onkyo t-9

vintaggeman

Well-Known Member
pick up an onkyo t-9 turner today from a local seller
mint condition, looks new! thanks steve!:thmbsp:
i would like to make a set up with this tuner, but i cant get any info
about the matching integrated amp for it ?
anyone here own this tuner? what do ya think? :music:

btw this thing its huge, handsome looking and the sound is awesome !!
i like it:yes:
 

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Matching maps are the A-5, A-7 and the A-10. The t-9 is the quartz locked top of the line tuner from 79-80 and replaced the highly rated by the audiophile magazines T-4055. Nice unit.
 
My T-9 has never been cleaned or aligned and has bested some fine tuners in sonics and ability to pull in a clean signal in my semi-rural area, including a Sansui TU-719, Denon TU-850 (aligned) and some others. I personally don't think the styling is as classy as these other tuners, but it is not bad either.

I am not sure if these results would be different if I had a decent antenna, which I currently do not. I've read that tuners with fewer gangs can actually sound better under some conditions than tuners with multiple gangs- maybe that helps explain my results. But it is at least worth noting that under my current conditions, the T-9 sounds better than any other tuner I have tried in my system.

In short, the T-9 is a highly underrated tuner, a real sleeper.
 
I have a T-9 that must be in need of some help... It doesn't match the Sony ST-5150 sonically or in terms of pulling in stations. It's also supposed to have that nifty feature where touching the tuning wheel turns the quartz tuning on/off, but it doesn't work properly...

Time to send it off...
 
I have a T-9 that must be in need of some help... It doesn't match the Sony ST-5150 sonically or in terms of pulling in stations. It's also supposed to have that nifty feature where touching the tuning wheel turns the quartz tuning on/off, but it doesn't work properly...

Time to send it off...

Have you tried dr*audio's EZ tuner cleaning tips in the sticky above? Also, there is a switch for the sensitivity of the auto quartz lock defeat (or whatever its called) on the back of the tuner. You might try fiddling with that if you haven't already...
 
Love vintage Onkyo. Bet that T9 is an excellent receiving device!

The A-line and matching T-line Onkyo gear was fantastic equipment, both in terms of sound and build quality.
 
How many gangs In a T-9?

Probably 4. Three gangs seems to be standard for anything that calls itself hi-fi, and the T-9 was designed to be a cut above the ordinary. But it isn't in the stratosphere, nor is it a digital design that seems to easily attain the equivalent of 5, 7, or greater gangs. Also, the predecessor T-4055 was 4 gangs.

If the Archief Onkyo (w_w_w.hnny.nl/archief_onkyo.htm) was still in existence, it likely could be verified. Looks like it's gone now. :tears:

Anyone know of a replacement, or if it's merely been transferred to another location? No contact info on the hnny site to ask about it.

The T-9 is only "on deck" at the Tuner Information Center.
 
I have one of those tuners myself... works great with the A-7 amp that I got with it! :yes: :thmbsp:

Scott
 
Probably 4. Three gangs seems to be standard for anything that calls itself hi-fi, and the T-9 was designed to be a cut above the ordinary. But it isn't in the stratosphere, nor is it a digital design that seems to easily attain the equivalent of 5, 7, or greater gangs. Also, the predecessor T-4055 was 4 gangs.

If the Archief Onkyo (w_w_w.hnny.nl/archief_onkyo.htm) was still in existence, it likely could be verified. Looks like it's gone now. :tears:

Anyone know of a replacement, or if it's merely been transferred to another location? No contact info on the hnny site to ask about it.

The T-9 is only "on deck" at the Tuner Information Center.
I've had luck at Web Archive, and there are some references to this site, but I get an encoding error when I try: http://web.archive.org/web/20080209172840re_/www.hnny.nl/archief_onkyo.html
 
I have a T-9 which is on long-term loan to a friend. I found it to be an excellent-sounding tuner with very good reception. The only problem I had with it is that in my multipath-rich environment downtown it kept losing the signal and making a motorboating pattern. This was due to the arrangement whereby you have a choice of only automatic for stereo and any manual settings are in mono with the result that whenever the stereo signal was compromised due to interference there was no reception at all. The tuner is now in use in the burbs and functions flawlessly with just a dipole... in the basement at that!
 
