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

  1. #11
    Join Date: Oct 2012

    Location: NE England

    Posts: 4,173
    I'm Jez.

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    Yeah pretty much any high end Japanese tuner from the late '70's to early '80's will be very good. These still represent the state of the art.
    Tandberg and Revox very good as well.

    As an aside, Valves in tuners make no difference to sound... unless there is a valve audio output stage of course. The radio frequency signal is first converted to an intermediate frequency (usually 10.7MHz but 12.5MHz in Troughline) and only becomes audio at the very last stage of the tuner, the discriminator/detector, which in vintage tuners is usually passive. A Foster-Seeley discriminator is used in the Troughline and many other valve era tuners, the other common circuit being the Ratio Detector (a circuit called a quadrature discriminator is used nowadays). In some cases, including the Leak, an audio output is taken directly from the discriminator to the multiplex output socket and so there is no valve in the audio signal path
    Arkless Electronics-Engineered to be better. Tel. 01670 530674 (after 1pm)

    Modded Thorens TD150, Audio Technica AT-1005 MkII, Technics EPC-300MC, Arkless Hybrid MC phono stage, Arkless passive pre, Arkless 50WPC Class A SS power amp, (or) Arkless modded Leak Stereo 20, Modded Kef Reference 105/3's
    ReVox PR99, Studer B62, Ferrograph Series 7, Tandberg TCD440, Hitachi FT-5500MkI, also FT-5500MkII
    Digital: Yamaha CDR-HD1500 (Digital Swiss army knife-CD recorder, player, hard drive, DAC and ADC in one), PC files via 24/96 sound card and SPDIF, modded Philips CD850, modded Philips CD104, modded DPA Little Bit DAC. Sennheiser HD580 cans with Arkless Headphone amp.
    Cables- free interconnects that come with CD players, mains leads from B&Q, dead kettles etc, extension leads from Tesco

  2. #12
    Join Date: Apr 2009

    Location: Near Saffron Walden, Essex

    Posts: 7,087
    I'm Dave.

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    Back in the late 80s and the 90s we had a waiting list for Leak Troughline tuners. We had them re-furbed and some had EAR stereo decoders fitted. Once fettled, they sounded great, amongst the best.

    Jez should be offering to service, set up and sell these great tuners rather than running them down.

    Best tuner we ever sold was the McIntosh MR71. Sound and performance was head and shoulders better than anything else and the build was in a different league. These we had serviced and set up for a long list of prospective buyers. I still have a couple of them here and will be flogging them off in a few weeks.

  3. #13
    Join Date: Apr 2011

    Location: London

    Posts: 4,419
    I'm Robert.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Arkless Electronics View Post
    Yeah pretty much any high end Japanese tuner from the late '70's to early '80's will be very good. These still represent the state of the art.
    Tandberg and Revox very good as well.

    As an aside, Valves in tuners make no difference to sound... unless there is a valve audio output stage of course. The radio frequency signal is first converted to an intermediate frequency (usually 10.7MHz but 12.5MHz in Troughline) and only becomes audio at the very last stage of the tuner, the discriminator/detector, which in vintage tuners is usually passive. A Foster-Seeley discriminator is used in the Troughline and many other valve era tuners, the other common circuit being the Ratio Detector (a circuit called a quadrature discriminator is used nowadays). In some cases, including the Leak, an audio output is taken directly from the discriminator to the multiplex output socket and so there is no valve in the audio signal path
    The flagship Sansui TU 919 of the time, for example was said to be a superb tuner and still regarded and sought today https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_li...i/tu-919.shtml

  4. #14
    Join Date: Apr 2012

    Location: N E Kent

    Posts: 51,624
    I'm Geoff.

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    Just get yourself one of these:



    If you know tuners, you'll know what it is!
    It is impossible for anything digital to sound analogue, because it isn't analogue!

  5. #15
    Join Date: Nov 2008

    Location: North Down /Northern Ireland/ UK

    Posts: 19,484
    I'm Neil.

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    Quote Originally Posted by walpurgis View Post
    Just get yourself one of these:



    If you know tuners, you'll know what it is!
    Sadly not the best sounding, an overpriced collectors item. Ohhh yes a Day Sequera.
    Regards Neil

  6. #16
    Join Date: Nov 2008

    Location: North Down /Northern Ireland/ UK

    Posts: 19,484
    I'm Neil.

