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Radio Road Which tuner to get and getting the most from it. Thank God, for the radio! |
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Radio Road Which tuner to get and getting the most from it. Thank God, for the radio! |
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In Reply to: How many here post also at "FM Tuners" ? Also, FM tuner info site unfair to tube tuners? posted by Bambi B on July 7, 2006 at 02:29:36:
Personally, I have not experienced tube tuners having sensitivity issues. I have a simple attic mount unidirectional antenna & receive full quieting signals from 70 miles away. Granted I am on top of a hill, but lots of hills exist around my QTH.Stock solid-state tuners can easily sound better than a stock tube tuner. So, I would not discount say a Kenwood LT-02 & other highly regarded tuners.
I have not experienced a stock tube tuner such as Scott 350D, EICO ST-97, Fisher KM60, EICO Classic 2200, Dynaco FM3, etc that sounded marvelous (as some say) in stock form. (Not a flamer, I question some of the auditions reported with regard to other components such as the amplifier, preamp & speakers). Per my tests, various issues exist in stock tube tuners such as low level annoying distortion in the audio, perhaps a dull sounding treble response, slight background hiss in the treble (even on strong stations), weak bass response, lack of overall clairity, etc. Perhaps some of the McIntosh tube tuners are about perfect 'out of the box'- I never owned one.
After modifications to the Scott 350D, Dynaco FM3 & EICO Classic 2200, the EICO Classic 2200 by far outperformed the rest sonically. No doubt, the other tuners did respond to modifications with better sonics. Interesting that the EICO Classic 2200 sounded best in stereo mode whereas the others performed best in mono.
Moddfying a tube tuner requires lots of tubes & even building a socket adapter to try tubes such as a 6SN7 to replace a normally disappointing 12AU7 & so forth. I also try different coupling capacitors including capacitors in the audio, I.F. & even the mixer section. Finally, an alignment is performed. In the case of the EICO Classic 2200, the multiplexer board has a 'can' that is critical to proper adjustment. Slightly out of adjustment, I can throw away 1/2 of the mods performed in that tuner for best sonics. Fortunately, the adjustment holds alignment extremely well when considering a few degrees difference throws away the proper alignment for best sonics.
All I can say to achieve best sonics, nothing can be a second best performer part wise such as different tube manufacture or brand of audiophile quality coupling capacitors. Even the power supply is subject to capacitor upgrades such as a Solen filter capacitor or type of rectifier. All the small increases in performance adds up in a big way.
Solid-state tuners are much more complex & the right mix of parts including op-amps may never be found. Thus, I find tube tuners much easier to upgrade.
My 2 cents.
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Follow Ups
- Tube vs solid-state FM Tuners - Jimmy 07/7/0611:08:36 07/7/06 (0)
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