I have a T-9 that must be in need of some help... It doesn't match the Sony ST-5150 sonically or in terms of pulling in stations. It's also supposed to have that nifty feature where touching the tuning wheel turns the quartz tuning on/off, but it doesn't work properly...

Time to send it off...

I have the same problem with an Onkyo T-4090 every now and then; sounds like a similar system on its immediate predecessor, the T-9. When I let my hand off the tuning knob, it tries to auto-fine tune and it doesn't work right. It's bad enough that the "tuned" light flickers on and off, the station flickers in an out of tuning, and so does the sound, making it unlistenable.

My solution: a block of wood, 1 1/2" x 3" x 3/4", set on the tuner knob. It mimics the action of a hand on the knob, which disengages the auto tuning. I just rely on the indicator lights and the "stereo" lamp. I get music without interruptions, even if it may not be tuned to the nth degree. It's clumsy and not very aesthetically pleasing, but I'm not real worried about aesthetics. I'm tempted to tell people it's an goofball audiophile notion, like hanging weights from speakers; it sure makes a big difference in sound quality!

I wish I could find a DIY fix for the problem.
 
Turn on your Stereo Light ... Let me share a tuner story with you ...

Picked up a T-9 off craigslist the other day.

Was told the stereo light didn't work and when I got there the other lights didn't work. It had been in storage. No big deal sounded great and got a little discount.

When I replaced the indicator lights the stereo light still didn't work. Checked bulb on another set of wires and it lit, so bulb was ok. Then I noticed it doesn't sound like stereo. Compared to other receivers I have and determined it was definitely mono. Music sounded great but field of play was between the speakers.

Started a regimen of Deoxit/Faderlube/Puretronics on controls, switches, contacts on the circuit board. When I get hysterical, I tend to throw everything at it. I know it's not very common sense or admirable, but I got it cheap ... Downloaded a service manual. Adjusted R214 which is supposed to adjust the stereo indicator. Saw a little flicker, but no steady stereo light.

Did a complete deoxit of contacts on top and bottom of circuit board. Deoxit R214 and stereo switch. Let it dry overnight.

Today played with R214 got a little steady stereo light. Had to turn it all the way clockwise. But stereo light would go off when I released the screw driver.

Left screw driver in for a few minutes. Hoping it would help "burn-in" some memory in the circuits. Ok I also use voodoo electronics when I don't know what I'm doing. When I came back, noticed as I turned counter clockwise, it seemed to be more steady instead of going out like yesterday.

Released the screw driver and is now showing a steady stereo light and the sound instead of all abruptly between the speakers, is now certified stereo.

I can hear different instruments coming in from Left or Right and the field of sound is now expanded beyond the center.

Happy camper ... :music:

I don't blame the seller, because when I listened it sounded great and I didn't realize it was mono. He did say it was the stereo light so I should have listened more carefully. Anyway, it pulls in signals very strongly up and down the dial. Very quiet background. I understand why people say it seems to perform beyond it's specifications.

DISCLAIMER: I don't know the science behind it, or the luck in not blowing it up and shorting it, but I thought I would share that it's something that can be fixed. Not encouraging anyone to do what I did. This is totally anecdotal.
 

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I had the same issue, Terra.

I picked up my T-9 from an estate sale and didn't notice it wasn't playing stereo because it still sounded fine. But the Stereo lamp wasn't functional. I had read about the R214 adjustment fix elsewhere (incidentally, this adjusts the Voltage Controlled Oscillator and is called the VCO adjust pot) but on mine it didn't seem to work. I'm no expert, but I believe this tunes the unit to the 19kHz carrier wave inherent in the FM signal.

