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Receivers with best tuners?

martind28

martind28

Active Member
Hi folks, somewhat new to vintage audio, and was wondering what 70's receivers have the best tuners. I like listening to FM a lot (as well as other sources) thanks for responding, AK is great with some really nice people involved
 
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IMO, all the major receivers from that era have very good tuners. Sansui was a master of the things, with Marantz, Yamaha and Pioneer not giving up much. More money got you more gangs and a bit better performance. Today we have interference from HD radio, so you might want to read about HD-radio self noise here- http://ham-radio.com/k6sti/hdrsn.htm

All that said, the best tuner is an aligned tuner with a decent antenna. That will beat a megabuck tuner that's misaligned and has a bad antenna every single time.
 
Like Conrad states, higher end models have better tuners. For a really good analog tuner, a separate is a good alternative. The separate tuners typically have a better tuning alignment and process signal better than a receiver tuner. Separate tuners don't command high prices and there are sleepers out there for the knowledgeable. Check out this website for good tuner information: http://www.fmtunerinfo.com/

Edit: Katalyst had the same idea!
 
Yamaha CR-800/1000 had pretty much their high end CT-800 tuners inboard, not the case with the later models which had lesser tuner sections than the separates.

The Sony STR-V5/6/7 had excellent 5 gang tuner sections.
 
KentTeffeteller said:
Pre 1973 HH Scott or McIntosh receivers have far and away the best tuners of any receivers.
Click to expand...

Agreed and it'll come as no surprise that Scott's chief [tuner] engineer joined McIntosh...in 1973. ;) His name was Larry Fish.

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Kenwood was part of Trio, a Japanese company that made great ham gear in addition to stereo. Their tuners were very good. Sony 70's and 80's had great stuff also. Of course McIntosh MR 74 and other MAC tuners were legendary.
 
johnda said:
Kenwood was part of Trio, a Japanese company that made great ham gear in addition to stereo. Their tuners were very good. Sony 70's and 80's had great stuff also. Of course McIntosh MR 74 and other MAC tuners were legendary.
Click to expand...
I was going to mention Kenwood too. :thumbsup:
 
Kenwood did have some fine tuners. Can't comment on the tuner sections of Kenwood receivers.
 
You have to remember that FM was a much bigger deal then than now. Nobody could pass off a second rate tuner and expect market success. Receivers take too much criticism because all the circuits are in one box, but they do just fine. That said, I've always been a separates guy myself.
 
Just barely within the 70s, there were at least two manufacturers that took tuner performance seriously enough that their upper-range receivers had dual-bandwidth IF stages in the FM sections. (A feature that, for me, separates interesting tuners from not-so-interesting ones.)

The examples I know about are:
  • Yamaha CR-x40 series, from CR-840 up
  • Kenwood KR-x050 series, from KR-6050 up
Don't know if the OP is particularly interested in this feature, but I'd be very interested to hear if anyone else knows of more in the same vein. My own interests aren't limited to the 70s, but they are (mostly) limited to analog tuning - pretty close to being the same limit, as it happens. Oh, and I think I know most of the separate tuners with the feature - it's whether there were any other analog receivers with dual-bandwidth IF that I'm curious about.

Cheers and thanks,

chazix
 
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