Analogue Tuners

Just a quick question the Sansui TU 717 is sounding lovely, but it has a small tendancy to drift off tune, or rather for the signal strength meter to change from the nearly 5 I left it at to about 3 with the corresponding dip in performance. I've got the co-ax split and the ground and central wire connected to the two 75ohm connections. Is that right, and is my drift? (is that the right phrase?) simply down to the tuner settling in. I seem to remember reading about a Magnum Dynalab that took about 2 weeks to settle in and stop doing that. Any thoughts gratefully accepted

Here's a picture for those that like a bit of tuner porn!

 

I have had 3 Sansui tuners and they all had this drift to some degree. If you normally power-off they will drift on cold start anyway. When fully warmed or left powered-on you should not notice the drift unless you have an aerial problem. Sansuis seem particularly sensitive to any aerial misalignment. Your connection should have the middle wire wrapped around the screw with the braid held in the clip. I have used a TU-217, 517, and now 9900.

 

That sounds right. I left it turned on last night and it was perfectly blob on this morning. I'll try turning it off later and see what happens. My aerials not connected like that, I've got it connected to the two 75ohm things, I got better signal strength that way.

 

Hi Lordsummit,

I am not commenting on the drift of your Sansui tuner. I'd just want to tell you what I have done to my Quad FM4 tuner last week. See http://groups.yahoo.com/group/quadhifi/message/4250 for details.

Your tuner is probably over 20 years old, if the electrolytic capacitors have not been changed, I think it is time to change them. Oz (Linnik) in pinkfishmedia has already reported the sound improvement of his classic tuners in the diy section of pinkfishmedia. http://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11583

Have fun.

Regards
Hon

 

Could be the caps in an older unit.....my be worth a look?

 

Oh I think they'll get done soon enough! It's very stable now whilst it's turned on, you just need to check it when you've turned it off and come back to it later

 

Have your read Oz's post about servicing a Sansui TU 517 tuner?

http://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10254&highlight=tuner

Hon

 

Exactly. The tuner is much too modern.

Look at getting a Tim de Paravicini modded Troughline tuner. Total cost about £300 and solid gold sound.

 

I still have an original Troughline 3 which needs the RF head re-aligned. Looking at the state of all the caps, the electrolytic caps are probably leaking electrolyte, especially those TCC or Visconol branded oil filled caps which are terrible for leaking DC voltage as well. A few years ago, I had a stereo Troughline 2 with the factory installed decoder. It did sound quite nice, but it had too much hiss.

Even a brilliant sound vintage tuner like the Troughline will require servicing.

Regards
Hon

 

Definitely. In fact I believe that Tim de P won't supply his decoder without a rebuild. Well, let's face it, at 40+ years old the Troughline deserves a rebuild.

 

Steve, have you read this?

Just in case not;

http://www.hi-fiworld.co.uk/hfw/featureshtml/timdeparadecoder.html

 

Thanks Chris.

I've got (believe it or not) six Troughlines and I've done a deal with Tim de P to take five of them and give me back one good one - with a complete rebuild and new decoder. I think you can pick up Troughlines for about £50 each so I'm quite happy with the deal.

 

from the hifi world review steve, I think it should be pretty awesome!