With the Yamaha T-S500 in the bedroom calling me, I found an opportunity to play with the new toy for a couple hours while Christine and MIL watched Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves - almost two-and-a-half hours. Okay, so it isn't a tuner that excites anyone here, but a new toy is a new toy. And boys will be boys. Don't even act like you never had any fun with a cheap toy, now.
I had let the stations auto-set when I connected the good antenna after the screw-on/push-on F-adaptor arrived, so the first thing I did was manually reset the first three presets to the three stations which comprise 99% of my FM listening. I'll set the other four stations, totaling one-percent later because I must stand to do it. Lower back protests.
So that's KUCO, FM 91.3; KOMA, FM 92.5; KBRU "The Brew", FM 94.7. Rabbit ears and folded wire dipoles had failed to derive clean signals from all three txs until I cobbled together that simple dipole from copper pipe. The Yamaha brought them in clear, too, with the dipole. KUCO is a classical college station with a very clean signal which they spent some money improving lately, but I don't know the details. KOMA is the typical classic rock station, but they at least work from a large playlist. The Brew is newer rock with older mixed in. I spent some time with each. Actually, I spent the least time with the classical station, despite it being my primary destination for most of my FM listening - I was in a rock mood.
KOMA was playing Run Down a Dream, Petty, which engaged me and I listened there for a few songs, until they played a Foreigner tune I'd had my fill of long ago, and switched to The Brew with the A-S500 integrated's remote, and found fresher meat. Two things: buying the used A-S500 is the reason for this Amazon Warehouse purchase of the tuner, and the biggest complaint about the tuner in user reviews is that it comes sans remote. So the buyer has to have a Yamaha int-amp or receiver (or a Harmony-like remote) to control it, despite the fact that the tuner does have an IR window on its face. At least you don't have extra wiring required between tuner and amp for control, like the old NAD-Link system, and others similar from the past. Yamaha really couldn't afford the remote at the tuner's asking price?
So I sat in my over-sized leather office chair beside my bed, remote atop the mattress and enjoyed the music. Sound-wise, the tuner is fine. I was really impressed with the low bass. No, not the best tuner I ever heard, but not all that far from it, either - at least, for strong locals. Certainly, I got my $118 worth. I'd been watching for a good deal on one since I bought the amp. Sounds better than most radio streams, by far. And that concludes tonight's tuner report from my crib.