com/home.html

[doug s.]

oops - double post

[doug s.]

...no offense bee-bop, but i'd put 'em up against *any* m-d tuna. send yer m-d out for mods to hear what a good tuna *should* sound like; the m-d's are certainly nice to look at! ...

None taken, Doug. Which MD tuners have you auditioned in your home? Actually MD doesn't seem to invest a lot in appearance. Have a look...

http://www.magnumdynalab.com/home.html

my personal experience w/m-d tunas was limited to when i swapped my adcom gft-1a for a buddy's ft-101a a while back.  i had the md in my rig for about 6 months.  it was no better sounding, and no more sensitive or quite than my adcom, which surprised me, as it retailed for ~twice the price.  but, it sure was pretty!  

my only other md experience was w/a signal sleuth, which i bought & then sold, cuz it didn't add anything positive to my reception in a fringe location.

my suspicion of md gear was only reinforced by other tuna geeks w/far more experience than i, regarding rf engineering; & w/more hands-on experience w/md gear.  they post about md stuff on the yahoo tuna site referenced above.  ryanmh1, who posts to the yahoo tuna site, also has opinions about md tuna, whiich ya can find, if ya search a-gon's forums.  he actually is quite proficient at modding & aligning tunas...  and, the md tunas can be made into stellar performers with $200-$300 worth of mods.

re: modded tunas, it should be noted that jim rivers',  (the tic shootout guy), modded kt7500, being his fave tuna, is almost dead-last in his shootouts, when stock.  so, if yure wanting to save money, get a decent cheap tuna & get it nodded.  i had a stock kenwood kt-9900 (bronze-face iteration of the kt-8300), & it was quite mediocre sounding - on par w/my fst adcom, & the ft-101a.  i yust recently purchased a kt-7550 (bronze-facced iteration of the kt-7500), that's been modded to the gills by bill ammons, one of the rf geniuses.  this thing *does* sound fantastic.  and, yes, it does have his special filter adder board, so ya could swap out filters for dx'ing instead of audiophile quality if that's what ya want.  but, there's other sleeper killer tuna out there - my nikko gamma 1, which cost me >$100, is as good sounding as my kt-7550!  

doug s.

[rosconey]

some of the local stations come in like a cd and sound great on my system-the sansui tuners i have do sound better than the tuna in my yamaha rxv1 reciever-
i hope the jungson tuna i have on order sounds decent-but a remote was the main selling point

also it would have cost about the same(180$) or more to rebuild one of my sansui's if a pro did it-
still might try to do the tu317 myself because it does sound so dang good

[BeeBop]

my personal experience w/m-d tunas was limited to when i swapped my adcom gft-1a for a buddy's ft-101a a while back...

OK 2 generations ago - before the Etude. I'd say you're kind of stretching it to use the term *any*?

[DVV]

dejan, i couldn't agree w/you more, re: sound quality awailable from good fm.  of course, when wpfw plays winyl, it sounds better than cd.     when they play old winyl, you can certainly tell, tho, w/the surface noise, etc.  

i've heard that the st6000 is a decent tuna, for a modern tuna; i have no 1st-hand experience w/it.   but look for a philips 186 (the euro iteration of the 185).  you should be able to nab one for <$50 (likely less than $25), & i'd be surprised if ya dint find it a meaningful improvement over yer marantz.  

doug s.

Er, Doug?

This should come as no great surprise, but I tweaked my Marantz.

I admit to being a tuner (actually, FM) fan. I've NEVER been without a tuner. Consequently, the Marantz suffered a change of output op amps, as does anything and everything that comes my way (except the wife - for reasons unexplained, she refuses to have her voice improved). And the power supply, of course.

It was damn good right out of the box, it's even better now. Wouldn't part with it for anything.

But thanks for the tip nonetheless.

Cheers,
DVV

[DVV]

dejan, this one's for you!  

...

doug s.

I remember it! That was one fine tuner all right.

My open reel tape deck, also by Philips, came in a similar aluminium finish, weighing in at some 58 lbs - I still have it, I still maintain it and I still swear by it. In 1981 when it appeared, it promptly replaced ReVox B series in most German hi-fi mags as the benchmark.

Cheers,
DVV

[doug s.]

my personal experience w/m-d tunas was limited to when i swapped my adcom gft-1a for a buddy's ft-101a a while back...

