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Tuners?

tubelectron said:
A few tuners, that are sleeping on a shelf :
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I have the same as your TX-8500II ... except in the Japanese bandwidth it's called TX-8800II.

QUESTION: How do you like the way it sounds?

Mine is being given an alignment at the tech shop. The stereo light won't come on. Time for a checkup. (I recapped the board years ago.)
 
I have a Sansui TU-717 in my main system that sounds and performs great.. no temptation to change it out for something else.
I just bought a new Yamaha A-S801 for my computer [iMac] based system { streaming/DVD }.. and got a 44 year old Yamaha T-2 tuner to pair with that, as I also listen to NPR most days as well as well as Classic King FM 98.1 and another NPR station that plays jazz and 6 hours of blues on Saturday and Sunday evenings. A pleasant surprise was the way the 801 and T-2 matched visually even down to the lettering/script.... no one that didn't know would guess that they were produced almost a half a century apart. The T-2 also performs great. Looking for another for the Shop system.
 
mikejennings said:
I have a Sansui TU-717 in my main system that sounds and performs great.. no temptation to change it out for something else.
I just bought a new Yamaha A-S801 for my computer [iMac] based system { streaming/DVD }.. and got a 44 year old Yamaha T-2 tuner to pair with that, as I also listen to NPR most days as well as well as Classic King FM 98.1 and another NPR station that plays jazz and 6 hours of blues on Saturday and Sunday evenings. A pleasant surprise was the way the 801 and T-2 matched visually even down to the lettering/script.... no one that didn't know would guess that they were produced almost a half a century apart. The T-2 also performs great. Looking for another for the Shop system.
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Need some pictures. Both the 717 and T-2's are in my favorites list and have owned both myself.
 
I have acquired another tuner from a garage sale two days ago, a Yamaha CT-510. It was sold as "not working" for $10 but it seems to be working just fine. My tuner list is now:

Arkay AM-FM
Bogen T661
Edwards Fidelotuner
Eico HFT-90
Eico HFT-92
Fisher KM-60
Granco T-161
Harmon-Kardon Citation III-X
Heathkit AJ-10
Heathkit AJ-32
Heathkit AJ-1510A
Heathkit BC-1A
Heathkit FM-3A
Heathkit FM-4
Hitachi FT-3500
Knight (no model number but it looks like the 83YX732 although it has a different RF front end)
Knight KG-50
Lafayette LT-100
Lafayette KT-500
Leak Troughline II
Pilotuner T-601
Pioneer AFT-12
Radio Craftsmen RC-10
Realistic TM-150
Sherwood 2100 II
Technics STS-78
Trio AFX-210
Yamaha CT-510

fmtunerinfo dismisses it as a low-quality unit but but its quality is every bit as good as the stations it gets.
 
I got a Kenwood KT-5020 at an estate sale. I did some comparisons and found it most similar to my Onkyo T-9090 -- extremely quiet and resistant to IBOC noise from HD radio. I found the sound slightly "laid back" or distant from the stage compared to a more "forward" or close-to-the-stage sound on the Onkyo. It also had a minor digital display problem; the gentleman I sold it to fixed it! The KT-5020 is a very impressive unit.
 
I haven't owned a tuner since my ex-wife ran off with my Pioneer CX-790 Stereo Tuner & M-790 Amplifier. They sounded good into some Infinity speakers, though, and we had some pretty good FM stations at the time.
 
t2 is an excellent tuna; i used to have one, when i was buying and selling.

somewhere along the way, i got lazy and stopped selling. i need to resume; if i could get down to ten tunas, i'd be very happy!

doug s.
MX117.MC7150 said:
Yamaha T-2 is one of my keepers now that I'm down to three (3) tuners. Fully recapped and aligned. A terrific piece of gear.
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I don't know, Doug. Can we trust you these days? After all, you've admitted to having turned to the dark side (digital) and now do your listening thru streaming (digital). Not sure we analog folks can truly feel comfortable with your thoughts. ;-)
 
hi glenn,

well... for me, it's always been about the music, and the gear is a means to an end. unfortunately, the quality and diversity of analog fm has diminished greatly over the years; at least in my area. no decent progressive music whatsoever, no decent world music whatsoever, one jazz station that's not nearly as vibrant as it was 20 years ago, one low power college station that seems to have gone downhill, and one classical station. (if i could put up a 50' tower, i might be able to pick up one decent college station, and another classical station. maybe.) so, my analog collection mostly gathers dust. i have four tuna that are in rotation right now, but analog fm gets turned on here maybe a few hours a month.

