There's more to life than Luxman

toomuchvinyl

Active Member
Hi All,

I decided to start tis thread to try to get a reccomendation for a tuner for my future system. Everyting I currently have is Luxman. That's OK, but I see all of the diverse loyalty to many different brands so I just thought I'd open this and see what sort of opinions I'd get. I know no one manufacturer made the best of everything. I'm looking for some opinions on a decent tuna for $100 buck or so that isn't Lux. Hep me out folks!
 
Thanks Bolly,
I Like Marantz, they were probably the most popular brand in my area back in the day. we were all High Scholl age or just out and the Receivers were most prevalent then. Never had the chance to see many component systems.
 
You should be able to find a Marantz 125 tuner for around $100. It is a very fine tuner, same as the 150 just without a scope. I have one and it is very sensitive, and sounds great. I have a Kenwood KT1000, Denon TU-500 and the Marantz 125. I think the Marantz is the best of the 3. Sansui made some wonderful tuners also but you're not going to find one for $100.
 
dr*audio said:
You should be able to find a Marantz 125 tuner for around $100. It is a very fine tuner, same as the 150 just without a scope. I have one and it is very sensitive, and sounds great. I have a Kenwood KT1000, Denon TU-500 and the Marantz 125. I think the Marantz is the best of the 3. Sansui made some wonderful tuners also but you're not going to find one for $100.
$100 for a Marantz 125 would be a great price, but it's unlikely you'll find one this cheap that works.

Last two on ePrey sold for $178.00 and $202.50 respectively. And it's not uncommon for them to sell for $250 or more on ePrey.

Don't follow them on Audiogon so have no idea of what they sell for there. :cool:
 
If you can tolerate a digital tuner (some can, some can't), a Yamaha T-80, or T-70 is nice, I also like the TX-930 or TX-950, they should all be under a $100.00 (the T-80 can sometimes go for a little more)

Analog Tuner (a good one under $100.00).....that's a tough one :scratch2: , I like the T-9 and T-4 by Onkyo - They are both usually under a $100.00, maybe a Kenwood 7500 or a Pioneer TX-7500, these can fluctuate in price a lot.

If you would be willing to spend 200.00+ (up to $250.00), I really enjoy my Pioneer TX-9500II (some people will swear by a Sansui 717)

Good Luck on your tuner hunt, I am out! :yes: , I have 5 tuners as of now, a sickness in and of itself :smoke:
 
toomuchvinyl said:
Hi All,

I decided to start tis thread to try to get a reccomendation for a tuner for my future system. Everyting I currently have is Luxman. That's OK, but I see all of the diverse loyalty to many different brands so I just thought I'd open this and see what sort of opinions I'd get. I know no one manufacturer made the best of everything. I'm looking for some opinions on a decent tuna for $100 buck or so that isn't Lux. Hep me out folks!
A still hidden gem is the Sony ST-J75, IMHO.

Check out http://www.fmtunerinfo.com/reviewsO-Z.html#sony and click on the reprint of the Audio magazine review by Len Feldman. It was SO GOOD his test equipment could not verify all of its specs and this tuner became his "reference" tuner for a while.

I think people ignore them because they look so ordinary, and they rarely sell for more than $50 or $60 on ePrey. I think it's so good I bought 3, and paid $12, $36, and $24 for each one, respectively. But that was several years ago before they got mentioned on the FM Tuner Info site.

IMHO, the early Sony stuff was much better built and performed better than their later stuff. The ST-J75 was their first digital tuner and they made certain it was a good one!:cool:
 
Gotta second that Sony ST-J75. That's why I have three of them. :thmbsp: Sony's first digital tuner and they definitely did it right. Will be recapping one in the future to compare to the stock one I listen to as one of my primary tuners.

Another fine tuner is the Yamaha CT-1010. They are generally sub-$100 on eBay. Only problem with any of these less expensive vintage tuners is that they are 'hit-or-miss'. That is, they are old enough that you might get one that sounds very good and you might get one that sounds pretty poor. Problem is not that they are bad tuners, just old enough to need an alignment. You might want to pick one that 'reads' and looks good on the TIC (Tuner Info Center, listed in previous posts) and see what you think. But, after you listen, before you decide you don't care for, spend the $75 to have it aligned (and maybe even recapped).
 
Yamaha B-2 said:
Gotta second that Sony ST-J75. That's why I have three of them. :thmbsp: Sony's first digital tuner and they definitely did it right. Will be recapping one in the future to compare to the stock one I listen to as one of my primary tuners.

Another fine tuner is the Yamaha CT-1010. They are generally sub-$100 on eBay. Only problem with any of these less expensive vintage tuners is that they are 'hit-or-miss'. That is, they are old enough that you might get one that sounds very good and you might get one that sounds pretty poor. Problem is not that they are bad tuners, just old enough to need an alignment. You might want to pick one that 'reads' and looks good on the TIC (Tuner Info Center, listed in previous posts) and see what you think. But, after you listen, before you decide you don't care for, spend the $75 to have it aligned (and maybe even recapped).
Yamaha B-2: We are singing in harmony :)

IMHO, ANY tuner more than 15 years old needs to have a good tuner tech go through it, check for leaky caps, etc., make sure there are no bad parts, and ALIGN the sucker so you max out its performance.

