Mine's vinyl

I have a lot of streaming memberships for work..Tidal, Qobuz, Apple Lossless, Amazon. Qobuz sounds best but Apple Lossless isn’t too bad. It’s only new so need to explore it a bit more. The 301 and 401 get a spin as well, just not as often. The Stax SR009s tell the differences between them, sometimes with shocking transparency!

AMR-iFi R&D

FM then vinyl.

I might have to change mine from vinyl to radio, as on a per hour basis I probably "hear" more radio.

But that's just background music, not serious listening, so vinyl it remains!

Does Shortland St count..?

Jun 29, 2021 17:23:25 GMT 12 andrewp said:

Does Shortland St count..?

Whatever floats your boat.

Best to classify as "Other", for TV. Smart TVs stream music, play radio stations, even talk back to you now-a-days.

Jun 29, 2021 17:11:38 GMT 12 Citroen said:

I might have to change mine from vinyl to radio, as on a per hour basis I probably "hear" more radio.

But that's just background music, not serious listening, so vinyl it remains!

my vote for radio was on a quantitative basis...

vinyl for serious listening

the shortland street theme music must sound mighty through the TADs

OK, I'll re-define "MAIN" as most important, most vital, most utilised, most invested in, most loved, not necessarily most hours listened to!

Can I change my vote ?

You Michael can do anything!

BTW, Didn't take you to be a Magic listener!

What's the tuner?

Marantz ST17

Not a Magic listener, I was checking out the RDS station IDs.

Yeah right!

Jun 30, 2021 16:17:23 GMT 12 michaelw said:

Marantz ST17

Marantz ST-17 a/k/a ST-17U (2005, $749/orig 1998, $650) search eBay

Our contributor Ryan posted a surprisingly positive review of the 4-gang ST-17 in our FMtuners group. Ryan tells us that the ST-17 uses bona fide Audiophile capacitors in its audio section ("ridiculously expensive ones, Elna Cerafine") and "sounds good too, after a major realignment, and looks at home with modern audiophile gear." Our panelist Ray is also a fan: "The ST-17 is very solidly constructed and quite large at 18" wide x 3.5" high x 12" deep. Though a digitally tuned unit, it features the vintage Marantz signature horizontal thumb-wheel for station selection, nice touch. After a tour through the schematic [our panelist] Bob reported the following: 'No details on the RF front end in the schematic, but I did notice it has attenuation for strong RF signals, good for people who have local overload problems. The IF path looks good, nothing fancy, with 3 discrete bipolar transistor differential amps and 4 ceramic filters, 2 wide and 2 narrow. The detector is a typical quad type working with the LA1266 FM IF chip, followed by a 4-pole anti-birdie filter, which maybe now we should also call anti-HD interference. Then the LA3410 MPX chip, with switchable de-emphasis implemented via feedback from the chip's output op-amps. These feed the highlight of the tuner, the HDAM output circuit. Each channel of these output amps consists of 8 discrete bipolar transistors with a differential front-end amp and balanced push-pull outputs. The nice thing is that there are no coupling caps involved in implementing the amp circuit, unlike earlier discrete output designs. This stage is followed by muting transistors and the output filter, likely a combination 15 kHz lowpass and 19/38 kHz notch.'



"The four CFs Bob described are premium 220 kHz GDT types in the Wide mode with a 230 kHz and 280 kHz normal type added in Narrow. The front end is a 4-ganger. I measured the de-emphasis response at an exemplary -0.30 dB at 10 Hz, -0.05 dB at 20 Hz and then flat to within +/- 0.20 dB all the way up through 15 kHz... as good as I can measure". One of the things I quickly noted upon first listen was an unusually deep and authoritative bass, and so it measures. This is as good-sounding a stock tuner as has ever made it to 'Ray's room' - no mod plans brewing here. I find the ST-17 to be a fine tuner with decent sensitivity and selectivity and great sound and it is certainly not 'sparrow feed.'" Our contributor Tim adds, The ST-17 is the best-sounding, stock, non-aligned tuner I've heard yet in my system." The ST-17 usually sells for $170-310 on eBay.

That's the one, mine is the early version without a remote control.

I bought it from James Grant, the Apparition tonearm guy.

Not the most sensitive or selective tuner (beaten by the Kenwood KT-5020) but is reliable (bye bye Revox B760) and sounds great (kicks the aforementioned Kenwood and many high-end tuners collective asses to the kerb).

But subject to sample to sample variations - I've heard three and each has sounded noticeably different.