OK 2 generations ago - before the Etude. I'd say you're kind of stretching it to use the term *any*?

no, i don't think i'm stretching it, using the term *any*.  the md 102 & 108 are actually decent tunas, yust extremely overpriced for the sound & reception.  check out what ryanmh1 has to say about 'em on audiogon - yust do a search of his threads.  and, check out what others experiences are w/them over at the yahoo fm tuner forum, & at fmtunerinfo.com.  you can best these top md tunas for a lot less money, imo, and also in a lot of other folks opinions...  in the "shootouts", on the fmtunerinfo site, the md-108 has a respectable 17th place, but c'mon - this is a $5800 tuna!  it should be in the top spot, or at least second or third, for that price.

david's comments about the md-108 in the "ricochets" section of the fmtunerinfo site pretty-much sums up my feelings about this georgeous-looking piece of equipment.  (if i had money to burn, i might consider getting one, & having it thoroughly modded to make it perform as nice as it looks.):

"OK, the MD-108. First, this isn't one of the world's best tuners as some have claimed. This is one of the best-LOOKING tuners (from my perspective, anyway) and is clearly the best of the MDs. The sound is very good except in the bass and the imaging is quite good, too. Depth is hard to assess because it has a more forward sound than I like. The low midrange (read this as where low string instruments live) is lacking in harmonics. I could take issue with many of the parts choices beyond the MIT caps that Jim mentioned. Overall, the problem again is one of value! This thing costs enough to buy a Sansui TU-X1, a Kenwood L-02T AND a Pioneer F-26, if you are careful!!!! I would take that set of tuners all day long while looking at a picture of the MD-108, if you need the visual fix. Unfortunately, there are also tuners that sell for $200-500 that are better tuners than the MD-108. For me, this one is also hard to recommend."

it's also interesting to read what they have to say about the lesser md tunas on the fmtunerinfo site.  (the ft-101 ranked 31st, the 101a ranked 34th & the ft-11 ranked 51st in the "shootouts", fwiw.)

doug s.

[BeeBop]

So that's where you got this "sure is pretty" crap you keep going on about. Apparently you get your very strong opinions elsewhere as well. If you are going to put down MY equipment, then have some personal experience to back it up. I can find other people's opinions on my own. Where'd you say you're from?

[doug s.]

So that's where you got this "sure is pretty" crap you keep going on about. Apparently you get your very strong opinions elsewhere as well. If you are going to put down MY equipment, then have some personal experience to back it up. I can find other people's opinions on my own. Where'd you say you're from?

i happen to think the m-d tunas are about the nicest looking tunas out there.  if you think that's crap, well, what can i say?  apparantly others agree with me.  my first hand experiences w/m-d gear, tho limited, are also echoed by others, including those w/experience much greater than mine.  what difference does where i am from have to do w/it?

ymmv,

doug s.

[rosconey]

c-mon guys , settle down and sing a holiday tune or 2-

ill start-

grandma got run over by a riendeer -
walking home from my house christamas eve-
some people say theres no such thing as santa- me and grampa we disagree-

 

[warnerwh]

My only experience with a MD tuner is with a 101 a friend bought and at the time he sold me his Denon 747. This is George's opinion after spending I think 700 for his tuner and about six months of owning it: "It's no better than the Denon". He sold me the Denon for 50 bucks, same as he paid for it at a hock shop.  His system was made up of Classe amp and preamp through Kef 107.2 speakers.  I just sold a Denon TU 800 for 175 on Ebay that I would happily put up against most modern tuners to 2 grand.  Please don't think I'm putting the MD tuners down, I'm not. I'm only pointing out that performance per dollar is not as good as the older tuners from the seventies and eighties. One reason the prices are so low on these is because of supply and demand. There's plenty of old tuners that are very good as that's the way they made them.   Most people could care about a tuner and really have no idea there's much quality difference.  The tuners in modern receivers would be put to shame by fm sections in old analog receivers for sound quality and reception.  I doubt if even the very high dollar receivers usually have much of a tuner section in them.

[_scotty_]

There is an obvious point to be made here.  A tuner  only sounds as good as the signal it receives. Most tuners are no better than .03%THD under the best possible conditions and frequently the distortion is much higher than this owing to broadcast practices and reception conditions. That being said, I still enjoy the three stations I listen to on my circa 1961 Fisher FM100B.
Seasons Greetings,Scotty

[zachslc]

NPR is venturing into 5.1 over FM.  Here's the story:

http://www.npr.org/rundowns/segment.php?wfId=4251883

Would there ever be a market for such a thing?  If NPR created it I assume it's not commercially viable, but interesting no less.  If I had an HT system I would check out their New Year's Eve broadcast.

How many people really listen to radio anywhere but their cars and over their PCs at work (like I am now)?