Favourite Hi Fi System Radio Unit?

[Bristol603]

'My name is Nigel and I have a serious radio problem'. This is a good question that I feel has more than one answer:

Most HiFi - Kenwood KT-5020L - looks humdrum, but sounds superb

Easiest to use - Quad FM4 - configure the presets and enjoy the music

Best combination of sound and looks - Beomaster 5000 ('67-'72 version, not '83-'86 receiver) - a quality item

Most fondly remembered - Armstrong 626 (actually a receiver) - purchased as a teenager and sadly missed - rose tinted spectacles?

Most often used - Quad FM3 - like a faithful old dog that is eager to please - I know it has lots of faults and the other will outperform it, but it lives in the kitchen and I can't help liking it.

[Jonster]

My favourite consumer model would be the Sony ST-SB920 it has all the bells and whistles, a very sensitive front end and superb audio quality. A lot found their way into professional environments too as they are easy to fit to a 2U 19" rack tray.

[mhennessy]

In the workshop I use a Sony ST-S311. It wasn't terribly expensive or "high end" in its day, but I like it because it has direct frequency entry. I don't know why that wasn't more popular.

I've also had good results with Technics tuners. The Japanese really were/are very good at this. Frankly, it's just a case of picking one you like the look of and has the facilities you need - I've yet to find a poor tuner made this side of 1980.

Regarding sound, alignment can be a factor with some designs, but given what happens to broadcasts before they hit the FM transmitter, there's really nothing a tuner can do to make it better or worse. Since moving to PLL-based demodulators, things seem to be much of a muchness.

That said, I would have loved an Audiolab 8000T back in the day. A genuine "high-end" unit, technically speaking, with some interesting technology inside, and fairly sensible marketing for a hi-fi company. Their amps were great too. Philip Swift mostly owns Spendor these days - a good fit for his sensible approach to audio.

[turretslug]

You're not kidding- I have a '920, rescued in the nick of time from the inlet hopper of the compacter behind the premises of a major broadcaster whilst on a fortuitous visit. Velcro-ed onto said 2U rack tray and as near-immaculate as it gets, with a crisp bright VFD too. Being free makes it even better!

Crossed with mh

[Synchrodyne]

Originally Posted by Bristol603

Best combination of sound and looks - Beomaster 5000 ('67-'72 version, not '83-'86 receiver) - a quality item.

The B&O Beomaster 5000 was evidently highly regarded in its day. As I recall, the then FM commentator/critic for Hi-Fi News magazine, Austin Uden, used more than one, including for DX’ing. The Gramophone magazine review (1968 August) included the comment: “For people living in fringe areas, or where it is impossible to erect an external aerial, the Beomaster 5000 will produce a most satisfying performance.” From that one should infer that RF performance was its strong point, as compared with typical FM tuners of the day. As far as I know, the original version had a bipolar (germanium PNP) 4-gang front end, but that this was later updated to use a cascode jfet RF amplifier and a jfet mixer, presumably with improved signal handling capability.

Another example from that early solid-state era (late 1960s) that was possibly a step above the B&O 5000 in RF terms was the Revox A76. This had a 4-gang front end using dual-gate mosfets for the RF amplifier and mixer (initially non-gate protected devices, indicating that it was very early to use these, but later changing to the gate-protected types.) It was unusual in having an L-C block IF filter of relatively narrow bandwidth, but with a wide and flat group delay curve (Gaussian, I think), and a delay line demodulator, features evidently carried over to the later Revox models. I suspect that it was designed for good results in the difficult reception conditions that likely obtained in the Swiss mountains.

There was quite a price gradient for improved RF performance though. From Hi-Fi Year Book 1972, the UK tax-paid price for the Revox A76 was £162.75, and the B&O 5000 was £108.75. This compares with £73.95 for the Quad FM3 and £72.50 for the Leak Stereofetic (cased version). With clean signals one might expect broadly similar AF performance from all four.

Cheers,

[mole42uk]

I rather like my Troughline. But the Leak stereo decoder isn't nice.

[Tractionist]

The Tandberg stuff was good .... Huldra's etc. ..... But at the moment - I'm very happy with my Sony MHC 5500 [using the ST H500 tuner].

[Radio Wrangler]

These things give a good illustration of the law of diminishing returns. Since about 1980, when the recipes for tuners had pretty much converged, we've been able to buy a pretty decent tuner for not a lot of money. The improvements to be got from throwing a load of extra cash at it are rather small and only likely to become really obvious under extreme circumstances.

In the here-and-now a lot of these things are just seen as skip fodder by the general public. It comes down to the luck of being in the right place at the right time if you fancy a 'special' one. Common or garden ones are aplenty at car boot sales, or sitting in a skip near you.

