My Latest Gear Obsession - Vintage Radio Tuners

[Woody Sound]

Not just the gear, but how it all works. Airwaves, transmission, antenna dynamics, etc. Learning a lot every day. Took me a while to figure out how sensitivity is actually measured - a LOWER number is better. So there is a built-in tuner in the Adcom preamp for a constant reference. And right now I'm comparing 3 medium to high end vintage tuners. I have them all connected to my antenna via a 4-way splitter, so I can, for example, tune them all to the same frequency, and have them receiving at the same time, and flip back and forth between them to compare sensitivity, selectivity, multipath, etc. Two pics below, one of the whole rack, then one close up of just the 4 tuners. From the top down:

1. Late 60's Sansui TU-777, with the coolest and most fun rotary dial ever. They made a 555, 666, & 777 is the final model of that series/style.
2. Late 80's Magnum-Dynalab FT-11. Was considered their "introductory model" at the time. Incredibly quiet with an amazing stereo soundstage.
3. Late 70's Yamaha T-2. Has a fabulous multlpath switch, and is amazingly quite and full sounding. I got it from someone from over the pond in England, so I had to get a small voltage converter and a Belling-Lee to USA F-type coax adapter to get it going. But it really sounds fantastic, probably my favorite of the bunch so far.
4. At the bottom is the "newer" early 90's Adcom preamp with built in tuner for checking frequencies. I'll probably continue to keep as the constant because it does double duty as my system preamp, as I get the urge for other tuners and/or part with any.

Enjoy:

[stevo58]

Looks like fun, although it’s a bit disturbing to learn that ‘vintage’ gear now includes stuff that was available as I approached 40.

I once was the proud owner of a Scott Stereomaster 350, when I was young, poor, and struggling, along with an Akai AA-5000A amp, both of which I lost to thieving magpie who broke into my cockroach-infested apartment on 4th Street in Columbus, Ohio. He did leave my AR-1 turntable. I have high-end gear now, but in my memory, that stuff sounded perfect and I wish I still had it (not the cockroaches, though). I do have a top-of-the-line Nordmende radio now, with seven speakers, from 1957.

[Woody Sound]

Looks like fun, although it’s a bit disturbing to learn that ‘vintage’ gear now includes stuff that was available as I approached 40.

He did leave my AR-1 turntable. I have high-end gear now, but in my memory, that stuff sounded perfect and I wish I still had it (not the cockroaches, though). I do have a top-of-the-line Nordmende radio now, with seven speakers, from 1957.

Yeah, a couple of those pieces are approaching 50yo. I don't consider the Adcom vintage at all, it's my utility piece. When the Adcom came out the media raved about it. But the 70's Yamaha just blows it away, not even close.

My main goal with this was to LEARN more about tuners and how they work. A great antenna/tuner can really sound fantastic. I've already taken them apart and made some minor adjustments.

*Obligatory jazz content: I want to pull in 91.1 Jazz out of Toronto.*


Thieves can be dumb. I have that TT, it's quite valuable. Although a good belt TT might be too delicate for someone to move quickly/discretely without damaging it.


My next plan is for a late 70's Sansui TU-919.

?

[DawgBone]

Next step is to go full ham. Start stacking the Collins, Heathkit, Hammarlund, and Hallicrafters receivers and pick up those great international broadcasts on 20m band.

I used to have a lot of fun with a Yaesu FT-101 and a basic dipole. If you're in an apartment maybe you can just snake a long wire around since unless you're transmitting it doesn't really matter if it's fully tuned, you just do what you can.

I still have a Galaxy 959 cb that can be enjoyable to listen to chatter on, though there are more than a few foul mouths on there these days rocking thousands of watts of broadcast power in spite of the FCC, lol. I still got a pretty sweet vintage Johnson Viking antenna tuner. Nothing beats that old vintage radio gear IMO. Now that my house interior is getting more complete maybe it's time to reassemble some stuff.

