Thanks for your response, PabloTincho. I think the F-90 is surprisingly good for the money for which it can be acquired. The FM Tuner group folks (who haven't updated their review of the F-93) really like those two tuners, but I lived through that time and Pioneer was having a sort of existential crisis. One year I was looking at drool-worthy state of the FM Art tuners like the TX-9800 or 9500 II (leaving aside the transitional F- Series 20 Tuners for a minute-I own a 28 and it sounds as much like a 93 as my 91 or 449 or the 9x00's) and then all of the sudden here came the F- 90 (which I also own, but I don't own the 99x) and my disappointment was palpable. I remember hearing them in the "salon" store that opened in my hometown in the early '80's. The 90 and 99x are pretty much the same tuner with some insignificant differences. I think they're probably not as "transient" (dynamic range) blessed as the bigger, heavier dreadnaught Tuners that Pioneer's known for, but I would say the RF performance is nothing to sneeze at and probably doesn't lag too far behind the Classics. The big difference to me is the Digital tuning. I prefer analog tuners. They work the way Armstrong meant for them to work. Once we got into the "chippity doo-dah" era the sound of many tuners changed and not for the better. It's not that all Digitally Synthesized Tuners are bad, but some are and there's a certain "richness" in analog technology (complete with environmentally influenced inconsistencies like temperature drift on non-quartz-lock models) that's (to my ear) pretty hard to beat. I'm still not so old, that I can't get up and give one of those big honking inertia loaded flywheels a spin. YMMV...
