Best Tuner Ever??

QualityAudio

New Member
I saw an Adcom pre on ebay that has an amazing tuner. I want to bid on it but the seller, Cape Ann Audio, has a pretty shady reputation per Google search. reports about broken gear being delivered etc. Just wondering how they would have a good ebay reputation if people are complaining about them elsewhere. Are the ebay rating false? It is rigged?

Anyway, love the adcom piece and want some community reassurance that Cape Ann Audio arent too shady.
 
KentTeffeteller is right. There is nothing "amazing" about the Adcom tuner, and it has tended to be failure prone. The accompanying preamp is nothing special either. You would be better served looking elsewhere. As for Cape Ann audio, I have no experience with them, but where there is smoke, there tends to be fire. Caveat Emptor.
 
I can't believe that ebay still allows of Cape Ann Audio to sell! I never bought anything from them. I dodged a bullet. But I once asked them a courteous, intelligent question about a receiver via email, and got a hate letter signed "David and Colleen" in response. I see on Google that many people have had the same experience. Their ebay pages contain info copied and pasted from other sources, so they may seem knowledgeable at first glance, but they are actually ignorant of basics. For example, they don't understand that there is a difference between an amp's continuous rating and its peaks or dynamic headroom.
 
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I had poor luck with my adcom pre/tuner. The preamp was fine, but the tuner fell silent, and I've seen and heard of others doing the same).

As far as the vendor goes... Cape Ann is probably not the best place to make that purchase or any others for that matter.
I shared my Cape Ann Experience here: http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showpost.php?p=4993293&postcount=30
( unfortunately the thread was shut down shortly after, so I won't re-post it here. but it's worth taking a look at).

Back to the Pre-amp /Tuner , If you can find it elsewhere That would be recommended. I've had good experiences with the Hafler Series 945 Pre/tuner, they may be a bit harder to find though.
 
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The tuner/preamp from Adcom was nothing special other than at the time the few offered by others was more expensive seemingly making it a good deal. Don't know what you want or budget but if a tuner/preamp, I'd suggest a Marantz 24 or a McIntosh MX112 or MX113. If a tuner, there are literally dozens of good tuners. Just depends on budget. A very good one for cheap is the under the radar SS Sherwoods, the S3300. Sherwood tube gear has recently come on the radar scope as well as the receivers but, the separates especially those early SS units still are under the radar.
 
No budget limit, yes the REL but, is there any station out there today that will benefit from it vs a Scott 4310, Fisher FM-1000, Marantz 10b? Of course these are tube and priced beyond what most would deem a reasonable amount for quantity of quality FM broadcasts today.
 
There are still good sounding FM stations; mostly below 92.1 on your FM dial :)
The REL was/is the sine qua non; they're a tad pricey though. Interestingly, they used tuneable inductors rather than tuneable capacitors in their front end. Pretty high-tech for their time.

RELPrecedent.jpg


This one lives in New England.. but not, unfortunately, at my house...
 
I remember when they sat on the used equipment shelf and were priced next to nothing along side of Marantz 10b's and Scott 4310 that were price in the $100 range. The time to go into the tube collector market was in the early to mid '60s when tubes were so passe you could not give the units away.
 
One question for the REL cult members :thmbsp:: If it was so great, why did it fail commercially?

I'd like to try one out in order to find out for myself, but I already went overboard on a 4310 a few years ago and the two RELs I've seen for sale this past year ($2500 & $3700) were beyond this retiree's pay grade. They did not sell.
 
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One question for the REL cult members :thmbsp:: If it was so great, why did it fail commercially?

I'd like to try one out in order to find out for myself, but I already went overboard on a 4310 a few years ago and the two RELs I've seen for sale this past year ($2500 & $3700) were beyond this retiree's pay grade. They did not sell.

Cost.

Sequerra's Marantz 10 tuner bankrupted Saul's company, when it is all said and done.
 
And the fact that it was not very well marketed, cost over $600 new in 1956, and every example sold lost the company money (REL's Precedent inspired the Marantz Model 10 and 10B which sank the original Marantz Company in similar fashion).
 
And the fact that it was not very well marketed, cost over $600 new in 1956, and every example sold lost the company money (REL's Precedent inspired the Marantz Model 10 and 10B which sank the original Marantz Company in similar fashion).

$360 for REL per TIC. 10B's price was $650.
 
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I don't know if I can refer you to other web sites but there is a a site called fmtunerinfo. Google it. They review more tuners/brands that will raise your eyebrows. Very comprehensive There ares also referrals for repairs etc
 
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