so, what's comfortable for me? an eclectic music mix that sounds good. that means a grace-link internet tuna feeding a good dac; mostly tuned to the 192kbps fip.fr feed. whether or not others are comfortable with my thoughts? i'm comfortable with whatever anyone thinks about it. ;)

hippo gnu ears, and happy listening.

doug s.
MX117.MC7150 said:
I don't know, Doug. Can we trust you these days? After all, you've admitted to having turned to the dark side (digital) and now do your listening thru streaming (digital). Not sure we analog folks can truly feel comfortable with your thoughts. ;-)
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doug s. said:
hi glenn,

so, what's comfortable for me? an eclectic music mix that sounds good. that means a grace-link internet tuna feeding a good dac; mostly tuned to the 192kbps fip.fr feed. whether or not others are comfortable with my thoughts? i'm comfortable with whatever anyone thinks about it. ;)

hippo gnu ears, and happy listening.

doug s.
Click to expand...

Have to admit also not listening much over the air broadcasts. I do often stream to a transmitter and listen through a tuner.
 
check out the grace-link, unless your streaming enables you to get the higher-res internet stations fed into a good dac. and then listen to this:
https://www.radiofrance.fr/fip/titres-diffuses
but listen on this higher bitrate feed:
https://icecast.radiofrance.fr/fip-hifi.aac?id=radiofranc
the 1st link shows what they're playing, and their other genre-specific feeds. (also available in higher bitrate feeds). and they save the playlist for 30 days. the dictionary definition of "eclectic" should just list the "fip.fr" standard feed... ;)

a good start for higher bitrate internet stations:
https://radiobit.50webs.com

a cool interactive internet radio station site - search the globe. literally:
http://radio.garden/

doug s.
Punker X said:
Have to admit also not listening much over the air broadcasts. I do often stream to a transmitter and listen through a tuner.
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Well, I'm looking for a tuner to pair with a MAC 6200, as I do like my FM. The obvious choice would probably be a MAC tuner, but for the time being I need something more affordable.

In the past I've always used receivers, so I'm new to integrated systems. It seems there's a ton of tuners for sale out there, with wildly varying prices, and one thing I'm very leery of is a seller that's asking a couple of hundred dollars for a unit, but puts "as is, no returns" in their description..Another one is when all they have to say is "it works"..:mad:

After doing quite a bit of research and pricing, I'm still pretty clueless about what to go with..:(

Right now all I want is a good, dependable tuner I can use till I can afford a MAC or something similar..I do prefer the old analog units in which one can tweak the dial to bring in a weak station's signal a bit better, The story of my life seems to be the station I liked was always slightly out of range..Back in the 70's we used to have parties in which we would drive up and park on top of a mountain on Saturday nights to listen to our favorite late night radio programs with our car stereos.

Here in Montana we don't have a lot of great radio to begin with..I mostly listen to a college station over in Bozeman, KGLT, great station! They play a wide variety, and spin a lot of vinyl. But there's also a few good classic rock stations hereabouts that are OK as well.

Of course, FM radio nowadays is pretty much like TV has become, which is a lot of commercial advertising with a little bit of programming sandwiched between the ads..Drives me nuts! :bs:

I have to admit, I started using Sirius XM, both in my truck as well as at home, and it's awesome to not have to put up with the commercial advertising crap..I'll hang on to my FM though, if for no other reason for nostalgia's sake.

So as far as the OP's question though, right now I have NO tuners, but I'm looking! :rolleyes:
 
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lorne said:
I have the same as your TX-8500II ... except in the Japanese bandwidth it's called TX-8800II.

QUESTION: How do you like the way it sounds?

Mine is being given an alignment at the tech shop. The stereo light won't come on. Time for a checkup. (I recapped the board years ago.)
Click to expand...

Well... I'll be honest : my Pioneer TX-8500-II, Sony ST-2950F and Sansui TU-D33XL are sleeping on shelves and cartons (generic pictures below, not mine)... A shame, yes !

upload_2023-4-2_17-15-11.png

upload_2023-4-2_17-16-56.png


upload_2023-4-2_17-12-3.png

I have the user and service manual for each, and I serviced them with AM/FM signal generators according to the procedures, so they work absolutely fine :cool:... Now while I am writing this, I think that I should put them back into service ! :rolleyes:

How do they sound ? The TX-8500-II is probably the best of the three, yes, rivalled by my Marantz 2250b, 2270 and possibly 2015 receivers (my pics this time ;)) :

mVKhJb-marantzBG2250B2015.jpg

a4ofOb-P1150468.jpg


T
 

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Ok, I just got off ebay, and I now have a tuner!

I got on there and lo and behold, there was a Sansui TU-217 with one minute left to bid..So I bid a longshot $45.00 and won, it also comes with a 30 day return policy.

Here's hoping I did good..
 
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