Tuners

Rotel RT850L or RT850AL, Denon Tu260L, Arcam Alpha 5 Tuner. All decent entry point tuners. Sold at £110-£150 in the late 80's early 90's. All got FM/MW. AFAICM the Rotels and the Denon have LW as well. I got my brother a RT850AL, its fine and very cheap. Spend far more on the ariel than you do on the tuner at this price point and your moneys well spent.
Next up are Creek tuners. A lighter more spacious sound, FM only no presets, don't look impressive. My second choice after Naim tuners. I think Creek tuners are musical and fantastic VFM. I sold my T40 series 3 for £85 to a forum member earlier this year. This was one of the later Creek tuners and is excellent.
Hope this helps, Noel

It's fairly unlikely but if you come across either an old Onix or Nytech, they are both rated. Also old Quad's are supposed to be OK - I've nver heard one, but there may be a few more around.

Phil

I have a Quad FM4 which (with a good aerial) is a deeply satisfying way to listen to FM.

They are about £200 off eBay and fully servicable by Quad for £40 + parts.

How much is a NAT 05?

Fisbey,
a good aerial (Ron Smith) coupled with most tuners mentioned will show how well a tuner can perform.

Roy

Quad FM4 is a great tuner. Also very good is the Meridian 504. To be honest I couldn't tell a massive difference between this and the NAT02 (which admittedly I've used since 1997 in place of the 504).

Marantz also make excellent quality VFM tuners. I bought an ST-48 about 4 years ago and it's been great. It cost just over £100 and at the pricepoint is pretty much unbeatable (with a decent aerial). There's a couple of these on eBay at the moment (bids starting at 5-10GBP) - you could get a really good tuner for next to nothing.

David

I had a Marantz tuner once - St54 I think - have to be honest I thought it was abysmal!....

I guess there's bound to be some variation in people's experience with any make, but I certainly can't fault the ST-48 performance and for the price its an absolute steal, if you can live without a remote.

Its no NAT-01 of course, but it's performance stands comparison well alongside my CD3.5 and LP12 sources. The one caveat is, like most tuners, it does require a good external aerial to make it sing. If you only use them with the supplied wire-dipole they all sound crap.

David

I've tried a few tuners : Arcams ,old Meridian , NAT 02 (I think it was) , and Tandberg 3001. For me the best was the Tandberg. It's got a fuller more dynamic sound , and good clarity that I haven't heard with any other tuner. It's probably about 15 years old and I've had to get it repaired a couple of times, but I reckon that its about the best. Its also got a nice analog type tuning display . Havent compared it to a NAT 01 though.

Brendan

"a nice analog type tuning display"
Wot no presets then

David

Yep , it's got presets, but I never use em.
BTW, there's a website about tuners at www.fmtunerinfo.com . A bit of an unfavorable review with the NAT 01
Brendan

Hi Fisbey
I think that radio is an excellent medium and offers fantastic value for the money. I have had a lot of tuners in my time. First of all, I absolutely concur with the comments about an aerial - better to spend more money on a good aerial and get a lesser tuner rather then the other way round.
On another note, the best tuners that I have had are a Magnum Dynalab FT-101A and the venerable NAT01. I loved the Magnum Dynalab FT-101A for its ability to pull in a signal and give excellent clean reception. However, ultimately the sound quality of a NAT-01 is really special.
I don't know quite how to put this without being too cheeky but I believe that there is currently a Magnum Dynalab FT-101A on e**y.
Good luck and happy radio listening.
Raphael

quote:

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A bit of an unfavorable review with the NAT 01

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It is a bit 'damning with faint praise' - innit?

Seems that Bob is a bit of a Kenwood L-02T fan though judging by the outcome of the 'Shoot-Out'. Don't know why he bothered testing the others, the winner seems to have been predetermined from the outset.

David

PS: Don't tell Mick Parry about the NAT-01 review, he'd be mortified

That's an odd looking system you have there - looks remarkable similar to my own (I don't have an LP12 though)!

Apparently the Nat01 does not have enough buttons, toggles and flashing lights.
Currently ranked 53 out of 61.

regards,

michael

I would put my 01/XPS2-T against anything!!!

Buttons!? Don't need no stinken buttons!??

HA-HA!! I laugh in their face!!

Mornin all,

Marc

After looking at their rank list, it seems that their site has lost any credibility it may have had.

I want flashing lights, knobs, presets, signal strength meter, digital display, remote control, RDS, police radar proximity alert and a BIG tuning wheel too....bugger what it sounds like....

Will Sir then be wanting yo try the Ron Smith "Arecibo" , none bigger or indeed better.

Roy T

I don't want to be too controversial, but I do think presets are a good idea - without them there's so many crap stations you have to manually tune through to get from Jazz FM to Radio 3. Also the remote is worthwhile - I don't have one and wish I did.

David

Sticking one's head above the parapet...
I've been enjoying the Arcam Alpha 10 DAB for some years now - listening mainly to R3 classical music.
pcm

Revox

They used to build awful amps and even worse speakers, but they were definitely able to build great tape machines, and even greater tuners.

About a year ago I bought an old B760 and I've never heard such a thing before - very clear sound and an absolutely unbeatable presence. And it is clear that the engineers built the selectivity of the tuner according to central Europe's cluttered radio station network. Some may say this is a compromise - I found it was beautifully solved.

The drawback was that the power supply of this venerable 25-year-old model broke down a few months later, and you can forget about spare parts. But more recent s-h models like the B260 (not the B261, reportedly unreliable - that's why Revox stopped its production a few years after they'd launched it) might be a good bet.

Cheese

When I bought my Naim stuff the dealer here on the west coast suggested the Roksan Caspain. I didn't like their other kit (too brittle sounding compared to the Naim gear) but he said the tuner would work better in the mountainous area of Los Angeles than Naim tuners. I'm a bit underwhelmed at their presets but it does work fine. I basically listen to one classical station and a couple of rock stations and the tuner is on at least 50% of the time for listening during the day, much more than the TT or CD5. Oh and it's just FM, which I don't miss AM at all.

I wanted a cheap tuner but my dealer said they can sound tinny or hollow, so I spent more. I really blew my budget when I went to Naim gear. the Caspain gear was in my budget but Naim just sounded nicer, smoother and more engaging. Y'all understand.

Life is analogue