We are lucky. We can either have a great sounding system for almost free, or we can try the once unaffordable stuff if we choose and have the patience to wait and the decisiveness to act when one turns up. Other fields of collection aren't so lucky. If you collected cars and planned to wait 'til you spotted someone dumping a Ferrari.... In the classic hifi world, it really does happen.

David

[Ted Kendall]

Could be a good subject for a new thread - for just how little can you put together a decent system? Granted, "decent" is a word with as many definitions as posters, but still...

[Station X]

The answer is "Nothing" so long as you look round enough. Hi Fi stuff (particularly speakers) is often offered on Freegle and gets no takers.

[TonyDuell]

The answer to that would seem to be 'free' if you are extremely lucky. I have been given quite high-end stuff (including both a Radford Williamson amplifier and some Quad stuff -- in the latter case I did tell the donor that it was worth serious money (and gave a fair idea of the value), but I was given it anyway) and conversely I have given away high-end stuff (including a Thorens turntable + SME arm, a Quad 520 amplifier and a pair of ESL63 speakers) to other enthusiasts...

[paulsherwin]

You can do it for free just with skip finds, Freecycle and hand me downs, though obviously there's a lot of luck involved and of course nothing will be available when you need it. My main lounge system cost less than £75, the most expensive item being the B&W DM560 speakers which cost £20 from a local seller. Most of my tuners were freebies, including my current main one which is a nice Hitachi FT-340 donated by a kind forum member.

[sp10mk11]

Gawd where do I begin
Sony ST-5850SD
Pioneer TX-9500/11
Those two have brought the greatest listening pleasure
But these have aswell
Hitachi FT-4400
Sansui TU-5500
And I saw a Teleton GT-202 mentioned I agree with your comments about that one
It is difficult nowadays as most FM broadcasts are dumbed down and unpleasant to listen too bar a few stations.
There are probably others but the top two have always stood out in my memory and I have never listened to either the beautiful Yamaha CT-7000 or Revox
Gary

[Restoration73]

My current fave is a Yamaha TX-480L costing £0.

[Edward Huggins]

A late and further addition would be the Tripletone 6 valve Mono Tuner (don't laugh), self powered and with cathode follower output. A very clean and smooth sound, they reviewed very well.

[John Caswell]

Following on from Synchrodyne's comments re the B&O 5000, I had a quick look at mine.
It is the later 2005 series with a three transistor front end MOSFET RF, MOSFET Mixer and Germanium oscillator, made by Gorler in Germany. This feeds into a 1st Germanium IF stage, two ceramic filters, then 3 Germanium IF stages, stereo decoder is all silicon.
Needless to say performance is beyond reproach, and I think it looks good too.
Tractionist also spoke about Tandberg stuff, I had a 2045 receiver and later on a 2080. FM performance was on a par with the B&O, as it had to be considering the Norwegian terrain.
I would like a Tandberg 2001 but they are becoming very rare and costly.

John

[Bufo Bill]

Bravo Edward, mono tuners can still sound fabulous.
So many interesting replies thank you all, and if you think of any more don't hesitate to post.
All the best from Bill.

[Peter.N.]

My favourites are still the mono valve amps we sold when I started work in the '50s, Leak, Quad and so on, connected to a decent speaker, Lowther particularly, I think they sounded as good as anything they have made since.

Peter

[turretslug]

Originally Posted by mole42uk

I rather like my Troughline. But the Leak stereo decoder isn't nice.

Agreed on both points, and in a discussion of favourite vintage tuners it's pretty much inevitable that the Troughline comes up. The Leak internal decoder (I think a Philips device?) is a commendable exercise in making something as small as possible and with minimal consumption (approximately 24V 7mA) in order that it could be fitted in the already crowded existing design and run from the existing HT line via a dropper. That simplicity does mean low output level at high impedance, in topology it's reminiscent of extant valve designs (19kHz amplifier/doubler, demodulator, matrixing output) which necessarily had to keep active component count down. When the Troughline became "trendy" among the audiophile crowd about 25 years ago, a rash of add-on decoders appeared, I knew someone who came up with an internal PCB module that mounted over the oscillator line's shroud comprising one of those compact flat encapsulated mains transformers with SMD PSU and PLL decoder chips.

The Troughline does get kinda hot after a while- I've chewed over the idea of mounting the mains transformer lam-stack externally on the rear panel (in the manner of some North American rack-mounting kit) with a bell-shroud over the primary tapping end and the secondary lead-outs positioned inside the panel, but can't bring myself to mutilate this classic bit of kit with a big square hole in the back!

[captainpugwash]

Like Nigel in an earlier post,I too have a bit of a tuner problem.

Probably my favourite is an aged valve mono Troughline,looks great in it's gold front and magic eye and sounds great too.

Another valve favourite is a not quite as aged Zenith stereo tuner.

Of the more modern tuners Hitachi FT-5500, Trio KT-2001 and the very sleek Yamaha CT-810.

David