[macrojack]

This tuner ranks among the best solid state tuners from the golden age of Japanese tuners. A couple of years ago I started to have problems with it so I sent it off to Stereo Surgeons in East Hartford, CT. for R&R. He kept it about a month and $439.61 later returned it to me.

The tuner was aligned, calibrated and treated to Black Gate caps and variety of other parts including bulbs and transistors.

Here's what Ken wrote on my receipt:

"Tightened mechanical grounds, deoxidized all switches, controls and tuner bearings, repaired loose output jacks, removed front panel and cleaned interior surfaces, tightened mechanical mounts for power transformer, repaired turn on delay (item now has an 8 second turn on delay, possible cause of your intermittent power problems) repaired mechanically off center tune meter, replaced broken trimmer capacitors in front end, aligned and tested. This is now a beautifully performing tuner! 5.0 hrs. (I actually spent 7 hrs. on this)".

So there it is - the unexpurgated commentary of Ken Bernacky.

I chose this particular technician based on the recommendations I read at tuner info.com. Seems like he was quite good.

For reasons I can't explain I turned this tuner on one morning and discovered the dial lights were out. Everything else was unchanged. It still works great.
I don't have a repair guy around here and I'm not a fixer so the lights are still out. I wasn't about to spend $100 or more round trip to send it back to Ken so it becomes the problem of the new owner.

For pricing advice I consulted DougS, the resident AC tuner expert. Doug suggested that I offer it for $1250, which sounds high to me but if anyone agrees with Doug I will certainly respect his assessment. Otherwise I'm willing to let it go for $875 net to me. That means you are buying it without dial lights and paying shipping and fees such as PayPal.

You can check my feedback on Audiogon. I'm also known as macrojack over there.

Tunerinfo.com can provide you with more info about the KT-917 if you need it. By the way, mine has the rack handles and very good cosmetics. If you followed my little odyssey so far you know that I am downsizing. This has involved less equipment and smaller equipment. I'm now using the little Sony HD tuner. It isn't as rich sounding as the Kenwood but it actually picks up a station out here in the mountain west that the Kenwood can't bring in despite its heralded nine gang tuning capacitor.

If you live in an area with excellent FM, this could be a smart investment for you.

[doug s.]

this is a nice deal for someone, considering mr bernacky has messed w/it.     $600-$900 is typical range for this tuna, w/unknown service history.  to say the sony xdr f1hd "isn't as rich sounding" is a bit of an understatement, imo.     and, if anyone is wondering, don't be put off that the sony can get a station that a "supertuner" cannot get; it does not mean something is wrong w/the 917.  fact is the sony hd is known to be about the most sensitive tuna extant, even if its sound quality is not close to the better analog tunas.  my xdr f1hd also does better than my best supertunas on a coupla difficult stations...

and macro, i suggest contacting mr bernacky; if a prospective buyer is willing to pay the additional shipping trip (or lives in ct), he may be willing to cut you or a prospective purchaser a break on getting the lights operational; it's likely something simple. (or mebbe you will get really lucky and he'll know what's wrong and it's a simple diy fix.)

doug s.