Exactly how good is the TU-X1?

yrly

Breaking records is good?
All hype aside, exactly how good is this thing? Sansui gear does not seem too common around this area stuff appears on occasion but not too often, probably fewer dealers, amazing that I found a 990DB at that. Mainly curious how it does on distance FM reception. So far the two best tuners I have used were parts of receivers (even in comparison to stand alone), that being my Olson RA-250 stereo receiver and my Fisher RS-1080. The Olson has nothing special that I can see as far as FM design, looks to be a 4 gang cap, nothing out of the ordinary, I guess the receiver dates to the early 70s. Living near Buffalo NY it can get FM stations from as far away as Baltimore Maryland in stereo using nothing more than a standard indoor antenna, it can get almost every single Toronto station with ease. I remember during the war around this time last year going up and down the dial getting info from stations from Ohio, West Virginia, Vermont etc. It did this with surprising ease. Nothing fancy, as far as its tuning features to do it either. Just ignored the channel centering which gets fooled by closely adjacent stations and did it by ear, was surprisingly good at rejecting the closely spaced stations aside from the centering meter not doing a good job of finding the center. The Fisher RS-1080 I had about a week now, its a tad more sophisticated with an 8 gang tuning cap, FM Multipath etc. This thing has amazingly good stereo seperation. Tune in the station until the Multipath meter drops to zero and the station is centered and well darn it sounds amazing. Very good distance FM like the Olson. What I wonder is how the TU-X1 compares. Finding one to actually try around here is next to impossible. Anyone compare it to any of the TOTL modern tuners? It costs a lot of dough, too much to shell out just to try, especially if it could end up being only marginally better (if at all). I know the Olson RA-250 has beaten down many a tuner that I thought should have an advantage just based on its specefications (even that rather odd copper colored Marantz Model 2060ML tuner I have pictured over in the gallery).
 
Hi;

I did a whole lot of reseach several years ago looking for the 'best' fm tuner I could afford. The TU-AX looked to me as good as anything ever built. I even bought a service manual for one. However the price to play is more then I was willing to pay.

I ended up getting a Kenwood L07-T II for just over $200 and am very satified with it's performance.

I feel that just about any FM tuner with 5 or more gangs and two or more bandwidth choices will be close enough to TOTL performance as to not matter. The real truth is one's antenna system is the real determing factor for hi end performance. Unless one is willing to invest in a outdoor serious purpose built FM yagi antenna with rotator, mounted as high as possible, then you just can't really take advantage of the extra capablities of the high end tuners. Even a mid to low end tuner with the better antenna setup will kick ass over a hi end with indoor dipole antenna.

Lefty
 
I live in an 'easy' transmission/reception area (the Great Plains). I also have a collection of tuners and receivers, and read fmtunerinfo.com.
For sheer musicality-- the sound it provides, I have found the Onkyo T-9 to be incredible. Great depth to the bass, to the limits of the broadcast, smooth & articulate mids for the spoken voice, and clean, clear highs to 15K.
Even some of the more odd choices of the local college FM station, I'll listen because it is a pure FM signal with no compression.
 
I just bought a Sansui 210...ok don't laugh, it was only $15.00 but I swear I think that thing has better sensitivity than my Proton 440!!! Not as good selectibility though, I wish it had pre-outs so I could use IT as my tuner instead. It would be nice to listen to a TU-X1 sometime, I just bid $10.00 on one...lol. Wouldn't it be kewl if we had like some AK pool and bought something like that and then let everyone try it out for like 2-4 weeks each then sent it off to the next member? Sure would be a nice way to be able to at least listen to some of this unobtainia equipment, at least for me.
 
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