I just bought a vintage Pioneer TX-6800 Tuner from ebay. The thing works and sounds like a charm. The best part - it cost me $16 plus $14 shipping.
I've got it hooked to a Denon AVR-3300 receiver. The receiver has a built-in tuner, but... it SUCKS! It just doesn't pull stations in very well and it is a major pain in the arse to even use.
Now, the Pioneer isn't top-of-the-line as far as their models go. I did a little research and it was actually the bottom of their 1979 tuner lineup (they offered 3 tuners
that year). But it does circles around the Denon tuner section and is as easy to use as a tuner should be (the large tuning flywheel will always beat digital tuning buttons).
Changing the receiver input I could easily compare the Pioneer tuner with the Denon built-in tuner. No contest. The pioneer sounded wider with distinctly better channel separation and better dynamics.
Granted, I don't listen to radio that much, but I still consider this one of my better audio purchases in a while. Defintely a fun buy.
http://www.fmtunerinfo.com/TX-6800.jpg
