Question Does anyone still use a radio tuner?

[Symples]

I was reminiscing (had to look up the spelling) about some of my hifi from the olden days

I came across a piece of equipment, that I had quite forgotten about.

It was my tuner.
My last model was an Akai ST-S7.


Bought purely on looks and price
Mine was silver.

I never knew what happened to it, but it got me thinking.
Does anyone still have a tuner and do they still use it?


I now listen to internet radio and the odd DAB broadcast (Radio London/LBC) on my small mains powered radio (Roberts Stream 94I.... I love it )

 

[jjbomber]

Does anyone still have a tuner and do they still use it?

Took mine down the tip last week.

 

[Al ears]

Took mine down the tip last week.

Yes, my old Creek went the same way many moons ago...

 

[Gray]

Bought purely on looks and price

Same when I bought a silver Pioneer years ago.
That's long gone, but I've still got a Technics and Quad tuner.
The Quad (FM4) is FM only, simplicity itself, 8 presets, 38 years old and sounds nice.
....sometimes I open it up just to admire the innards 🙂

 

[nads]

Connected mine up the other week.

 

[podknocker]

Wow! A NAD T585 disc player! I had one in silver and it cost £200 from Richer Sounds, many years ago. The best sounding disc player, I've ever owned. It had an 'etched in air' holographic quality and I had it through a matching silver NAD amp, the C355BEE, which also cost £200 new, in the Richer Sounds sale. My speakers were KEF Q35i and yes, they were also £200 and the entire system, with cabling, came to £621 and it was the best sounding kit I've ever owned. I have new, quite expensive kit now, but I can't say it sounds better, just different. I did connect an old Cambridge Audio DAB300 tuner and it sounded OK, until they started cramming more radio stations into the already congested multiplexes. I remember many stations starting off with 256kb/s and many of them ended up at 96kb/s and they sounded really rough and artificial. That put me off DAB tuners and I never bought another. I now stream many stations via my new kit and the sound quality and ease of access, are terrific. I don't think there is a really good quality FM/DAB device out there now and if there was, it would be limited to a few dozen stations. Internet radio is the future and I listen to it for hours, daily.

 

[nads]

Wow! A NAD T585 disc player! I had one in silver and it cost £200 from Richer Sounds, many years ago. The best sounding disc player, I've ever owned. It had an 'etched in air' holographic quality and I had it through a matching silver NAD amp, the C355BEE, which also cost £200 new, in the Richer Sounds sale. My speakers were KEF Q35i and yes, they were also £200 and the entire system, with cabling, came to £621 and it was the best sounding kit I've ever owned. I have new, quite expensive kit now, but I can't say it sounds better, just different. I did connect an old Cambridge Audio DAB300 tuner and it sounded OK, until they started cramming more radio stations into the already congested multiplexes. I remember many stations starting off with 256kb/s and many of them ended up at 96kb/s and they sounded really rough and artificial. That put me off DAB tuners and I never bought another. I now stream many stations via my new kit and the sound qulaity and ease of access, are terrific. I don't think there is a really good quality FM/DAB device out there now and if there was, it would be limited to a few dozen stations. Internet radio is the future and I listen to it for hours, daily.

a lot of the 585 internals are the Masters player of the time. I also had the 540 CDP (I think) as you will see from the sig I have (and had) a few NADS.

the Tape and tuner were part of my first proper set up with a NAD 3130 and some AR (something) speakers Back in 86ish.

the tuner is there as a bit of fun and for when the internet is down.

 

[RoA]

The best tuner I've owned was a Cyrus.

I now only use internet radio.

 

[twinkletoes]

a lot of the 585 internals are the Masters player of the time. I also had the 540 CDP (I think) as you will see from the sig I have (and had) a few NADS.

the Tape and tuner were part of my first proper set up with a NAD 3130 and some AR (something) speakers Back in 86ish.

the tuner is there as a bit of fun and for when the internet is down.

Still have and use my c540 cd player. A great sounding cd player.

 

[Symples]

Connected mine up the other week.

and a cassette deck!

 

[Symples]

My first tuner, bought in 1982. Yes, 40 years ago.
I loved it. It had a digital display, but analogue tuning.

I replaced it with the Akai. Big mistake

 

[DCarmi]

and a cassette deck!

Still have my Cambridge Audio CT-50 cassette deck connected, which I got, in about 1991. Don't really use it much now but I can't quite bring myself to ditch my tape collection until the thing dies. It is supposed to have a terminal fault due to the transformer coils eventually failing but mine keeps going.

