Quote Originally Posted by kelsci
If it plays as good as it looks and you like FM stereo it would be a nice find. Someone years back gave me a Macintosh FM receiver. This had tubes for the FM section and transistors for the amplifier section. I tried to use the audio output of this reciver into another amplifier but that output was just too much pre-amplified voltage to use and there was no variable volume control on the unit. The FM section however picked up stations like no tomorrow and the perspective audio quality sounded like the best tube stuff I heard way back in the 60s. It produced such a different quality sound then transistorized units and confirmed to me that the vintage audio that I heard way back when from tube stuff was quite nice.

Right... I look at vintage audio [now] not from a standpoint of the charm of the stuff, but what kind of sound per dollar it might deliver over current gear... Tube tuners are a classic example: They almost always deliver a sound that I feel is superior to solid state tuners per dollar spent... Now, as far as money outlay, if you buy on eBay, you can pretty much follow the rule of 2's... I mean, you buy a tuner like the one above, and you're pretty much going to double the cost to send it out, have it aligned, maybe a few mods/updates, cleaning, a few NOS tubes, whatever [I have a friend who can do all that, but he does charge me]... That's why it's only worth so much to me as is... No matter how much the previous owner talks it up as being plug and play... Or how good the thing looks...

Then into the fray jumps all manner of bidders... Some who might revere the item for it's sentimental value... Or looks... Or someone told him/her that it was the best thing since chopped liver, whatever... The Mac stuff is like that... I've sold [in the 70's] Mac set-ups that were then over 15 grand... And it was solid state stuff, and, well, let's just say that you could do better with the Japanese stuff at the time, or the more easily acquired, not-quite-vintage-yet tube gear that was showing up as trade-ins... (m.)