Posted by John on October 20, 2003 at 21:48:07:
In Reply to: Re: Top 3 Sansui Tuners? posted by Jose on October 20, 2003 at 20:10:50:
That TU9900 was a nice tuner but it was missing a foot on it. Looked lopsided. Oh well, the TU7900 looks similiar to it with silver knobs, black face, and green lit display. I have it as well as a TU717 and I have to say that I prefer the sound of the TU7900. To me, it just sounds more natural and warm. The TU717 is an excellent tuner so I'm not taking anything away from it. I think it is better than ALOT of tuners out there but I think the TU7900 just edges it slightly. But this is strictly my opinion. Both are excellent Sansuis to consider.
: I just bid over $450 on the Sansui TU-9900 AM/FM tuner (Item # 3053258751) and lost on e-Bay. Maybe a good thing since there appear to be more good tuners than I thought from Sansui. $450 is about as high as I want to go unless someone has a unit in a box in (like) new condition. I live in the Sacramento area and until the San Francisco public radio station chose to extend their reach to the area by putting up a station nearby, reception to about 200 miles and over hills was my biggest priority. It is now sound quality. Based on the feedback here, my top three choices are the TU-9900, the TU-919 (though someone inexplicably just paid $1,005 for one of these on e-Bay) and the TU-7900, which I didn't know existed until viewing John's post. I would also consider blowing my budget on a Tu-X1 but those don't seem to come available. I wanted to share how you have influenced me (there are lots of good options) and thank you all for your assistance.
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: : Hello Jose, you didnt mention what your $$ spending budget was to buy the tuner. Price is a factor here- it can be said that the Sansui TU-X1 Tuner was perhaps THE best tuner ever made, but- it will cost maybe $2000 to buy one from a Seller who is aware of its value. On the other side of the spectrum, if you are looking for a very good Sansui tuner at a very reasonable price, and you are not concerned whether its analog or digital, there were just two bargains on Ebay- a TU-D99X for $65 and a TU-S7 for only a little over 16 dollars!! (you can see the auction results in Ebay's Completed Auctions). Another digital Sansui tuner that was Excellent was the TU-S9.
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: : The TU-9900 of the mid 70's and the TU-919 of the late 70's are also both superb, but they will sell for approximately $500. So, if I had to narrow it down to one model that has Excellent construction & sound quality and reasonable price (approximately $200), I think the best buy for a Sansui tuner is the TU-717 and you can find them on Ebay. You cant wrong with this tuner. The TU-719 is the same thing but with a digital station readout. (You can also spend less $$ and get the smaller models in the Line- TU-517, 417....217)
: : The best site for Tuner info is: www.fmtunerinfo.com
: : and there is also a Tuner Group on the Yahoo site.
: : B/F