 

[Symples]

Still have my Cambridge Audio CT-50 cassette deck connected, which I got, in about 1991. Don't really use it much now but I can't quite bring myself to ditch my tape collection until the thing dies. It is supposed to have a terminal fault due to the transformer coils eventually failing but mine keeps going.

DON'T get rid of your tapes.
I made that mistake many years ago.... and still regret it.
Lots of memories

 

[matthewpianist]

My last tuner was a Denon TU-260L. It was a lovely sounding (and hugely popular) affordable model, but I just don't see the point anymore, and as much as it gets staved off it's only going to be so long until they switch the transmitters off for analogue radio and TV.

I now use the Denon DNP800NE - a fine sounding unit, easy to operate using HEOS and it offers internet radio alongside access to all the main streaming service (my preference being TIDAL, though I do also use Spotify on occasion).

 

[matthewpianist]

Correction - I had one more tuner after the TU-260L, a Denon TU1800DAB. This was also very good but I sold it on in the end.

 

[abacus]

My last one was probably in the 90s (I think it was a Pioneer), I also have one built into my AVR but never use it as everything I need is available online. (And providing you stick to proper channels the quality is just as good (Or better) than any tuner)

Bill

 

[elliswils]

Never stopped listening to my tuner and have always had one.

Currently it's a Cyrus FM7.5 on my main system and a TEAC T-H300 on my Vincent valve set up.

Prior to that another Vincent, and NADs as far back as I can remember.

Like vinyl, cassettes, CD and everything else; just because 'they' say a format is dead or dieing just keep on doing what you enjoy! Sooner or later it will come back around and you'll be the biggest fashionista ever.

 

[matthewpianist]

Never stopped listening to my tuner and have always had one.

Currently it's a Cyrus FM7.5 on my main system and a TEAC T-H300 on my Vincent valve set up.

Prior to that another Vincent, and NADs as far back as I can remember.

Like vinyl, cassettes, CD and everything else; just because 'they' say a format is dead or dieing just keep on doing what you enjoy! Sooner or later it will come back around and you'll be the biggest fashionista ever.

Vinyl and cassette don't depend on continuation of service, but analogue radio does, and the end has already been mooted more than once. It's a bit like the recent ending of fax services - when something takes up bandwidth and infrastructure, can be equalled or bettered by more modern technology, and is no longer used by sufficient numbers of people, it will be withdrawn.

 

[elliswils]

Just like vinyl...

 

[RoA]

There is a 'cassette revival' in certain quarters (which I personally don't quite get) in view on both how flawed the format is and how difficult/nigh on impossible it is to find good quality new tapes. Never mind the need to refurbish the machines in many instances.

I guess radio is slightly different and an old style tuner can still be used. They tend to work and work for a long time.

Why one would is another question.

 

[matthewpianist]

Just like vinyl...

Not really... The beauty of vinyl, as with CD, is that there will always be plentiful secondhand supply, and once you've got a collection it's always there irrespective of any wider decisions that are made out of our control.

I'm not at all deriding anyone for continuing with older forms of radio while it's still possible, simply pointing out that availability of service isn't infinite.

 

[plastic penguin]

Only last week I boxed the Denon up and now living in the attic, alongside my vintage Marantz 2060L tuner.

 

[AJM1981]

Tuners became quite obsolete here in The Netherlands after the radio signal was dropped from the cable a while ago. At least in a significant amount of regions.

Solutions are an antenna, DAB+ systems or Internet radio. I mainly use the latter.

If anyone from another country is searching for a quality cheap second hand tuner, aim for the Dutch market.

 

[AJM1981]

There is a 'cassette revival' in certain quarters (which I personally don't quite get) in view on both how flawed the format is and how difficult/nigh on impossible it is to find good quality new tapes. Never mind the need to refurbish the machines in many instances.

I guess radio is slightly different and an old style tuner can still be used. They tend to work and work for a long time.

Why one would is another question.

Kind of understand the cassette revival. Vinyl got an audiophile revival and kind of at consumer level too. Those crossley players might not be the best, but they are fun for all non audiophiles who just want to spin some records.

Cassettes ( in the way the masses used them) are not that much about the quality, but about the fun. Also many pop artists miss spreading something physical. Online music is quite dead in the sense of the lack of offering a connection with the product and owning something from an artist or band.

 

[DCarmi]

Cassettes ( in the way the masses used them) are not that much about the quality, but about the fun.

I am not sure about fun. At the time they were convenient because you couldn't travel listening to vinyl and you could make your own mix tapes.

Nowadays, it is so much easier to take your streaming service on your ubiquitous phone. I get buying vinyl or CD for physical ownership. I don't get cassette tapes for the same purpose.