Sound quality (not realy a strength, just something about the product I couldn't really complain too much about)

Operational Controls, FM selectivity, FM reception

I did a side by side comparison of the Fanfare FT-1A tuner to the tuner section of a Nachimichi TA-1 receiver. The Nach (using the tape outputs) and Fanfare were fed into a Yamaha 200W amp (forgot the model) that was driving a pair of Magnepan speakers. We are within the New York City listening area, and have 20+ stations on the dial. In blind A/B listenening, the Fanfare and Nachimichi were very close, to the point that it would take a minute or so of listening to tell them apart. The Fanfare had slightly better low frequency responce and detail. The Nachimichi had a better sound and detail in the mid and higher frequencies. The Fanfare higher frequencies had a bit of edginess to it that I didn't like.

The part of the listening experience that really earned my scorn and derision was just how miserable a FM front end the Fanfare has. The front end is so miserable that the scan function would only lock onto 2 (count them) stations on the entire FM dial, and these were not the strongest stations on the dial. Using the remote to change stations was pointless. The selectivity (ability to reject adjacent channels) was so miserable that a station could be heard .4MHZ off the center frequency. Arrgh! just thinking about how miserable this unit is agravates me!

I tried several stations (rock, classical, folk, R&B, Latin) and several antennas (dipole, whip, asymetric long line) tested each horizontally and vertically polarized.

Ten minutes into the second listening secssion, I became so disgusted by this unit's lack of quality that it was returned.

Well how good can FM actually be to justify the cost of a goodFM tuner? This probably has a lot to do with the FM stations in
your area. In my experience FM quality can be exceptional. And this
has nothing to do with the type of music you listen to - I catch
superb Jazz off KPLU (via cable), Classical music off CBC Radio 2
(via an antenna) and great Rock off Rock 101 (via an antenna).
This is not to say that all FM stations sound superb. If a station
broadcasts compressed sound, this is what comes through.

I primarily listen to Jazz off KPLU (on cable) and have been experimenting
to achieve the best possible sound quality. I now have what I believe
to be superb sound quality - one that will easily rival CD (no I
don't want to start the vinyl vs. CD debate here - when they play
vinyl it sounds superb too). Also, since getting a really good tuner,
I found that I listen more to FM than I do to my CD collection.

The FM tuner I have is the Fanfare FT-1A, along with their FM-2G
dipole antenna. I used to own a Yamaha TX-950, prior to this purchase
and have auditioned the Magnum Dynalab FT-1A and Etude tuners as
well as other tuners. The rest of my system, for reference, consists of a
Sonic Frontiers Line 1 Line stage, Pass Lab Aleph 5 amplifier and
B&W CDM-7SE speakers, all cables and interconnects are D.H.Labs.

Before, I go into more detail on the sound quality and features, I would
like to mention the absolutely exceptional service I have received from
Marv Southcott, the President of Fanfare - be it taking the time to
answer all my technical questions on FM, Radio and the product, or the
after sales service where I received a call to find out the setup was
performing and recommending options to try to improve it further.

So how does it sound? Starting at the bottom, the FT-1A has superb, tight
bass, a silky smooth, refined and realistic (not overly euphoric, like some
other tuners I've heard) midrange and absolutely spectacular airy highs.
It has superb resolution. Soundstage depth and width are excellent,
and depending on the recording, extend beyond the boundaries of my room.
I know others who have reviewed this tuner have lauded the excellent bass.
One area I think that this tuner shines is in its spectacular rendering of
the highs.

Feature wise, it come with 8 presets (more than enough for me), a
remote control, and 3 outputs - a lo and high unbalanced and a balanced
output, a stereo/mono switch and wide/narrow blend switch. I tried both
the lo and high unbalanced and prefer the lo unbalanced. It has a single
coaxial input. I use an external switch to switch between an antenna and
cable inputs. The addition of the switch into the path didn't seem to
affect the sound quality in any audible way. Tuning is accomplished via a
set of buttons. It is an analog tuner that uses digital circuitry which
is supposed to sample the frequency tuned in and adjust for any drift.
I have never noticed any drift in all my time listening to it. Supposedly,
this is a problem with other analog tuner designs.

Are there features I would like to have seen on it. Two in-built coax
inputs - one for the antenna and another for cable would have been nice,
assuming of course that the preset would remember the source setting.
I have become accustomed to using the external switch so in reality,
this is a feature I can easily live without.

Overall, I'm extremely satisfied with the performance of the Fanfare FT-1A.
If you are in the market for an excellent FM tuner, I would highly
recommend the Fanfare FT-1A.

