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In Reply to: RE: What interesting good sounding tuner to buy? posted by ancient tones on April 28, 2025 at 07:25:56
I'm hooked on a classical station and have tried a lot of different tuners. One I recommend is Scott 310E.
Hi fredtr, what tuners have you tried and why does the Scott appeal to you the most? I'm all of a sudden on this FM tuner quest again and have considered a Scott.
Unfortunately my local classical station doesn't have the best signal strength. I'm getting a rooftop antenna soon which may help. I live in a mountainous area.
Thank you
Chris
Hi Chris, Good questions. I was after a specific quality to the sound. I wrote software listening to low volume classical, electrostatic speakers, tube amplification. I have a good DAC but prefered the air waves to catch my attention. I'm not good at describing what I was after, but most of the time the classical music was background, but something would come on that would catch my attention, something I liked, plus a characteristic of the sound. I tried about a dozen tuners, chasing what I was after, if it was close at all I did some tweaks, to further pursue the sound I was after. The tuners ranged from Accuphase solid state, Magnum Dynalab, Denon, Kenwood, Sansui to tube Eico, Sherwood, Scott stereo and mono with outboard MPX. I did not try the Mcintosh or the Marantz 10B, which I was tempted, but familiar with the 10B maintenance issues. The Scott tuners were the closest and the 310E was the best I tried, although I heard the 4310 is even better. As far as modifications, I took the relays out of the signal path, recapped it with combination of PIO's and film coupling caps, replaced the detector diodes and aligned it. I have a large outdoor FM antennae, station is about 35 miles away with multipath issues.
I think what I was after is some kind of colorization of the upper mid frequencies, some sparkle or magic that grabs my attention even at low volumes. I also don't trust my short term judgement, some tuners I used for a year or more before moving on. Only the Scott 310E has been my selection for many years.
Thank you for the generous description! I get what you are talking about. My out of service Sherwood has that special sound. While I'm getting it and my Sony repaired, it's a good time to sample other tuners.
US Audiomart has a few good tube tuners listed.
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