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Sony ST-S730ES vs. Kenwood KT-8300

billinkansas

billinkansas

Older I get, better I was
Looking for a bit of advice here from you vintage tuner guys. I have both a Sony ST-S730ES and a Kenwood KT-8300. Both tuners are stock and both sound really good, although I think that the Kenwood is a bit out of alignment.

I listen a lot with headphones, so quiet low-noise reception is as big of a concern for me as sound quality. Right now, the Sony is a whole lot quieter than the Kenwood. With the right mods and realignment, can the Kenwood get really quiet to compete with the Sony in this regard? Does the Sony have some special quieting circuit that gives it a big advantage with this?

FWIW, I am using a roof mounted Fanfare FM2-GC whip.

Thanks in advance!
 
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The Sony ST-730ES is about the most quiet FM tuner you can buy. Check out the specs for stereo S/N ratios on TVK. Just about any other tuner you can buy will have more noise.

Specifically the mono S/N on the Sony is 100 dB! The Kenwood 8300 is only 78 dB in mono.

For stereo, there is only 7 dB deference but that is over 4 times louder.

Little wonder the Sony is less noisy but that is a factor of the design, Not much you can do about it now.
 
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