The best sounding FM Tuner is.....

The "best" might just be too ambiguous ...but I am enjoying being a second owner of a recently aquired Mitsubishi DA-F20 which was a step up sonicly over my previous Sansui TU-717...both stock unmodfied...so far.

I have owned a few tuners over the years and recently a opportunity came about to buy a MR-78 with the Modafferi Mod done by Audio Classics and the unit looking like new. I could not believe the condition so I pulled the trigger.

Oh my what a gorgeous sounding pce, when not listening to my my vinyl I have this on 91.1 FM and is has many many times stopped me right in my tracks saying WOW!

I'm feel very fortuante.

I agree a modded MR78 is about as good as it gets, especially with proper high end antenna. Was lucky enough to side by side the 71, 77, and 78. All modded and the 71 had 3k in vintage tubes. Preferred the 78 for classical FM best but the 71 was better on rock. Found myself using the Wadia 27/270 for a paper weight, toggling tuners all night.

I own in my order of preference:
Rhode & Schwartz
Magnum Dynalab MD109
REL Precedent (stereo Charlie King conversion)
Marantz 10B
The R&S is by a margin the best.

There is no definitive "best" of anything. There are way too many variables involved. The "best" you can hope for is to find something that works well in your system. You can then say it's the "best" for you until you find something you think is better !!!!