Bought a Yamaha T-2 FM tuner

[Nick_G]

This morning I won a Yamaha T-2 on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...#ht_500wt_1414

I've always been curious about these tuners. They look absolutely gorgeous IMO (I love their understated, timeless looks), and the T-85 has been a big hit with me as far as audio quality is concerned. It'll be my first proper all analogue tuner. Will be an interesting comparison to the T-85 I think. It's in silver rather than the usual black which I would have preferred but at that price, I'm not really bothered ;)

[Magna Audio]

Did you get the T-2 - I'd love to hear the comparison.

[DSJR]

I think the T2 was rather good IIRC.

[Nick_G]

I'll repost a review I did for another forum:

I bought one of these tuners in October via eBay as I'd heard they were supposed to sound very good and were sensitive. I also really like the look of these tuners as the slimline design is unusual for that era (1978) when most tuners were big shoeboxes. The layout is clean, elegant and uncluttered, and despite it's relatively small footprint it is heavy! Very well-built. Mine is also silver instead of the usual black. It has wide and narrow IF settings (IF MODE) but these are labelled LOCAL (for wide) and AUTO DX (switches to wide on strong signals, otherwise it is narrow). There is also some sort of attenuator but it's effects are so subtle it isn't very noticeable. The analogue dial on mine is spot on across the band but the digital counter reads 50 kHz high.

The performance has exceeded my expectations. Even through my humble system I can tell that this tuner is a cut above all the others I have used so far. The audio on a good broadcast sounds stunning with a vibrant yet relaxed, natural sound, and it has the best imaging, and sense of space and depth I have yet heard from a tuner. There is a sense of realism that brings music to life. To compare the KT-1100SD the sound is clear and detailed but it sounds lifeless in comparison. Even the T-85, which was my previous reference, sounds a bit cold and clinical next to the T-2.

As for DX performance, this is also better than I expected. It actually has selectivity that is a touch better than the T-85 which is allegedly the top Yamaha tuner for DX if you believe what's written on the internet. Sensitivity is equal to the T-85, but overall this T-2 is a bit better for DXing. The filter response is asymmetric with better selectivity on the lower passband but this seems to be a common bugbear with tuners in my experience no matter how old they are. It isn't quite up to the modified Kenwood KT-1100SD for DX performance, but for the money I paid (£100) this is by far the best 'bang for the buck' I have experienced. The spurious response ratio figure is also superb, at 120 dB, which is higher even than the T-85! This would make a very good tuner for someone living in an urban location with powerhouse signals.

The 'Ricochet' on the Yamaha T-2 on the Tuner Information Center is interesting. Apparently there is a lot of unit-to-unit variation on these tuners, partly due to their age, but the writer states that the better examples are just a bit below the best you can get. I would say from the performance on mine that I got a great example, so I was lucky.

I also got the original manual with the tuner, and it has several pages at the back describing the circuitry with performance graphs. I've never seen so much technical detail in a user manual before.

I thought this may be of interest. This is the first time I've used a classic 70s analogue tuner, and it has been a bit of an eye-opener! If mine is anything to go by, I would conclude that the T-2 was Yamaha's best ever tuner for its combination of sound quality and RF performance. If you can find one at a reasonable price, then go for it.

Regards,
Nick

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8047/8103055053_b76580750e_b_d.jpg

[Hartge7]

I really like the silver. Seems these are the rare UK-only versions of this unit. I picked up a TX-1000 recently and have been enjoying that part of the Yamaha sound quality. The T-2 looks so much better...and probably easier to use.

[Nick_G]

Yes I thought the T-85 sounded good until I heard the T-2. It is surprisingly flexible for such an uncluttered-looking fascia. Have you tried any other Yamaha tuners?

Axel, who runs The Vintage Knob website, estimates that ~100 silver T-2s were made. If that's true then that is pretty rare! It does stand out on my rack of mostly black components.

Regards,
Nick

[Hartge7]

The TX-1000 came with a group of gear where I wanted the turntable, an SL-1600 II, for use evaluating old vinyl I pick up before putting it on the main table as well as something that stops at the end of the record when I'm casual listening.

I have not tried any other Yamaha tuners. My main tuner is a Luxman T-110 and I haven't even had a chance to put these two in the same system. Most of my main rig is silver and I prefer that. Sure the home theatre needs black gear but the silver is better for my 2-channel system, I can see the knobs, switches, buttons and dials and can read most of the functions. Not so with the black gear. But I understand how others prefer the black.

These top Yamaha units seem to be fairly popular with comments about the the T-2, TX-1000, TX-2000, T-85 and such showing up all the time. The CT-7000 is always held up higher in any of these discussions but since I am very close to Philadelphia, the number 4 media town in the US, I have no trouble getting a decent signal and occasionally it is actually something I might like to listen to.

[Nick_G]

Well, I have heard some say that the T-2 is actually a better-sounding tuner than the CT-7000. It depends on whether you get a good one or not. It appears from comments on the TIC that different samples will degrade in performance at different rates resulting in unit-to-unit variation. This is of course true with all vintage gear but it seems that the T-2 is more prone to this than others. In fact there is a very interesting post on the Vintage Knob forum in which someone had a T-2 that suffered from drift. After a lot of trying different tweaks it appears that it was due to some dry solder joints on the front end PCB. It's just as well that Jim who did the Shootouts on the TIC didn't get a good example of this tuner. If he had, I'm sure he would have placed it much higher up the list and consequently they would be selling for £400-600 on eBay and out of my reach. Luckily as it is they seem relatively affordable.

The better examples are apparently just shy of the best tuners out there. Listening to mine, even through my humble system, I can believe it!

Regards,
Nick