[Woody Sound]

Next step is to go full ham. Start stacking the Collins, Heathkit, Hammarlund, and Hallicrafters receivers and pick up those great international broadcasts on 20m band.

I used to have a lot of fun with a Yaesu FT-101 and a basic dipole. If you're in an apartment maybe you can just snake a long wire around since unless you're transmitting it doesn't really matter if it's fully tuned, you just do what you can.

I still have a Galaxy 959 cb that can be enjoyable to listen to chatter on, though there are more than a few foul mouths on there these days rocking thousands of watts of broadcast power in spite of the FCC, lol. I still got a pretty sweet vintage Johnson Viking antenna tuner. Nothing beats that old vintage radio gear IMO. Now that my house interior is getting more complete maybe it's time to reassemble some stuff.

That's obviously a lot of fun, but right now for me this is all about music. I'm lucky to have both Jazz and Classical Public Radio stations nearby, strong and clear. The Toronto Jazz station comes in not too well, that's what I need to work on. I do know that right now it's my antenna setup that's limiting it.

[John A.]

I have this one:



It has this cool blue tube indicating tuning/strength and a red light indicating whether the station is stereo. Unfortunately, there's a ton of interference from buildings where I live and radio reception is pretty bad (and the radio is mostly a wasteland anyway), so I really just use it as a pre-amp.

[stevo58]

Yeah, that’s a “magic eye” tube. I had designed a “show” guitar amp with one connected to the grid of the output tube, an old-school meter measuring the bias current, and some orange-glowing voltage regulator tubes just to look cool, but I never got around to building it. I have a box full of nixies here too, but that would have been way too much work. With some 807s or 829s it would have been a cool amp, regardless what it sounded like.
Maybe even a purple mercury vapor rectifier, as bad an idea as that is.

drifting OT, sorry

[2bornot2bop]

Tubes rule! Who remembers when tv’s had tubes?

[213Cobra]

Tubes rule! Who remembers when tv’s had tubes?

Who doesn't? My parents didn't get their first solid state TV until 1980. I'm days away from 72 and have never been without vacuum tubes in my life. As a kid, it was radios, TVs, record players, hifi - everything electronic at home. I even remember vacuum tube radios in some of my Dad's cars. As transistor electronics displaced tubes in most consumer applications, tubes stayed in my life in hifi electronics and guitar amps. Vacuum tubes forever -- never been without them. -Phil

[Cunamara]

My best tuner is in my parents' old hi-fi, a Grundig Majestic. It was their first purchase in 1956 after they got married, from Polk Brothers in Chicago. Multi-band radio, tubes, multi-band EQ and what would now be considered a very rudimentary turntable. It's not even stereo, but it's the nicest sounding thing I have to listen to in my house. I heard my first jazz guitar on the old hi-fi, on the Nat King Cole Trio recordings.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

My best tuner is in my parents' old hi-fi, a Grundig Majestic. It was their first purchase in 1956 after they got married, from Polk Brothers in Chicago. Multi-band radio, tubes, multi-band EQ and what would now be considered a very rudimentary turntable. It's not even stereo, but it's the nicest sounding thing I have to listen to in my house. I heard my first jazz guitar on the old hi-fi, on the Nat King Cole Trio recordings.

I grew up with my father's Stromberg-Carlson console hifi. It was a similar multi-band tuner with separate amplifier chassis and a 12" field coil speaker all contained in a big, beautiful cabinet that was about 4' long. My dad had a 75' tower put up behind our house so he could get the best TV and radio reception, and it could pull in radio stations from across the country in the middle of the night when atmospheric conditions were right. That unit and the Webcor wire recorder that he used to capture broadcasts he liked were my start in both music and audio. I finally got my first tape recorder when I was 10 or 11 - IIRC it cost me $20 used from my music dealer.

