Tuner Review

[Elgen]

Review of Denon TU-S10 tuner

After my first day of use of Denons top of line tuner TU-S10 i will do a review.
Since so little is mentioned and no reviews are printed on the net.
I have experience with Denon DRA-1000R reciever so I can compare the sound and functions.

TU-S10 has a excellent finish and are heavy, it’s gold coloured aluminium fascia is very nice.
There are no tuning knob like the cheaper models, there are 19 buttons and a remotecontrol.
As extras compared to the basic tuner models from Denon there are RF Attenuator, IF Wide/Narrow and Attenna selector A/B. It also has copper screening and some tripple screening inside.

As other Denons it has full RDS functions including Radio Text wich shows detailed information of the current program with up to 64 characters if the broadcaster supports it.
I think this is a genious function since I can do my choice of listening to a program without a programlist!
Denon has the aquard habit of dividing the presets from A to E and 1 to 8 on each to a total of 40 presets.
When you turn the power on with the memory button pushed it program itself.
The powerbutton is secondary so you have to unplugg the powercord when you be away for a longer time.
But the memory should stay for a month acording to the manual.

The sound is very clean and detailed, the bas has power and the mids are warm, the highs has sharp transients.
The output impedance is 100Ohm but the output are’nt very strong, I had to use the volume control to adjust.
Overall my experience is of a calm sound but it doesn’t lack dynamics.
I have tried it with newslistening, classical and popmusic. To night I will try the AM quality.
I enjoy listening to radio very much, even to AM and can continue to listen to a Denon tuner when I sell my reciever and enjoy it’s convinience and sound!

If you have experience with Denon tuners or other opinions please answer to this review.

[markw]

I don't have that particular tuner, but I do use the tuner section of my Denon 2802 receiver which strangely seems to fit the description of what you're running almost to a "T". I like it fine and generally agree about the sound. Smooth, quiet, great separation and overall a sumptious sound depending, of course, on what's playing.

But, when reviewing a tuner, some information about your antenna and your local (and not so local) station selection can be a big help in understanding how it will fit in perspective to the rest of the world.

IMNSHE, a good antenna and a mediocre tuner beats a mediocre antenna and a great tuner any day.

I am 15 miles outside of NYC and am running it off of a 30 year old directional RCA 50 mile TV antenna facing NYC. I get stations almost all over the dial including the flea power college stations, even out onto Staten Island. Even with this less than satisfactory antenna, I get a station for almost every position. Using their "auto tune/program" mode or whatever thry wanna call it, I CLEANLY receive 36 of those 40 stations.

Now, when the weather breaks I just might get up there and put in a decent omnidirectional turnstile antenna. This area begs for one of those. I had one in my last house and, oh, momma momma...

[Elgen]

I see your point there friend.

I am connected to the radio cablenet and recieve 31 stations.
I also have a fine omnidirectional antenna wich I will use when I move from the apartment.
The sound is very clean, almost dry in comparison to my cheap reciever and can hear it clearly from the guestroom on the other floor.
But now it's ten PM here and it's time for english broadcast on Radio China on the strongest station in Europe at 1440KHz.
And time to test AM quality.