Unlike many here, I listen to a lot of music via FM tuners and have done so for many years. These days in my reference system I use either a Day Sequerra M4.2R HD FM/AM tuner or vintage Sansui TU-X1 tuner, either of which is fed from an attic mounted Channel Master FM-9 Stereo Probe 9-element Yagi antenna and 100 feet of unspliced RG-6 quad shield wire.
Never discount the importance of a good FM antenna for broadcast reception. In many locations, the antenna, its mounting, and lead in wire is far more important to getting satisfactory or better sound quality from a potentially good FM signal than the tuner is. In other words, a great antenna feeding a pedestrian FM tuner will in many locations sound FAR, FAR better than a folded dipole feeding the world's best tuner.
Of course, with most FM stations, there is no potentially good sounding FM signal being broadcast. I've been blessed to live in areas with either high-quality FM programming, high-quality FM content, or both, most of my life since 1970. Chicago's WFMT is both and is literally a unique broadcast (and free on line) FM station. Most of the programming is classical music and arts talk, but within that realm, there is none finer, and that type of programming suits my tastes just fine. WFMT engineers many recordings of live orchestral, chamber, and opera recordings in many venues and the sound quality of those, despite FM's supposed bandwidth limitations, just has to be heard to be believed. Then there are the Friday and Saturday night forays into jazz and folk. I don't think you will hear Jazz From Lincoln Center broadcast in as fine a fidelity anywhere else and the live and recorded folk music on Saturday night is again unmatched in production standards. These guys know music and know how to get the most fidelity onto the airwaves.
My first tuner was a Dynaco FM-5 I bought in college and kept for many years. Eventually I replaced it with other newer models, such as the Sony STJ-75, Tandberg 3001A, Van Alstine FET-Valve tuner (a modified Hafler), and others. But if you can find an old Dyna FM-5 of 6 in working order, it is still a nice sounding tuner. Give it a good antenna feed and it sounds very fine.
Then I started getting "serious" about tuners. I auditioned several vintage and new McIntosh units, but really couldn't get excited. Yes, they have good RF front ends and will pull stations very well, but that is of secondary inportance in my Chicagoland location. Sonically they were okay, but not world beaters. And I didn't want to care for and feed a Marantz 10B. I had a few Magnum Dynalabs on loan over the years, but again found them to be not up to their reputation, either in terms of freedom from background noise or in other sonic criteria.
The vintage Sansui TU-X1 I now have replaced a Fanfare FT-1A with Kimber KCAG internal silver wiring. Before purchasing the Fanfare, I compared this over several days in my system against a Magnum Dynalab MD-102. While the Magnum sometimes generated an endearingly larger and more relaxed sonic picture, in all other respects, the Fanfare beat it. The Fanfare pulled in weak adjacent channels significantly cleaner than the Magnum. The Fanfare had less background noise and hiss, and lacked the slight constant background grunge which some other reviewers of the MD 102 have noted. Instruments sounded more like themselves tonally on the Fanfare. The imaging and soundstaging was much more precise and specific and changed more dramatically from station to station and selection to selection than on the Magnum, which I took as an indication that the Fanfare was imposing less of its own sound on the signal. The Fanfare's bass response was far deeper, tighter, and more detailed than the Magnum's, and its macrodynamics were at least as good. Then, of course, there was the Fanfare's superior ergonomics, with its included full-function remote control. Finally, unlike others, I find the Magnum's front panel, meters, switches and overall look to be just plain ugly. The switches of the Magnum, while appearing substantial, look and feel clunky. On a good sounding station, such as Chicago's WFMT, the Fanfare really did sound like a high quality CD player--better than CD in some significant ways on live or taped classical transmissions.
The vintage Sansui TU-X1 goes the Fanfare one--actually several--better. This is one of the top rated FM tuners over on the Tuner Information Center site. Not that the Fanfare is bad or even mediocre--far from it. It is still excellent in my book. But the vintage Sansui has amazingly good sound on a good source like WFMT, and draws you in even on mediocre stations. There is a sweetness and low distortion to the sound that the Fanfare and Magnums can't touch, and the greater three-dimensional imaging and staging must be heard to be appreciated. Instruments sound more like they do live. The word 'analog' comes to mind, maybe because that is what it is, an 'old-fashioned' truly analog FM tuner. It's as if even digital sources at the radio station are being played on fine analog turntables. And live location broadcasts of classical fare are unbelievably good. Background hiss is about as low on any station as with the Fanfare, which means quieter than anything else I've tried. After having the Sansui aligned and all its capacitors replaced by by Mark Wilson of Absolute Sound Labs in Minnesota, the tuner matches the Fanfare in the only areas where it previously might have been second: inky black background, dynamics, and bass extension and punch. FM sound quality is maximized by detuning and muting the AM reception and by shorting the second FM antenna input. RF-wise, the Sansui is at least as good as getting and quieting distant and adjacent stations as the Fanfare, which means better than the Magnum MD-102 and better than anything else I've owned. This is a honey and a definite long-term keeper. By the way, mine is in truly excellent condition after restoration up by Absolute Sound Labs.
But the DaySequerra M4.2R is AT LEAST as good as the Sansui in my system. In my location, 30 miles from the transmitter, and limited as I am by the covenants of our development to an attic-mounted antenna, the advantages of HD done right, as in this unit and a good HD signal like WFMT broadcasts, outweigh the superiorities of the analog FM signal. Even on the best station, WFMT, while analog FM through the Sansui has better depth and midbass/lower midrange "roundness," the DaySequerra's HD reception is better in terms of freedom from audible distortion, clean high frequencies, dynamics, bass extension, and freedom from background noise.