When conditions were right, I could listen to the great jazz DJs from NYC, Philly, and Chicago. I loved listening to Ed Beech and learned a lot from his commentary. There were a lot of shows on broadcast radio (both AM and FM) with live music, like Don McNeill's Breakfast Club from Chicago and The Jack Sterling Show from NY (with Mary Osborne on guitar in a quartet led by Phioaldelphian Elliott Lawrence). My father loved Nat Cole, and I still have his vinyl.

The SC console had an auxiliary input with enough sensitivity for me to plug my guitar into it, and the sound was amazing. I converted it to stereo in 1959 by adding a stereo cartridge, building a small preamp from a magazine project article, and using my guitar amp (a 5W Kay) as the second channel. I had a wonderful, musical childhood thanks to all those tubes and my parents' love of music!

John A, I had an MX110 for about 10 years that I bought new when I was in graduate school to drive a constantly changing series of tube amps that I built or bought used (Dyna Stereo 35 and 70, Eico 70W, Marantz 8b, Mac 40s, Citation II, etc). It's a fantastic piece of gear!

[Hammertone]

... *Obligatory jazz content: I want to pull in 91.1 Jazz out of Toronto.* ...

Buffalo is an odd dead spot for 91.1. It comes in great just west of town, all the way to Fredonia and beyond.

[339 in june]

Does anybody here remember the Telefunken U-47 ?

[Woody Sound]

Buffalo is an odd dead spot for 91.1. It comes in great just west of town, all the way to Fredonia and beyond.

Yeah, I used to get it great when we lived in Orchard Park, not too far south of Buff. Now we're north of Buff in Williamsville, which is closer to T'onto, and it's pretty bad. Seems randomly hit-or-miss around WNY.

[John A.]

I grew up with my father's Stromberg-Carlson console hifi. It was a similar multi-band tuner with separate amplifier chassis and a 12" field coil speaker all contained in a big, beautiful cabinet that was about 4' long. My dad had a 75' tower put up behind our house so he could get the best TV and radio reception, and it could pull in radio stations from across the country in the middle of the night when atmospheric conditions were right. That unit and the Webcor wire recorder that he used to capture broadcasts he liked were my start in both music and audio. I finally got my first tape recorder when I was 10 or 11 - IIRC it cost me $20 used from my music dealer.

When conditions were right, I could listen to the great jazz DJs from NYC, Philly, and Chicago. I loved listening to Ed Beech and learned a lot from his commentary. There were a lot of shows on broadcast radio (both AM and FM) with live music, like Don McNeill's Breakfast Club from Chicago and The Jack Sterling Show from NY (with Mary Osborne on guitar in a quartet led by Phioaldelphian Elliott Lawrence). My father loved Nat Cole, and I still have his vinyl.

The SC console had an auxiliary input with enough sensitivity for me to plug my guitar into it, and the sound was amazing. I converted it to stereo in 1959 by adding a stereo cartridge, building a small preamp from a magazine project article, and using my guitar amp (a 5W Kay) as the second channel. I had a wonderful, musical childhood thanks to all those tubes and my parents' love of music!

John A, I had an MX110 for about 10 years that I bought new when I was in graduate school to drive a constantly changing series of tube amps that I built or bought used (Dyna Stereo 35 and 70, Eico 70W, Marantz 8b, Mac 40s, Citation II, etc). It's a fantastic piece of gear!

Speaking of father's and audio, my MX110 was also my dad's. He used it in front of a pair of Mac 50w-2's (which that bit the dust at some point), and then a Carver amp. After he died in 2008, the audio gear sat in a closet at my Mom's. I revived the MX110, and put together the stereo system I have now around it (including dad's old Thorens turntable and a Douk "Chi-fi" integrated amp I picked up, which is the perfect mix of features and compactness for me). It sounds markedly better than the Yamaha receiver I had before.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

including dad's old Thorens turntable

Cool! Here's the TD125 / SME I've been using since I bought it in 1969 -

[Woody Sound]

Funny thing is, I can just plug Toronto 91.1 Jazz online into my system. Have done it. But I'd love to get it in over the air the old fashioned way.