Anyone else commonly use a good tuner/receiver?

[peter braun]

The current thread/poll regarding the amount of time we spend listening to different sources, made me curious as to how many here use a good tuner or receiver? I know that for myself, a good tuner (or tuner section) is an absolutely invaluable component in any hifi setup I use? I would estimate that I listen to the radio probraly about as much as I do cds? Does anyone else commonly use a tuner (or receiver)? What do you use? Here is what I listen to:

Home

Upstairs - McIntosh 4100 receiver
Downstairs - McIntosh MR-78

Dorm room: Kenwood KR-5600 receiver or Sansui TU-517

Of course there are certainly only a limited number of stations to listen to, with all of the Corperate Pop on now, but fortunately we have a really killer jazz station here in Portland that often sings me to sleep (89.1 KMHD for those in the area).

 

[rickcr42]

I enjoy listening to the radio but i am not a freak about it.My source of FM is my avatar : an Eico HFT-90 mono tube tuner which though not the most sensitive or with the best selctivity just flat out sounds amazing and makes music

 

[replytoken]

I am just north of you in Seattle and we are also fortunate to have a great public radio jazz station as well - KPLU. On weekend evenings, they have all Blues shows which are wonderful to listen to as well. Because of this I purchased an Arcam Alpha 8 tuner which is truly wonderful. Very warm and rich sound. It replaced a piece of junk Cambridge Audio which was defective out of the box. Hats off to the dealer who took it back and made me a deal on the Arcam! I probably listen to the tuner as much if not more than my CDP.

 

[peter braun]

I really love the old analog tuners/receivers from Sansui, Kenwood, and especially McIntosh. I would love to try a Marantz or Accuphase model. I have not really had good experience with modern digital units, but have heard that the Arcam units sound good.

 

[darkclouds]

I used to have a Marantz receiver and it pulled in signals quite well. Now I mainly use my XM radio, which sounds better from speakers than headphones. I don't notice as much compression on speakers.

 

[Nightfall]

I have had several high quality tuners, and still own one, but the last station worth listening to in the metropolitan Detroit area, WDET, a public station, dumped all its worthwhile programming a couple months back. There is now absolutely nothing to listen to on FM.
The United States, with very rare exceptions, has become a great radio wasteland............sadly


JC

 

[comabereni]

My primary radio at home is now almost exclusively via the Internet and is generally played through Foobar as playlists under separate tabs, though sometimes I use RealPlayer, WMP, and Radio365 to get some stations to work.

The ONLY exception is KUER public radio in Salt Lake City for local and national news during the day and really great jazz during the evenings. For that I have yet to invest in a decent tuner and I'm hoping the station will improve its online bitrate so I don't have to.

 

[Edwood]

I usually listen to NPR on a Xin modified Sony SRF-S84 pocket radio.

But I do use my reciever alot for my home theater when watching movies. The tuner on it sucks, my pocket radio is far more sensitive.

-Ed

 

[BigD]

Yo peter,
Nice FM tuner! MR78!
Last week, I just plugged in old MR77 which used to sit around my apartment. Wow, I was impressed with its precision and accuracy. My father has vintage early 70's marantz tuner and they're fabulous as well. But not better than Mcintosh. To answer your other question, I use cd 95% of time. Not much radio listening at all, this is why my tuner was never ON...

Btw, you guys know about HD radio coming into picture. It was launched at CES 2004 with very warming reception by the major manufacturers. In 5-10 years time, many ground station will adopt high def radio. Keeping your tuner might be worthwhile in the future.

If you want more info: http://www.ibiquity.com/hdradio/

 

[Captain]

I listen to a tuner a lot plugged into my headphone system. I am really lucky to have a Leak Through-Line ll with a Tim de Paravicini design tube Stereo decoder. This is seen as one of the top tuners. Listing to Radio 3 and 4 in the UK is a experience to be hold. A real classic combo. Read more

 

[peter braun]

Well to be honest, the MR-78 is my fathers but the rest of the pieces mentioned are mine. The McIntosh tuners really blow me away, as I have never heard FM produced with such warmth, depth, and rock solid images. For that matter, I have never heard any tuner that has done much imaging at all. The backround is dead quiet, and you can even hear the DJ breathing in the studio. Even the tuner section in my 4100 receiver blows away my Sansui TU-517, which is nearly identical to the much touted TU-717.

 

[zowie]

I have a few above-average tuners that I got for when there's a special event that I want to tape, like live concerts or interviews and in-studio performances. But otherwise, I only listen to radio in the car. I didn't buy several thousand albums to let someone else program my music.

 

[daycart1]

I used to listen to the radio a lot on my Linn Classik, but now all the good LA area radio stations are on cable TV which I run directly into headphones or a pair of decent speakers. This is very convenient and there is never a reception issue of any kind.

 

[Wmcmanus]

Sometimes on a Saturday or Sunday when I'm doing work around the house, I'll listen to FM radio through my HT system. This is through a B&K AVR307 receiver, and it sounds pretty good.

I also do quite a bit of FM listening with a Trivoli Model 3 clock radio in the mornings while being a lazy bum and not wanting to get out of bed. This is a seriously good sounding little radio! For anyone interested in Trivoli products, I'd very highly recommend getting the optional second speaker. This allows you to have FM in stereo by setting them up on the nightstands on each side of the bed. It's a great way to wake up and start the day.