Anyway, this problem is commonly caused by someone replacing the Stereo lamp with a replacement lamp drawing too much current. This burns out the lamp circuit on the HA1156 MPX chip which is the FM demodulator. The lamp is rated at 6V 30mA and from memory the absolute maximum (from the HA1156 spec I got from the data sheet) is 75mA. So I assumed this was the problem ans swapped out the HA1156 chip, using a good quality 14 pin socket. But alas, no luck... By the way, I had checked the lamp and it didn't draw excess current and didn't look like it'd been replaced, but these MPX chips are quite commonly damaged.

I then removed R214 and R229 (229 is the stereo separation pot) from the board to replace them but when I took them off, they were smooth and fine in their resistance gradient. Replaced them on board...

Then, I thought it must have been a dry electro in the circuit, so decided I'd have one more go at R214 before I go wholesale replacing the caps. I CAREFULLY place my multimeter, set on frequency, between pin 10 of the HA1156 chip and ground. This pin outputs 19kHz, or it should. It was putting out about 17kHz, so I adjusted R214 to give 19.00 and IT WORKED!!!

The reason it didn't work originally was that the pot had to be rotated right around clockwise, almost out of the pot's normal range. I had just not done this, and really, it shouldn't be left like this as trim pots aren't the best near the ends of their travel.

Bottom line is that the unit really needs an alignment by someone who knows, but I'm happy in the meantime. It's not as good sounding as it should be I guess, but I can wait. I think an alignment would bring the adjustment of R214 back into it's design range. Otherwise, there's something else in that part of the circuit which has changed in spec.

So - everyone with this issue make sure R214's effect is fully tested before going off on a tangent!

FYI...sorry for the lengthy post.

Cheers

Stuey
 
So - everyone with this issue make sure R214's effect is fully tested before going off on a tangent!

FYI...sorry for the lengthy post.

Cheers

Stuey

Thanks. Believe me I was thinking some worst case scenarios that could easily be beyond my experience. This worked out fine and reassures me that I wasn't completely off base.

Update 8/31/08:

I notice I can't tune in to at least one station (97.3) which my Sansui 4000 can pick up unless I push in/turn off the Mute/Locked button. There may be others but that was the most noticeable that I might listen to. I switched to a pair of rabbit ears instead of the test wire I had hooked up to it and now it does pick up that station. Then switched back to the wire and it works with that now too. ???

I just did a reading on pin 10. --- 18.99 kHz. The tab position on R214 is currently at about 9 o'clock.
 

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I have the same problem with an Onkyo T-4090 every now and then; sounds like a similar system on its immediate predecessor, the T-9. When I let my hand off the tuning knob, it tries to auto-fine tune and it doesn't work right. It's bad enough that the "tuned" light flickers on and off, the station flickers in an out of tuning, and so does the sound, making it unlistenable.

My solution: a block of wood, 1 1/2" x 3" x 3/4", set on the tuner knob. It mimics the action of a hand on the knob, which disengages the auto tuning. I just rely on the indicator lights and the "stereo" lamp. I get music without interruptions, even if it may not be tuned to the nth degree. It's clumsy and not very aesthetically pleasing, but I'm not real worried about aesthetics. I'm tempted to tell people it's an goofball audiophile notion, like hanging weights from speakers; it sure makes a big difference in sound quality!

I wish I could find a DIY fix for the problem.

Does it have a Sensor switch in back with Low, Normal, High? The Sensor switch controls the sensitivity of the tuning knob. The manual on my T-9 says set it to Low initially. The TUNED lamp in normal operation should light steady but go out momentarily as you touch the tuning knob, and come back on when you release the knob. If the TUNED lamp doesn't turn off when you touch it then move it up to Normal. Setting it at High causes some of those flickering and tuning problems for me.

Also you may want to make sure the antenna wire is not touching any power cords or cables.

If flicker occurs on just certain stations, it may be a signal too weak for the tuner (maybe try a different antenna) or it may need alignment. Another thought is to check some of the threads on cleaning the tuner.

Also on my T-9, the De-Emphasis switch settings are 75 usec for US, 50 usec for Europe, 25 usec for Dolby recording.
 
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