I live and work in the foothills of Santa Barbara, Calif., which is "tuner hell." I try to enjoy FM music yet finally hit the wall with the grainy, harsh,in-and-out reception that seems the price one pays for living in this sublime environment.
I learned about the FANFARE FT-1 (now improved to the FT-1A) from colleagues who had friends in the broadcast industry and regarded it as the most convenient and practical dual-purpose FM tuner/monitor on the market for professional use. I was told it was used as a repeater-demodulator and as a means to sample true "off-air" sonic quality. What really caught my attention was when I was told it possessed "dead-on" accuracy and did not suffer from the drift asociated with many high-end analog tuners such as mine yet seemed to possess superior sensitivity and selectivity.

Well, I gave it a try. WOW!!! When I first hooked it up I literally couldn't leave the chair. This is as close to having free CD's as it comes. I'm buying a second one for my office.

To call this merely a "tuner" degrades the FANFARE FT-1. It is deceptively simple and has a remote! I don't know what to call it... maybe just free music.

Wow, I can't believe anyone reviewed this product! At any rate, I bought mine about two years ago. I ordered mine with a silver faceplate and Kimber KCAG internal wiring.
This is another product which is very difficult to pin down. First of all, get yourself a good antenna. And be careful where you situate your FT-1. In my room, I got better reception by putting the FT-1 on the top shelf, versus the the lower ones.

As the FT-1 is very touchy, don't rush to conclusions about its sound. For example, the FT-1 responds favorably to Bright Star Little and Big Rocks; power cords and powerline conditioning; and interconnects. Also, this thing takes months to burn in. I left my FT-1 on, while I went on vacation for a few weeks. After I had returned from vacation, the improvement was so great, I swore that some elves must have replaced my unit. But no, my unit just needed time to burn in.

I have three quibbles. (1) The remote does not work very well. (2) For such a fine-sounding unit, why only eight presets? (3) On the balanced outputs, pin-3 is positive. If your preamp is pin-2 positive, then you have to get a polarity-inverting cable. Indeed, I had Kimber Kable make such a cable out of their balanced KCAG.

Even though the rating below says otherwise, I give the Fanfare FT-1 Four-And-A-Half stars!!! If your local radio stations suck, don't blame the tuner!

Absolutely remarkable sound when listening to a remarkable broadcast.

None that concern me.

You know, I love this AudioReview site. It's fun, it's effective, and sometimes it's downright fascinating. Take the Fanfare FT-1A Reference Analog FM Tuner/Monitor. I think it's wonderful. A five-star beauty. So now you know where I stand.

Eight previous reviewers say "five" stars, one says "four", one says "two" and one says "one". Lots of "hot", two "big chills" and no consensus at all in the middle. That's the fascinating part. Oh well, I'm with the "five" star club, that's for sure. Can't make sense of the low scores, but I guess it's important that they can vent them - 'tis a free country and that's what AudioReview.com is all about.

I live in Ottawa, Canada and listen to FM (and I mean a lot of FM) for one big reason. And that reason is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. More specifically their french and english FM stereo stations (wonderful classical in the evening, cool jazz after that, opera on the weekends, new age at midnight, and good old "Disk Drive" in the afternoon). The CBC broadcasts are wonderful in their quality and don't suffer from a lot of bizarre or bloated processing prior to broadcasting.

I have a good view of the broadcast tower, twenty miles away, so I am not going to talk about sensitivity or selectivity. I'd be wasting your time or lying.

I own both the Fanfare FT-1A and the Dynalab MD102. They are both remarkable units and I enjoy each one very much. They both have tricked visitors (with pretty good ears). All of a sudden a station break comes on and they ask, is that the radio!? Yes sir, it is CBC shining through some pretty cool circuitry.

Do I (personally) care if the tuner calls for manual rotary adjustment (MD-102) or a push button selection (FT-1A)? Not a bit. Do I think one is sexier that the other. No, they're just different and both very stiking. But what I do care about is the SOUND. And (given a good source) the Fanfare FT-1A is exquisite.

The bass out of the Fanfare FM tuner is wonderfully rich but tight and musical (Paradigm Servo 15); not the slightest resemblance to home video bass. Violins and other strings are luscious. Jazz percolates as well as Maxwell House, maybe better. I call the Fanfare a silly smile component. You know, the one you can't get off your face. Hard to believe that the FT-1A can deliver a real sense of sound stage and depth (depending, as ever, upon the source)!! But it does, ... I hear it every day.

One reviewer commented that the "scan" button zipped by too many stations. What I enjoyed far more was slowly working my way through the stations with the "tune" button and watching the tuner signal strength as I closed in on the supposed ideal frequency and then carefully selected the optimim IF band. Yes, I did get more stations this way, but I am not disappointed with the sensitivity logic that favoured the better stations when "scan" was used. If "scan" had offered up every rag-tag peripheral station, I would have found this problematic. In the end, I picked my favourite 8 stations, with the IF band of my choice, programmed them into the presets, and have been all set ever since.

By the way, I am using the Fanfare FM-2G omnidirectional whip antenna.

Thank you, Mr. Southcott for a wonderful product and for a value that's hard to beat.

Similar Products Used:

Magnum Dynalab MD-102