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    Quote Originally Posted by RobbieGong View Post
    The flagship Sansui TU 919 of the time, for example was said to be a superb tuner and still regarded and sought today https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_li...i/tu-919.shtml
    Nice tuner, number 4 in the Tuner Info Networks comparison reviews.
    Regards Neil

  7. #17
    Join Date: Apr 2012

    Location: N E Kent

    Posts: 51,624
    I'm Geoff.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dalek Supreme D L View Post
    Sadly not the best sounding, an overpriced collectors item. Ohhh yes a Day Sequera.
    I have heard one and thought it sounded extremely good. But not listened to a comparison with others.
    It is impossible for anything digital to sound analogue, because it isn't analogue!

  8. #18
    Join Date: Nov 2008

    Location: North Down /Northern Ireland/ UK

    Posts: 19,484
    I'm Neil.

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    Quote Originally Posted by walpurgis View Post
    I have heard one and thought it sounded extremely good. But not listened to a comparison with others.
    Comes in at 56 on the Tuner Information Network review comparison. Only thing I would say is it wasn't a newer model, so that might well do much better. Having done similar comparisons I find their ratings to be pretty accurate.
    Regards Neil

  9. #19
    Join Date: Oct 2012

    Location: NE England

    Posts: 4,173
    I'm Jez.

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    Quote Originally Posted by hifi_dave View Post
    Back in the late 80s and the 90s we had a waiting list for Leak Troughline tuners. We had them re-furbed and some had EAR stereo decoders fitted. Once fettled, they sounded great, amongst the best.

    Jez should be offering to service, set up and sell these great tuners rather than running them down.

    Best tuner we ever sold was the McIntosh MR71. Sound and performance was head and shoulders better than anything else and the build was in a different league. These we had serviced and set up for a long list of prospective buyers. I still have a couple of them here and will be flogging them off in a few weeks.
    Nope... I consider them really poor and totally over rated... why do you think I don't use one myself even though I've got loads of them? I would take pretty much any tuner at random in preference to the Troughline. They have lousy sensitivity, selectivity and capture ratio (by modern standards) and so need a fantastic aerial and sympathetic terrain to get a half decent sound without hiss and obvious multipath distortion. I don't offer a refurb service as I would have to charge many times the value of the tuner. The later solid state Leak Stereofetic is very good, in a different league to the Troughline. It is similar in design and performance to the likes of the A&R T21, Sugden R51 etc. The top of the range Japanese stuff from the late 70's really is still the best ever made though.

    I rate the McIntosh MR71 very highly, one of the best yes.
    Arkless Electronics-Engineered to be better. Tel. 01670 530674 (after 1pm)

    Modded Thorens TD150, Audio Technica AT-1005 MkII, Technics EPC-300MC, Arkless Hybrid MC phono stage, Arkless passive pre, Arkless 50WPC Class A SS power amp, (or) Arkless modded Leak Stereo 20, Modded Kef Reference 105/3's
    ReVox PR99, Studer B62, Ferrograph Series 7, Tandberg TCD440, Hitachi FT-5500MkI, also FT-5500MkII
    Digital: Yamaha CDR-HD1500 (Digital Swiss army knife-CD recorder, player, hard drive, DAC and ADC in one), PC files via 24/96 sound card and SPDIF, modded Philips CD850, modded Philips CD104, modded DPA Little Bit DAC. Sennheiser HD580 cans with Arkless Headphone amp.
    Cables- free interconnects that come with CD players, mains leads from B&Q, dead kettles etc, extension leads from Tesco

  10. #20
    Join Date: Oct 2012

    Location: NE England

    Posts: 4,173
    I'm Jez.

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    I once had in a Scott tuner which had digital read out with LED display and took punched cards with station details... interesting 70's tech....
    Arkless Electronics-Engineered to be better. Tel. 01670 530674 (after 1pm)

    Modded Thorens TD150, Audio Technica AT-1005 MkII, Technics EPC-300MC, Arkless Hybrid MC phono stage, Arkless passive pre, Arkless 50WPC Class A SS power amp, (or) Arkless modded Leak Stereo 20, Modded Kef Reference 105/3's
    ReVox PR99, Studer B62, Ferrograph Series 7, Tandberg TCD440, Hitachi FT-5500MkI, also FT-5500MkII
    Digital: Yamaha CDR-HD1500 (Digital Swiss army knife-CD recorder, player, hard drive, DAC and ADC in one), PC files via 24/96 sound card and SPDIF, modded Philips CD850, modded Philips CD104, modded DPA Little Bit DAC. Sennheiser HD580 cans with Arkless Headphone amp.
    Cables- free interconnects that come with CD players, mains leads from B&Q, dead kettles etc, extension leads from Tesco

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