Best FM tuner ever made?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info.

 

[Imp]

I have owned tuners from - Audiolab, Tag-mclaren, Magnum Dynalab, Arcam and Musical Fidelity and none of them come even close to the sublime sound of my current tuner, a Leak Troughline.

The Troughline was purchased on Ebay for £50 and serviced by One Thing Audio at a cost of £150, so for a total cost of £200 I have the best sounding tuner I have ever owned.

I recently did a listening test between my Audiolab T8000 (which I still own) a Magnum Dynalab (since sold) and the Troughline. The Leak had a far richer sound with much deeper base and sweeter treble than either of the other two. Both the Audiolab and Magnum Dynalab sounded quite thin and pale in comparison. I would not sell the Troughline whatever I was offered.

 

[chebby]

The best FM tuners I have owned were the Rega Radio (for 11 years) and a Naim NAT05 that I bought second-hand for £450, used for two years, then sold for £450. (Bargain!)

As for my 'favourite' FM tuner (not necessarily the best one), that was an old Sony ST-88 that I bought (very) second-hand for my first proper hi-fi system. I loved the quirky 1970s upright look and the wooden case and the illuminated tuning scale, signal strength meter etc. (It was also pretty good as a tuner once connected to a decent roof aerial.)

 

[CnoEvil]

Best Tuner - Naim NAT-01 / NAPST

Favorite Tuner - Leak Troughline, as it belonged to my father, and so I grew up with it.

 

[MajorFubar]

Favourite tuner is my mkII Cyrus Tuner, the one built in the same heavy metal chassis as the later One and Two amps and operated by remote. I've heard/owned several well-respected tuners by Sony, Pioneer, Kenwood, Technics, Akai, and even a strange one from the 70s badged as a Wien (who made both a matching amp and an 8-track player in the same Cyrus-style half-width chassis). But nothing I've heard compares to this. With a first-rate aerial and first-rate transmissions from the likes of Radio 3 and 4, you're 'there'.

Kudos though to Pioneer's advertising execs. Back in the late 80s (might have been early 90s), according to a WHF Supertest one of the best tuners money could buy was the then-current range-topper by Pioneer, though sadly I forget its model number. I remember Pioneer ran a very subtle full-page advert in WHF in the same issue. There was a studio/brochure shot of their Supertest-winning 5* tuner and a simple tagline that said something like, "One company makes the best tuners in the world. This is their best tuner." Subtle. Almost Carlsberg-like.

 

[dfa2124]

Best one I've yet heard through my system is a Yamaha T-2. Best imaging and depth/realism I have yet heard from a tuner.

Some say that these were on a par or even better than the much-hyped CT-7000.

 

[dfa2124]

Favourite tuner is my mkII Cyrus Tuner, the one built in the same heavy metal chassis as the later One and Two amps and operated by remote. I've heard/owned several well-respected tuners by Sony, Pioneer, Kenwood, Technics, Akai, and even a strange one from the 70s badged as a Wien (who made both a matching amp and an 8-track player in the same Cyrus-style half-width chassis). But nothing I've heard compares to this. With a first-rate aerial and first-rate transmissions from the likes of Radio 3 and 4, you're 'there'. Kudos though to Pioneer's advertising execs. Back in the late 80s (might have been early 90s), according to a WHF Supertest one of the best tuners money could buy was the then-current range-topper by Pioneer, though sadly I forget its model number. I remember Pioneer ran a very subtle full-page advert in WHF in the same issue. There was a studio/brochure shot of their Supertest-winning 5* tuner and a simple tagline that said something like, "One company makes the best tuners in the world. This is their best tuner." Subtle. Almost Carlsberg-like.

Probably the F-91 which was their TOTL model in the late 80s/early 90s. Gets a very good write-up in the Tuner Information Center.

 

[MajorFubar]

Yeah I think it was that one.

 

[Kevin Stephens]

Musical Fidelity A5 Tuner takes some beating