Are Tuners - Audiophile quality

i agree with SD... get an outside antenna. wow. i bought the outside magnum dynalab antenna audiogon sells. absolutely astonishing.

i'm using a marantz 20/20 i bought for around $60 on ebay. it rocks. it sounds sooo much like tubes. nice, deep, luscious. i know people will balk but what can i say? there's something beautiful and exciting about the smokey, deep sound it produces. i could spend a lot more but i wont. it's amazing.

anyone have experience with this one?

Thank you everyone. I do not feel as stupid as I did when I posted it. I have had my tuner connected to my big TV antenna, 30 feet above the roof. The TV antenna did not make any improvement. Sounds like rabbit ears. I live close to downtown Washington DC. Maybe the issue is bandwidth from the radio stations.

Hey Dcaudio. I live in Charles County, Maryland 40 miles southeast of you. I have two extra Onkyo Integra Tuners if you want to give it a try sometime (a T4017 and T407).

Dcaudio, read the thread MR67 vs. MR71...interesting to a listener in your situation. Now if only great FM stations broadcasted via satellite so that we could hear them everywhere!

My experience was simliar to yours DcAudio. My first "stereo" was a Technics rack system from the mid 80's. As I changed my system through the years I did away with the tuner (sometime in the 80's) and had not used one at all until last year. I started investigating the idea of getting another, even though my Technics is still around, a friend has it. Long story short, through my research I eneded up buying a Fanfare FT-1A. Not only have I no regrets, I haven't used my system this much in 15 years!

The Fanfare has a wonderful sound, BUT as others have said the tuner can only be as good as the signal. From what I understand, in Cananda they have some live concert broadcasts that are amazing!

I work at home and very much enjoy using it throughout the day. You wouldn't use a tuner for "critical" listening, unless you had a good signal.

I think we all use our stereos differently, hence the variety of different reponses. I for one would recommend a good tuner.

www.fanfare.com