Tuners ... are they all pretty much the same ?

[Gordon Steadman]

Too much 'this one is better than that one' as fact!

At one time, I had the Troughline, FM4, Sugden and Rogers tuners along with a few Japanese tuners including the Denon 260, Yamaha and Pioneer - that is, I had them all at the same time and could compare them directly. In Suffolk, we had a huge rooftop rig with a motorised tower.

The Denon is with a friend as is the FM4. The Sugden and the Rogers are going nowhere. The Troughline went to help fund most of a OneThing rebuild of the 57's.

If it weren't for the fact that it was a pain in the bum to use, I would choose the Leak (with Tim's decoder - he set it all up when I was with him) over all the others for sound quality in MY system (Stereo20/57s and my ears) The sound was very even and certainly wasn't didn't have excessive bass but was great on R3 and 4.

Both the Sugden and Rogers are also a pain but the price for no push button tuning is that they sound terrific. Yes there are some great Japanese tuners. Along with their amps and TTs, many people missed out during the flat earth years.

However, whilst there may well be a difference on the scope and technically, our ears seem to be so different that, as ever, there is only one way to check which sounds best to you. When it comes to reality, I would rather choose the one that suits me, as does everyone whether they are aware of it or not.

[spendorman]

Which Rogers is this? I have always liked the Ravensbourne FET2.

[Gordon Steadman]

Which Rogers is this? I have always liked the Ravensbourne FET2.

An old Ravensbook. I have the amp too. I do prefer both of them to the Ravensbourne alternatives.

[Clifford.T Ward]

I have three tuners but the one that I like the sound of most is the Proton 440 that I have .

[Arkless Electronics]

I don't know - I'll have to check, but most likely 'yes'. Haven't listened to either for years though.

I did find changing the ECF80 cathode follower in the Leak greatly helped improve the output level, as well as lessening the unaturally chesty sound of voices.

That explains everything!

[Arkless Electronics]

You are taking this to the stratosphere! My JVC tuner has inbuilt attenuators, several, switchable, to help people living next to transmitters, and also a switchable IF to give a narrower bandwidth for some difficult situations. As I recall it also has a stereo blend for low signals to minimise hiss on very weak signals. It doesn't correlate with a rotator, though.

Largely irrelevant now, as most stations can be picked up over digital networks on the internet.

It's all relative... these are the lengths one may need to go to in order to get hiss free, distortion free top quality FM reception with an older tuner and especially in awkward reception areas.

[Arkless Electronics]

What was in there originally and what benefits does this give?

J.

ECC84 originally. ECC88 is an improved frame grid replacement for it. Both were very widely used as cascode RF amplifiers in mainly TV tuners but in the case the same job in an FM tuner. The advantage is greater sensitivity. IT IS NOT A STRAIGHT SWAP. Changes are made to the circuitry and a small inductor added IIRC.

As I said earlier, there is no "valve sound" to a Troughline. The signal is at RF whilst passing through the valves and is demodulated to baseband audio in the Foster Seeley discriminator.

To put things into perspective with the Troughline, if properly aligned and with a good set of valves, with the ECC88 mod (or best of all a Troughline 3 which has all mods), with a separate stereo decoder (the only stereo capable version is the 3 but as I said the original decoder is truly awful and they're like listening with cotton wool in the ears!) and a really serious aerial they can sound very good.... but it's a hell of a lot of bother to go to and will still be beaten by a good modern tuner. The separate decoder also needs it's own power supply as the built in one is too weedy.... I even built a RF pre amp with band 2 passband for my modded ones to get the best possible sensitivity and a completely separate stereo decoder in it's own box with built in PSU. The result? Good but still not as good as FT5500....

If anyone is daft e.. I mean interested enough to want Troughlines modded to the ECC88 spec, or external outboard decoders building then I can provide this service.... but it will cost far more than the value of the tuner....

[Arkless Electronics]

An old Ravensbook. I have the amp too. I do prefer both of them to the Ravensbourne alternatives.

I have those too...the Ravensbrookes still now but IIRC I sold on the Ravensbournes... I preferred the Ravensbournes by a big margin and they were indeed the top of the range. Both tuner and amp were good but I particularly recall the tuner being built in modular form and high tech for its day...

[dave2010]

It's all relative... these are the lengths one may need to go to in order to get hiss free, distortion free top quality FM reception with an older tuner and especially in awkward reception areas.

I agree. We used to live in a poor reception area, but I had a loft aerial installed which made things a lot better. At least we lived at the top of a hill. The people further down in a valley needed very long poles on their roofs to get a reasonable signal. Then we moved.

Do many people still listen to FM? What's the quality like these days - say on R3? In all honesty, I'm not sure that it's going to sound any better than what I heard a few weeks before Christmas down at the RFH, where the BBC had set up a booth and a listening area with "live" equipment. I wonder if they balance the sound in ways which I don't always find pleasing. Perhaps they like it that way, or think that on average most listeners do.

[Ninanina]

I rather like the denon tu 260L which is super cheap s/h

Do you know if the Denon 260L MK II is as good as the MK I version as I like the tuning knob on the MK II

Thanks