Price Paid:  $500.00 from eBay

Summary:
This tuner was a great find on eBay. Although it is now discontinued, it is still highly competitive as a pure FM tuner. I'm am using it combined with a Magnum Dynaab ST-2 aerial.

The inside shows top-notch German built-quality, and a power supply which is about the same size as my Arcam A85's own. Upon earing, channel separation and sound imaging is exceptional. Live broadcasts on quality stations are just incredible. Sensitivity to wael stations is also quite remarquable, and the noise floor remains extremely low even low-quality signals. In the end, this turned out to be one of those unplanned purchases that turned out to be excellent decisions, I am listening to it every day.

On the low side, the tuner has a captive cable, and its mid '80s ergonomics are disconcerting at best if you don't have a user's manual. RDS-capability also required an optional add-on card that can still be obtained from German seller Joschi (website: http://www.revoxjoschi.de). It is remote-controllable, but the remote is a hard-to-fin collector's item!

However, it sounds so marvellous, if you can find one below 500$ it is rock-solid bargain, and worth a few headaches.

Strengths:
Superb detail and imaging, wide soundstage. Surprisingly authoritative bass in a tuner, very natural sounding overall. High sensitivity with weak stations, and very low noisefloor. Station names can be programmed, and 30-presets are available. Great build quality and oversized power supply.

Weaknesses:
Complex and unintuitive controls, captive cable, RDS requires expansive optional accessory.

Similar Products Used:
Sony ST-JX411, Yamaha TX950, Magnum-Dynalab Ft-101