Favorite vintage or new FM tuner?

Yes it had a digital display. In beautiful green.

 

I am groping for the right terminology and believe "frequency synthesized" is the term. A receiver or tuner with a digital readout is not necessarily frequency synthesized. If it is not, it generally has better specs, i.e. capture ratio, S/N etc. My Tandberg receivers and tuner have much better FM specs than my Carver tuner, which is frequency synthesized.

 

The Proton utilized the Schotz circuitry. The guy from the band Boston who went to MIT. Supposedly it was something for the time.

 

Both are digital and the Onkyo is much better at DXing. I can pick up more distant stations. On a strong signal the Proton sounds a little sweeter to my ear with a wider soundstage.

I have not done a serious A/B comparison so that impression is somewhat anecdotal. It could be more from the broadcast sources. Anyway they are both stand alone tuners. The Proton is an NAD clone, but the build quality is pretty poor. The Onkyo is built like a tank.

I actually prefer analog tuners but I bought these when digital was all the rage.

 

What antennas are you folks using with your tuner(s)?

 

Had a Proton D940 receiver and always left the SNR (Schotz Noise Reduction) switch on. That circuit worked great.

Dare I say it - I think it even worked better than the noise filter of McIntosh's then-$2,495 MR 80 tuner. (In 1980 - 1984 dollars no less!)

Fascinating bit of trivia about the Boston band member. Learned something new today!

Suddenly I have the urge to dust off and spin my Boston record. Probably have not played it in 20 years.

 

Schotz designed a lot of stuff. I have a portable personal guitar amplifier called a Rockman that he designed.

 

I had a Magnum Dynalab Etude tuner which was upgraded to an MD-100 Triode tuner. I still have it and it sounds great. Magnum Dynalab will be selling HD Radios soon I hear, BTW.

 

I have a Nakamichi ST-7 that has the Schotz circuit that is currently doing duty in my wife's art studio and it does work well. Especially handy as she likes to listen to a couple of rather distant NPR stations.

 

As much as it surprises me to say it, the front end on an old JVC 1980 model year boombox I recently repaired and replaced the belts on has the hottest tuner, up and down the ruler, of any receiver I have ever owned..........and I have owned, and still own some very nice ones

This thing is HOT! Ruler agrees with everything tuned; the alignment remains spot on I have just now today tied it to a little 6BQ5 integrated and will have a better idea on sound quality running it through a pair of old monitors I just rehabbed

As far as RECEPTION goes it is amazing; AM/FM and, believe it or not SW (typically just a "suggestion" on most field radios from this time) It is the only radio, tuner or receiver in the house, or car, that can pull and hold well KCSM 91.1, the Jazz station down in San Mateo

I like this old machine and it is an exceptionally clean example; I had planned on re-capping it as it is fairly rare to find them this clean and complete...........but now, that the thing works so well (the tuner section) I am a little reluctant; scared to mess with a good thing................but no way to get around the fact that about 50 little electrolytics are 35 years old either

 

Is that a metal capable cassette on that boom box? It sounds like the same one I used to borrow from my friend. It had an outstanding tuner as you have found, and the cassette section records VERY good with the built in mics. I would not even call it a boom box, more like a portable stereo system, much more refined that any boom boxes.

IIRC this was the one I borrowed:

 

The guy from Boston the band didn't have anything to do with noise reduction. His name is Tom Scholz.. not Larry Schotz.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Scholz

 

Early, fairly rare, conservatively styled mid-sized box from the "M" series, most famous of which was M90 (as shown on L.L. Cool J's debut album cover "Radio")
Your photo is of an RC-838 (he also posed with one of those as well as other JVCs)

The "M60":
'

L.L. Cool J with an "838":

 

Rooftop antenna ...

 

Btw, the Proton receiver in 1985 was regarded by many - including the store that sold both NAD and Proton - to be superior to the NAD. Thing worked like a tank for 15 years until I spilled coffee on it.

When I was listening to the Schotz circuitry FM and Boston came on the radio, suddenly there was some kind of...synergistic magic.

 

Magnum Dynalab

 

Still have mine as well. Have kept it around for a backup amplifier, tuner and/or preamplifier.

Tuner display IC has gone a bit haywire now. The main complaint was the input/record selectors which are impossible to clean.

Heard the same thing regarding Proton build quality compared to NAD.

 

I have one of these - Sansui TU-777 - down in the basement. I love the looks on this, especially the round tuning dial. It definitely needs to be realigned but the stations that do come in are very warm sounding. Right now I'm using an Adcom GFT-555 which has great sensitivity and picks up weak stations quite well. It just doesn't look cool

 

Adcom equipments do have that middle-of-the-road look ...

 

Yup, fortunately they put the money where it counts, into the guts.

 

Didn't Adcom go out of business?

 

No.
http://www.adcom.com/

 

In the good old days, Adcom made its gears in NJ ...

 

Assembly was, but many parts were offshore even back in the begining.

 

I have an Akai AT-V04 which I love for DX-ing, though the sound isn't that great (bypassing the level control helped). An Integra 4087 which sounds MUCH better, but it's terrible for DX-ing. With twin beams on the roof, I could get everything from Atlanta to Washington DC. I called the Atlanta station to tell them I could hear them in NC, and they didn't believe me! My heart's desire is a Kenwood L-02T. I like turning knobs, not poking buttons, that simple. There was one on Ebay not too long ago, but it looked really beat, needed repair, and the seller wouldn't give a no-DOA warranty.