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CBC Radio 2's "After Hours"


whell

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"After Hours" is a radio show that comes on CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp for those of you south of the Mason Dixon line) Radio 2 from 10:00 PM to midnight EST Mon - Fri. Have any of you ever caught this show? For jazz fans with decent FM rigs, this show gives you one more reason to listen to FM. For any of you DX'ers out there, I pick it up on 89.9 FM out of Windsor, Ontario (right across the river from Detroit).

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There is nothing better than good, uncompressed, FM radio Jazz at late night. The great thing is that most of your local public station have EXCELLENT sound. I had a SUMO tuner that was based on the highly reviewed CHARLIE years ago. It was about a $650 tuner and sounded VERY nice in wide mode with good public radio. Perhaps one of the best deals around is an old EICO HFT-90 all tube FM tuner which normally runs around $20-30 all the time on ebay.

hft-90_top_white.jpg

I got a mint unit with ALL Mullard tubes in perfect shape. This 1954 beast is ALL MONO and looks like an antique, but does it sound GREAT on good uncompressed FM! You have never heard such nice FM and with good jazz, it really is excellent. My unit doesnt drift a bit, then again, I only use it to listen to public radio. It's not a DX champion, that is for sure, but does alright. I find the long distance stations just dont sound as good anyway but if playing good material, that comes in second.

WEll, my SUMO is yet another piece of gear sitting on the shelf displaced by 40 year old stock. It gets the music right and exhibits more soul than most. My buddy with the Scott 222c has a nifty Scott tuner that sounds excellent as well.

kh

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Would you be interested in buying it? This is a very well respected tuner from a California company that had some good sounding gear. I had the Sumo Athena preamp and the Sumo NINE Class A amp and the whole system sounded very nice. The Aurora FM tuner is excellent but I have been bitten by the tube bug through and through.

Not many people have heard of SUMO but they made some nice gear. If interested, I'll post a shot.

kh

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Before buying an older tuner, take a look at this link -

http://www.geocities.com/tunerinfo/shootouts.html

I'm sure it's been posted before. These guys are passionate about they're tuners. Right now they are in the midst of a drawn out tuner comparison. The Sumo Charlie was just compared and faired ok at best. There are many other tuners out there for lots less dough that can do the job. Check it out for yourself.

Good Luck,

Chris

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Mine is the unit that REPLACED the Charlie called the Sumo Aurora. It was supposed to be an across the board upgrade of the Charlie with a better power supply and fully discrete SS audio section. It sounds very three dimensional and warm but I just love the mono 54 EICO.

Man, is that review biased toward the Kenwood??? heh...lordy. Although the Kenwood LT-02 is supposed to be one of the holy grails of that era tuners. I will say that the BASS via the Aurora is its strong suit since it has a very large toroidal transformer and heavy duty power supply. FRom what I have read, it was an upgrade to the Charlie in all ways. That review pretty much claims the Kenwood L-02T beats every single tuner it's up against.

I probably would sell this tuner for $200 or so. I will say it's geared more toward sonics than pulling in weak stations. It appears as if a lot of the tweaking went to the audio chain.

kh

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I might be interested in purchasing. I'm in the process of putting together a 2nd two channel system. I really need a unit that biases towards strong sensitivity, and I thought I heard the Sumo units did well with that. You're comment about this not being a strong point of that unit gives me a little pause.

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I used a "Charlie the Tuner" for about a year in the early 80's--it was on a long-term loan from a college pal. This was a REALLY nice tuner. I lived in a concrete loft in San Fancisco and had no exterior antennae and this thing pulled in SACRAMENTO FM stations.

I now use a McIntosh MR-71 and leave in on 88.1 KKJZ most of the time. This is a great radio station and since I live about a mile from them it comes in strong and clear. I still don't have a roof antennae, but this is due to laziness more than anything else.

In my 2nd system I have a Fisher T-100 preamp/AM-FM-MPX tuner that I pulled from a console. This is also a REALLY nice tuner and a good preamp as well. It's hooked up to a SA-100 Fisher amp and a pair of Tannoy Monitor Gold 12" in factory cabinets. This is a real Rock and Roll/Electric Blues system. My wife, the 45 yar old wannabe "gangsta" listens to Snoop Doogg, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Nelly and other pop-rap stuff on this system quite a bit. BO0M-BOOM-SHHH!!! Tannoys really rock--MUCH better than the Conrwalls--Rap through the Cornwalls is PAINFUL!!

I also have a Marantz 10B that I will restore one day. I've never gotten it working and it is the rustiest 10B I've ever seen (I bought it for $50!!!). Some day . . .

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Hey guys - Why does having opinions mean we at TIC are "biased"? Look it up... not a good word to be using. Jim is scrupulously honest in his shootouts, and otherwise. Have any of you ever used an L-02T, or a TU-X1 for that matter? Also please note that we disclaim the hell out of everything - that it's not possible to make definitive comparisons based upon one example of a tuner, etc., etc.

Eric

Editor/Webmaster, TunerInfo

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Function: transitive verb

Inflected Form(s): bi·ased or bi·assed; bi·as·ing or bi·as·sing

Date: circa 1628

1 : to give a settled and often prejudiced outlook to <his background biases him against foreigners>

2 : to apply a slight negative or positive voltage to (as an electron-tube grid)

I don't see anything that bad.

Although that second spelling looks as if it would mean that you had 2 er umm...

Peace, Josh

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Eric,

Thanks to your site I'm sitting here listening to a Sansui TU-717 that I picked up at a local swap meet. So far it's sound is right up there with my Accuphase T-101. Maybe a little lighter in the bass, but I still have to put it on the bench and do what limited cleaning and checking my electronic skills allow. After that, Ill give it a good listen. Waitnewsflashmy wife is telling me it doesnt sound as good as the Accuphase. She says it sounds too far away. Shes getting pretty good at critical listening. In the past she has picked out Luxman TU-117 when a friend and I were messing around with a few tuners (tweaked MD Etude, Mac MR 80, and TU-117).

I'd love to get my hands on a L-02T or TU-X1 but alas, they are more do-re-mi than I am willing to shell out. The 717 set me back $65.00. As a matter of fact the gentleman I bought it from charges $65-75 for just about any piece he has, crapola or not. I see him every month or so at a local swap meet. It's my understanding he scours garage sales and such non-stop for his merchandise. He's had some rather interesting stuff.

Regards,

Chris

(I just made a donation to TIC.)

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Chris - Nice purchase! I've had a couple of TU-717's and a TU-719 at various times myself, and I have a TU-710 at the moment (same thing) that is a keeper. Like any other 20-25 year old tuner, they're not always in good shape and alignment when purchased from an unknown party, but when you get a good one it's up there with almost anything else short of the megabuck tuners.

I guess I'm a little dense, but I hadn't made the connection between the guy who just donated to TIC and the cjk guy who posts here. We already thanked you by email but now I have the privilege of thanking you publicly, as well, for your support and kind words. -Eric

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