I have a TU-717 that I got from the original owner. It’s been modded/upgraded according to fmtunerinfo and is mint condition. The sound stage is amazing.
You that are unfamiliar with the fmtunerinfo site should take a gander, especially at the shootout pages. You might be surprised at what some of those old tuners are capable of.
The 919 is a step above mine, it’s also a fine tuner but I’d venture to say it should be serviced and caps replaced.
Most folks in here probably never heard of the Kenwood L-027 but here’s part of the write up from the shootout page. . Copy/paste from the fmtunerinfo site:
The Sansui TU-919 sounds SO much like the L-02T that I found it quite disturbing. They had the same low, lush, powerful bass. The imaging was excellent on both, they were both very three-dimensional in their presentations, the highs were sweet and never fatiguing, and I could listen to either of them for hours. It took me a very long time to come up with any sonic differences. Female voice and highs were just a touch lighter with the TU-919, or should I say the L-02T was a touch darker-sounding? The differences were very, very slight. At times, while listening to female vocals, I imagined she stepped off the stage and sang to just me through the Kenwood but stepped back on the stage and sang to everyone at my "table" through the Sansui. Just an image of the slight differences. The technical side of me was disturbed that it was so hard to tell them apart. One tuner’s audio stage uses discrete transistors and the other tuner uses op-amps in the audio section, but in a unique way. Why do they sound so similar? Just good designs? Luck? The planets were aligned just right? Whatever, the L-02T may have met its match.
You that are unfamiliar with the fmtunerinfo site should take a gander, especially at the shootout pages. You might be surprised at what some of those old tuners are capable of.
The 919 is a step above mine, it’s also a fine tuner but I’d venture to say it should be serviced and caps replaced.
Most folks in here probably never heard of the Kenwood L-027 but here’s part of the write up from the shootout page. . Copy/paste from the fmtunerinfo site:
The Sansui TU-919 sounds SO much like the L-02T that I found it quite disturbing. They had the same low, lush, powerful bass. The imaging was excellent on both, they were both very three-dimensional in their presentations, the highs were sweet and never fatiguing, and I could listen to either of them for hours. It took me a very long time to come up with any sonic differences. Female voice and highs were just a touch lighter with the TU-919, or should I say the L-02T was a touch darker-sounding? The differences were very, very slight. At times, while listening to female vocals, I imagined she stepped off the stage and sang to just me through the Kenwood but stepped back on the stage and sang to everyone at my "table" through the Sansui. Just an image of the slight differences. The technical side of me was disturbed that it was so hard to tell them apart. One tuner’s audio stage uses discrete transistors and the other tuner uses op-amps in the audio section, but in a unique way. Why do they sound so similar? Just good designs? Luck? The planets were aligned just right? Whatever, the L-02T may have met its match.