Favourite tuner

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Here is the other one

Sansui TU-919
(1979, $585, front, closeup, back, inside, block diagram, brochure1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) search eBay
The TU-919 is now widely recognized as a top tuner and a worthy rival of Sansui's classic TU-9900 (if perhaps a bit short of a TU-X1). The TU-919 has a 5-gang analog tuning capacitor with a digital LED readout like the TU-719 has. Our panelist Bob has details on the TU-919's 4 filters: "The filters are set up a little differently than, say, a KT-7500. The TU-919 uses three 280 kHz GDT flat group delay 3-pin filters for the wide IF bandwidth mode, and what appears to be one 150 kHz 3-pin filter for narrow mode - all Murata, and well-matched stock. In narrow it is using all 4 filters, and in wide just the three 280 GDT's. As a result, the wide mode is not super wide, and really almost makes the narrow extraneous, sort of like the Accuphase T-100 or Kenwood KT-8005 or 8007. The TU-919 would probably be great for DXing with a 110 kHz filter in narrow for getting adjacent channels." The TU-919 is more sensitive than the TU-717 and 719, and our audiophile reviewers agree that the TU-919 sounds great. AM radio listeners should note that the TU-919 has a wide-narrow filter for the AM band which can eliminate typical AM splatter noise, making it the best-sounding AM section Bob has ever heard. He adds, "Sensitivity is very good, and the TU-919 excels in having probably one of the best stock stereo blend noise filters. It really does a good job killing the noise, keeping the stereo image, without rolling off the highs. The ergonomics are good, but you are wishing you could turn the crystal lock off on occasion. It locks on and hangs on well past the indicated dial marking, then lets go and steps to the next frequency (in .1's). It's just odd because you are now well past where the dial says you should be. It does this in both directions, depending on which way you approach the station."
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[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Our contributor Ed Hanlon did some work on a TU-919: "My favorite tuner of all time is a newly modified TU-919. First off, we defeated that silly quartz lock tuning (but kept the pretty green LED on all the time). Next we rearranged the filter configuration so that instead of 3 filters functioning in wide mode, now just two do. The narrow band, which before only added a fourth filter to the 3 in wide, now has 2 filters. So instead of being a 3+1, this tuner is now a 2+2. Wide bandwidth has enhanced fidelity, and you can even notice a difference between the wide and narrow settings! And unlike our first go-round with defeating quartz lock tuning (in the TU-719, perhaps?), defeating the lock on the TU-919 works perfectly. Right now I'm listening to WQXR-96.3, with no splash from my local station on 96.5, and it sounds wonderful. The one nit I can pick: even with the stereo threshold cranked all the way down, this tuner will pop in and out of stereo on very weak signals. By changing the pot that controls the stereo threshold, the user can decide how much noise is too much, and has the option of using the very fine FM Noise Filter this unit employs. It looks like the stereo threshold will affect the muting, meaning that if we change that pot, we may lose the muting function. I say 'who cares?' I never use FM muting anyway."[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Our panelist JohnC did a comparison: "I initially felt that my modded TU-919 was better sounder than my TU-9900, until I got around to replacing the 9900's op-amps, direct coupling the output and bypassing the variable output control. Huge, huge improvement, made the 919 sound flat, and this after having felt that the 919 was my reference. Relooked at the 919 and replaced a couple of electrolytics with some film caps, and a couple of other things knowing now what could achieved, and it came in much closer than it had been." See how one TU-919 sounded compared to other top tuners on our Shootouts page, and read our panelist David "A"'s Ricochet. [JC][/FONT]
 
The two Sansui's are so different it is like the old and new, which they are, with very similar sound. I believe with some work the TU-9900 will be the one I keep.
 
O.K .
My favourite is Dynaco FM 5 . Really great sound !
Anyway I have seen that Yamaha and Sansui are popular here .
It's not a surprise , but the surprise is that Accuphase and Mac Mr 78
are not mentioned .
Last consideration : the most important thing is the antenna system .
It took me much time to adjust it , since the problem here in Milan is
the multipath .
Ciao
Marco
 
Nothing that esoteric in my rack. A basic Kenwood KT-7500 that I'd love to have upgraded. Still pretty damn good as it sits.

What's disturbing is the direction of FM radio in the world today. Norway has switched off traditional analog FM and switched over to digital radio that can be streamed on multiple devices. Over the air also I'd guess but still digital. The U.K. is headed that way also and the U.S. can't be far behind.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/13/new-golden-age-digital-radio-heralds-review-could-end-fm/

I have limited quality FM in my area but there is one QUALITY station that's been here since 1973. WDAV broadcasts from Davidson College (Steph Curry!) just north of Charlotte, NC. I can receive this station via iTunes, streamed directly from a browser or tuned in on my Kenwood. The sound quality differences are amazing!

Streamed thru iTunes just sucks. Streamed via a browser is a bit better. Neither compare to the quality of the over-the-air analog signal. I'm feeding the digital signals from my iMac thru the latest Schiit Bisfrost Multibit DAC (Holy shit!) so I'm thinking I've got a pretty good D -> A conversion.

I guess it all boils down to the data stream and how much it's compressed.
 
Yamaha TX-1000 is in the main rig
Citation 23 in the bedroom rig.

fortunately, there are 16 stations that might play a song I want to hear and the remote on the Citation makes it nice to use. I have no interest in streaming until it is the quality of good FM and fortunately there isn't a big move in that direction here in the US at this time.

More tuners but those are the ones in use most of the time.
 
Probably there's something that I don't understand .
For me digital radio is DAB or alternatively I can receive radios via DTT or satellite decoder .
The quality is very good .
Dab for me is for cars and not for home , because it's useless to buy a Dab tuner , when
it's very easy to connect your TV to your preamp .
I don't consider streaming .
Ciao
Marco
PS : Norway is out of Europe and so no FM switch off .
 
Hey Lee, The Cats Whisker still working? You know they were the cat's meow so to speak.....
 
MR74.jpgMy Daily Driver a pristine MR74, Pulls from St Paul (about 60 miles with a pair of TV rabbit ears,,I also Have a Sansui 717 gathering dustP1000145.jpg
 
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Yeah, these were the precursor to the tuner. We used to build crystal radios back in the day.
 
The two Sansui's are so different it is like the old and new, which they are, with very similar sound. I believe with some work the TU-9900 will be the one I keep.

I live a quarter mile from a 5,000 watt AM station and I don't know what splatter is. We even had our own Jennifer Marlowe as a secretary there for years, just like WKRP.

So I used to get them in my phonograph 12 miles away when I was a kid without proper grounding...like I said they finally got a 'modern' transmitter back in the 90s and I can get decent response slightly detuned. Now playing: Imagine - John Lennon.
 
Yeah, these were the precursor to the tuner. We used to build crystal radios back in the day.

Copper wire coiled around a toilet paper tube, a strip of metal cut from a tin can, an ear plug and whatever the crystal that was? Can't remember what it was called, had to get it at a TV/radio repair shop. That it actually worked blew me away at the time. But I amazed easily at 8 or 10.
 
The crystal radio set I built was overpowered by the local station, heard across the entire 'dial'. I guess I wasn't much at diagnosing those kinds of problems back then.
 
WWII generation folks have lots of great stories about using crystal radios.

It was practically the internet of their time ...
 
I had a blast building a few crystal radios when I was a kid, used to listen to Phil Rizzuto calling the Yankee's games at night back in the early 70s

HOLY COW
 
For me - My first ES component ever!
 
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