fm tuner recs

[skatz]

I recently moved and my antique tuner won't pull in the weak signal from the station I want to listen to. I am looking for any recs on new tuners, or any someone might want to sell.. Does anyone know about the SQ of the Sangean HDT20? Price is nice. I don't want to spend a lot.

[fpitas]

A new tuner *may* help. Otherwise you need a decent antenna.

[skatz]

I am aware of that.

[Wolf]

Bogen has always had great tuners.
Wolf

[djg]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sy201DScCQ

[ugly woofer]

Magnum dynalab ft101, luxman t117, carver tx11a all pretty cheap used.

[Paul K.]

I have an older Sangean HD Radio tuner and think it sounds just fine. It's tuned to our local Ohio State University station that broadcasts classical music 24/7 on one of its 2 HD channels (the other is PBS).
Paul

[JRT]

Does anyone know about the SQ of the Sangean HDT20?

On Sangean's marketing webpage for their HDT20, they mention, "Digital Output with both Optical and Coaxial SPDIF Outputs".

[Whitneyville1]

I wouldn't spend mega-bucks on an FM tuner. Frank Charlie Charlie is proposing ANOTHER new "format" for broadcast FM radio to replace the current "standard" FM and "HD FM" formats with a real honest-to-gosh DIGITAL format for a hundred reasons. Money being 98 of them. The pressure to switch ASTV to DIN standard for the ever declining satellite band-width (and follow Japan into the 8K TV World) is also nearly insurmountable and eliminate "Dish TV" World-wide as we know it today. We can't launch mega-communications satellites, nobody has the rockets even on the drawing boards. If it weighs more than 12 tons, it can't be put into high-Earth orbit. Com sats are wearing out, even military ones. We put our future of communications into fiber-optics and cell-phones and the future is here with a vengeance for better or worse. Saturn V's anyone???

[Steve Lee]

^ Interesting . . . . Thanks for your thoughts . . .

[skatz]

Interesting discussion, I don't want to spend megabucks. The tuner I have is an old Luxman, pretty basic model, and it was fine until I moved here, but reception of the only classical station around is marginal at best. Also, the tuner doesn't have any frills, and if the power blinks the memory is gone. Not a biggie if there is only one station, but inconvenient Hurricane area means I will likely lose power. I will look into the vintage tuners, but the Sangean HDT20 is about $170, and I found a Denon Pro for about $200 that has DAB, not that that helps in the US unless there is a shift to it. Otherwise there don't seem to be any fm tuners offered any more, there must be no market for components until you get to megabuck territory, and I'm not going there.
Whitneyville, were you referring to DAB or something else?
You tube was interesting djg, and some on antennae too.
My amp does allow optical input, but only one, and that is occupied by my cd player.

[JRT]

You can get a Toslink switch with three or four input ports and one ouput port for less than $20 on Amazon.

I would suggest getting the Sangean HDT20 and a Toslink switch.

[skatz]

Just looked at the MagnumDynalab ft 101, and they're about $500. Did you mean the ft11,? They are close to $200

[ugly woofer]

Wow, the MD ft101 was between $125 and $200 pre covid. Sorry I had no idea that the price had skyrocketed.

[skatz]

No problem, haven't spent a Dnickel yet.

If I go modern instead of vintage, what do you guys think between the Sangean DHT20 and the Denon pro DN300DH???

[buggers]

Start with an antenna, then get the tuner...
You have not mentioned how much cash you are going to spend.

[fpitas]

Yes, an antenna is almost free if you make it yourself. Tuners can only have sensitivity down to the natural noise floor of -174dBm/Hz. Past there, the best tuner in the world can't help.