[Audioclyde]

Hi, I have a couple of vintage tuners that I bought a few years back, but have been boxed since our last move.  One is a Sansui 717, I've found plenty of info about it.  The other is more of a mystery:  a champagne/gold faced "Audioquest Mclaren 1002".  I thought it sounded better than the Sansui (and other than lack of a 'lit' front, I thought it looked better and was smaller). 

Any experts here have any more detail/info about it?  I've found one link/reference (which is consistent with the hard copy material that came with the tuner) at  with a googe search, about it being at an early CES or equivalent with Audioquest as the US importer....

Thanks,

Randy

[doug s.]

randy, the tu717 is a fine tuna, and if you spend $200-$300 on it for mods & refurb, it will sound close to as good as you're gonna find.

re: mclaren, tag mclaren made tunas, based upon the audiolab 8000t.  i never heard a mclaren tuna, but the 8000t is one of the finest sounding tunas around, and definitely a mite better sounding than a stock tu717, imo.  if yours is related to this, (as i suspect it is), i am not surprised you like its sound better.  appearance-wise, i am partial to the classic analog looks of something like the tu717.  i can relate to the size issue, tho - i own a modded refurb'd sansui tu-x1, and tho a fine sounding tuna, deserving of all the accolades it gets, the thing is a freaking huge beast, bigger than many receivers...

doug s.

[Audioclyde]

Wow I was at a local skr repair shop yesterday; the owner has 1 of virtually every Marantz tube amps, 2 or 3 10b's, and most impressive a model 10 prototype tuner complete with ltr of authenticity!  Fun stuff to drool over.

[Doublej]

The folks at www.fmtunerinfo.com might be able to shed some light on the Audioquest. There will be a lot of information on the Sansui there as well.

[Phil A]

randy, the tu717 is a fine tuna, and if you spend $200-$300 on it for mods & refurb, it will sound close to as good as you're gonna find.

re: mclaren, tag mclaren made tunas, based upon the audiolab 8000t.  i never heard a mclaren tuna, but the 8000t is one of the finest sounding tunas around, and definitely a mite better sounding than a stock tu717, imo.  if yours is related to this, (as i suspect it is), i am not surprised you like its sound better.  appearance-wise, i am partial to the classic analog looks of something like the tu717.  i can relate to the size issue, tho - i own a modded refurb'd sansui tu-x1, and tho a fine sounding tuna, deserving of all the accolades it gets, the thing is a freaking huge beast, bigger than many receivers...

doug s.

I concur.   I have a TU717 that I had had modded.  It is definitely a nice sounding unit for the money.

[Thol]

Bang for the buck: any upper echelon Pioneer from the 70's with a complete complement of new capacitors — the power supply section being really important. Inn some places, you can use modern film caps for the smaller values. I have a Japanese, domestic bandwidth TX-8800 II that just keeps playing. Never bothered with taking it in for alignment. Guests think that they are listening to CD. It's virtually silent and playing in a silky, black background on a strong station. When NHK is using their premium broadcast facilities — say tapped or live performances from Tokyo, the feeling you get is — you are there! TOTL 9000 series will set you back a wad of $, and they are rare. IMHO, my more humble model is a downstream recipient of the same engineering. And it really does the trick. I regularly play cassette recordings I've made from this radio on a very good vintage A&D recorder on regular Type II tape that is still available with th bias and gain all dialed in neatly. The benefit: cheating the cost of software is like discovering a table wine that comes up to delivering 80% and plus of an expensive vintage. (Sometimes you can find it.) Some tuners will allow this. Some are just lifeless. But nearly all the vintage tuners will fall down unless all the caps are changed out. I've recapped a few of them, and they ALL responded for the better — some of them astonishingly so. This tuner will take a stock, un-restored FM-3 and thrash it to pieces. And that is saying something ... 'cuz I have revered the FM-3 since 1972!

And I will restore my FM-3 ... a work in progress.

Cheers: Thol/Lorne 

[1ZIP]

I concur.   I have a TU717 that I had had modded.  It is definitely a nice sounding unit for the money.

Ditto on the modified TU 717!

[rollo]

I have a Sansui TU 9500 that I wold like upgraded. Any reccos on who I might contact ?


thanks charles

[doug s.]

I have a Sansui TU 9500 that I wold like upgraded. Any reccos on who I might contact ?


thanks charles

ken bernacky at stereo surgeons, bob fitzgerald or bill ammons from the yahoo fmtuner site, stephen sank from talking dog transducers, joseph chow from audio horizons, mike williams (aka punker-x) from radio-x tuners.  i have had great results from all but ken, (never used him), but ken is supposed to be good, and he's not far from you.  neither is bob f, but it's not his yob, it's his hobby, so he might put you off time-wise...

http://radioxtuners.com/
http://www.stereosurgeons.com/
ammonsphxATearthlink.net (replace the AT with an @ sign)
http://www.audio-horizons.com/pages/upgrades.html
http://www.thuntek.net/~bk11/home.htm
bobATfmtunerinfo.com (replace the AT with an @ sign)

doug s.

ps - awoid ed hanlon at aps - too expensive, too psychotic, and he doesn't do his own work; he subs it out, i believe to this place - might as well go straight to the source:
http://www.approvedaudioservice.com/

also awoid don scott - its as likely as not that your tuna will sound no better or even worse when you get it back.  or he may actually destroy it.  he doesn't have any proper tuna test gear...

[rollo]

Hey Doug. Thanks for the time it took to type all that. You da man



charles

[doug s.]

Hey Doug. Thanks for the time it took to type all that. You da man



charles

no problem, we aim to kill... uh, i mean to please!     quality wintage tuna w/good fm rocks!!!   

doug s.,
presently listening to wpfw 89.3 - zydeco, w/"cowboy" fred carter
http://wpfw.org/?db=content/Programming&tbl=Programming&id=1
on a refurb'd sherwood s3300 - killer sound on the cheap: