GoodSoundClub - Romy the Cat's Audio Site

In the Forum: Off Air Audio
In the Thread: Sansui TU-X1 Broadcast monitor.

Post Subject: Misc tuna fishin'Posted by doug s. on: 12/5/2008

romy, there is a tuna freak in los angeles who insists that the only way to get the best sound from the l-02t is to use kenwood's proprietary cabling. i dunno, i have never tried one. i have tried two earlier analog kenwoods; my experience is they need serious mods to sound good. then, they really do sound quite good.

rick from allegro sound in los angeles:

http://www.allegrosound.com/

(rick, btw, bugs me every so often; he really wants to buy my rotel rht-10... Wink

)

i also noticed you mentioned the scott 310 earlier in this thread; i had two 310d's, supposedly the best of the 310's, and w/their outboard 335 mpx decoders, supposedly scott's best offerings, even better than the all-in-one stereo 310e. that is, their best, except for the 4310, which i have never heard, and usually sells for quite a bit more than the marantz 10b. anyways, one set of 310d/335 mpx's i owned was refurb'd and modded by foster blair, supposedly the best scott tech. while it sounded nice, the combo didn't compare w/other wintage tubed tunas i have heard. and, i have three more modern solid state mpx decoders that all sound better than the refurb'd 335, and a stock fisher mpx100 i also own. if you want truly superb sound from a tubed tuna, get a sherwood s3000lll, iv, or v, preferably properly refurb'd. the lll is usually mono, sometimes it has an onboard mpx added, but mostly not. the iv & v are stereo. (and the s2100-ll is an s3000v w/the addition of am.) in any ewent, i have a never-serviced s3000lll mono, and a refurb'd s3000v; these sound as good as any tuna i have ever heard. seriously. (s3000lll used w/studio-12 decoder.) they aren't as sensitive or selective as better solid state tunas, obviously, but still quite decent reception. for equivalent sound but positively mediocre reception, try a stromberg carlson sr445 w/outboard mpx... (or the more rare sr443, which is the half-chassis fm-only iteration.) and, there's an interesting thread about someone who went crazy on a dynaco fm3 and says it's now better sounding than his tu-x1. i have one similarly modded, but not quite so extreme; i haven't given it a proper audition cuz its sensitivity is too poor for me to use it in my present difficult reception conditions, conditions that don't faze my sherwoods in the least... (i can't use my stromberg carlsons here, either...)

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f30/review-sansuitu-x1-dynaco-fm-3-leak-throughline-2-a-202931-print/

yes, it's a yob to conwert a japan spec tuna to usa-spec. i can't remember exactly, but mr chow charged me ~$350 to do it, iirc. he said "never again", but that was changing the dial-scale - he says it's not difficult to change out a tuna if you don't mind not having the dial scale correct! Wink

he had also done the same conwersion and mods for me, w/an accuphase t109; this one was easier, cuz it inwolwed only swapping out a module to get the tuning right, but the difficulty was getting the module - accuphase is wery shitty when it comes to conwerting their gear; they refuse to sell the parts. mr chow knows someone in japan who was able to sneak the module out in a larger order, but it took him almost a year to get it. the modded t109, btw, was not as nice sounding as my hk 18 - its soundstage was slightly wider, but also shallower, not as tall, and the timbre and detail of the hk is better... also, i am interested in what you think mr chow does that is not a good idea...

another excellent tuna worth seeking out is the aiwa at9700u - tho in stock form it is not quite up to my tu-x1, it's close, and it's an ergonomic pleasure to use. it's another one i wanna send out for mods...

best,

doug s.

Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site