General Asylum: REVIEW: AUDIOLAB 8000 T Tuner by Gatos

Model:	8000 T
Category:	Tuner
Suggested Retail Price:	$1,100
Description:	AM - FM - LW - Top of the line tuner
Manufacturer URL:	Not Available
Manufacturer URL:	Not Available

Review by Gatos ( A ) on August 08, 2002 at 08:55:17
IP Address: 210.50.67.222

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for the 8000 T

Simply, this has to be one of the very best Tuners available, at ANY price.
I have compared it to tuners costing 3 and 4 times the price, from Naim, Linn, Dynalab, Mc Intosh etc. and none of them managed to bring FM sounds the way the 8000 T does.
It has an amazing ability to bring, not only, the faithful reproduction of the music from a 'live' broadcast, but the 'Air' and 'Ambience' of the venue. Frankly, I have never heard another tuner convey 'live' material with such conviction.
Suited mostly to Classical Music listeners, it's far too refined for hard rock, although the magic is still there.
It is a joy to use, with some 99 presets, manual and automatic tuning, wide and narrow bandwidth selection, signal shapping for weaker stations, and a calibration tone very usefull in setting recording levels.
Works well with the 'normal' ribbon dipole in the room, but to get the best out of it, a good FM aerial is a must.
By the way, the latest version by TagMaclaren (that bought the AUDIOLAB brand in England), although much more expensive, is NOT better than the 8000 T. no offence to TagMaclaren, but it would be extremely hard to outperform the performance of the 8000 T.
A true Classic, as good as it gets folks!
Highly and unquestionably recomended.

Product Weakness: No remote control, and that's about it!
On performance, I cannot find any weaknesses at all.
Product Strengths: Faithful to the broadcasted material, amazing ability for 'live' performances, where you litteraly are taken to the venue.
Great to use, large display can be seeing from long way, build quality 10/10, great value for money in the second hand market.

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	100 w/ch x 2 Valve Monoblocks
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Audio Research LS 2
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Linn Sondek LP12 / Meridian 500 / 606 transp.+ DAC
Speakers:	KEF Reference Three / 2
Cables/Interconnects:	Symo bi wired speaker and variety of Cardas, MIT, Audioquest and Madrigal interconnects.
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Classical, Ambient, Choral, Opera.
Room Size (LxWxH):	7 x 5.5 x 2.8
Room Comments/Treatments:	Carpeted floor on concrete
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	none
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner
Your System (if other than home audition):	n/a

Product Weakness:	No remote control, and that's about it! On performance, I cannot find any weaknesses at all.
Product Strengths:	Faithful to the broadcasted material, amazing ability for 'live' performances, where you litteraly are taken to the venue. Great to use, large display can be seeing from long way, build quality 10/10, great value for money in the second hand market.