A dirty little secret you must know, but many do not know: The majority of the vintage tuners everyone likes and think so highly of were only given marginal alignments at the factory when they were produced: Time is money and it takes more than 10 minutes to properly align ANY tuner. Some can take as much as 2 hours or more.

But if you're an FM fan and have good stations available, please don't cheap out and buy an old vintage tuner that's never seen a service tech and expect it to perform at its best. :cool:
 
Thanks everyone for your replies. I'm sort of ambivalent about digital tuners, but I know that there must have been some decent ones made. Sounds like it would be a good idea to look at them as I know that they really don’t have the cachet of analog devices and therefore there are bargains to be had there. I may also need to rethink my price threshold if I am going to insist on an analog model. Insights like these are just the sort of thing I was hoping to get when I started this thread. :thmbsp:
 
Vinyl Rules! said:
A still hidden gem is the Sony ST-J75, IMHO.

Check out http://www.fmtunerinfo.com/reviewsO-Z.html#sony and click on the reprint of the Audio magazine review by Len Feldman. It was SO GOOD his test equipment could not verify all of its specs and this tuner became his "reference" tuner for a while.

I think people ignore them because they look so ordinary, and they rarely sell for more than $50 or $60 on ePrey. I think it's so good I bought 3, and paid $12, $36, and $24 for each one, respectively. But that was several years ago before they got mentioned on the FM Tuner Info site.

IMHO, the early Sony stuff was much better built and performed better than their later stuff. The ST-J75 was their first digital tuner and they made certain it was a good one!:cool:

I've got to Triple that on the ST-J75.

Before you send me out to pasture, I owned a brand new Sansui Tu-9900 for bout 6 months based on reviews from Audio & Stereo Review- when the ST-J75 came out and I read Len Feldmans review. Out of my ignorance and subsequent stupidty, I traded the Tu-9900 in for the new Sony. I had this Sony unit until last year when I decided the Sony was no longer satisying me sonically. It seems the Sony had a problem with Bass notes dropping or cutting out when played. I read some where (after the fact), this was a common problem with that model. I could never find anyone who encountered that condition when I had the unit in my possession.

Guess what unit went back into my stable after 25 years? Tu-9900, plus the Tu-919, Kenwood KT-917 & 600T...... Belts and Suspenders!

The ST-J75, when all was playing well, had a silence as black as midnight. But I found in hind sight kinda one dimensional compared to the units I have now. Am I sorry to have seen it go... Not really, The unit would have been SOB to try to mod.

Nevertheless, your suggestion is dynamite for a great starter unit that really shines for the most part, most of the time. :thmbsp:
 
Since we are singing its praises, thought I should post a pic of the ST-J75. Here is the one in my main rig sitting on the CX-1 and under the DVD963SA. Tuned into our local 24 hr. jazz/classical station. Sounds great in my system. :yes:

Also post a nudie of one of my other ST-J75s. Not sure why you would think this would be an SOB to mod. Very simple and easy-to-get-to components. Looking forward to doing mine. :thmbsp:
 

Attachments

  • ST-J75.jpg
    ST-J75.jpg
    104.6 KB · Views: 56
  • ST-J75 Nudie.jpg
    ST-J75 Nudie.jpg
    147.7 KB · Views: 48
toomuchvinyl said:
Thanks everyone for your replies. I'm sort of ambivalent about digital tuners, but I know that there must have been some decent ones made. Sounds like it would be a good idea to look at them as I know that they really don’t have the cachet of analog devices and therefore there are bargains to be had there. I may also need to rethink my price threshold if I am going to insist on an analog model. Insights like these are just the sort of thing I was hoping to get when I started this thread. :thmbsp:
If the Sony ST-J75 interests you and don't want to spend the $60 or so that seems to be the going ePrey price for this model, the ST-J55 and the ST-J60 are very similar and would sound very much like the ST-J75.

I've seen several of these sell for $25 to $30 recently and I don't believe you can buy a better tuner for so little $$$.

As always, YMMV.

As for the ST-J75, one of the engineers in the FM Tuner Group at www.fmtunerinfo.com sold his personal ST-J75 several months ago for over $170, BUT he had updated it, aligned it, and put in new hand-matched IF Filters (this means they all measured the same on his test equipment - There is usually wide variability between Murata IF filters and they usually vary widely from how they are labelled). I'm guessing he probably had 4 or more hours of bench time in it and when you figure a good tech is $60 to $75 an hour, the buyer of this tuner got a bargin, IMHO.

The best tuner modders buy IF filters in bulk and spend a lot of time measuring each and every filter so they can put matched pairs when they update or mod a tuner. And they end up only using about 10% of what they buy because Murata's QC is so lousy - The rest end up in the local landfill. This is why a good filter upgrade from a good modder is not cheap. :cool:
 
Denon TU-460 and I have one. Nice sound from a compact "digital" tuner that is remote capable. Last time I checked, these sell for $60 +/- which is a bargain. Nice write up at TIC.

Murray
 
562lonnie said:
I like the Mahi Mahi...thats an excellant tuna.
:lmao:
I goes for the seared Ahi myself. Plenty of Wasabi and pickled ginger on the side! :D

Thanks to all of the responders since my last post, more and more to think about!
 
Back
Top Bottom