My $1 tuner sounding good with the Polks

candyliquor35m

I must have had some karma coming today. I was at the thrift store and noticed a Yamaha TX-350 tuner for $8 which isn't unusual because I see tuners in there once in a while and some are priced as high as $20. I look it over and realize the detachable electrical cord is missing so I ask the manager and she looks for it and can't find it and then tells me I can have the tuner for $1 if I want it. The tuner looks a little familiar like it's been in the store before and someone returned it so I actually contemplate not buying it. The connection for the electrical cord looks the same as the one for my AA/AAA battery charger so I take a chance and spend the $1

Long story short, when I get home, the cord is the same and the first time in at least 10 years of owning Polks that I've heard a tuner connected to them.

No it's not CD quality sound but pretty impressive nonetheless.

Mazeroth

Hell yeah, nice find!

I'm VERY picky with the music I listen to, but sometimes I just have to kick it on over to the FM for some sanity.

billbillw

That's Cool. A $1 tuner is hard to find. I've been on a tuner kick lately. I'm on my 3rd tuner in just about two months. It all started when I started putting together a "simple" system for my home office. I looked for receivers for awhile, but ended up getting a really good deal on an Onkyo Integrated Amp. Wanting to hear the radio at times, I picked up a cheap Yamaha, much like yours. Its pretty cool to actually hear good clean FM from the non-comercial stations on a good tuner. Atlanta is blessed with several good non-commercial stations. The crap tuners that are built in to receivers these days just don't cut it for radio listening. Even the entry line component tuners are better. Of course, I'm heavily influenced my my brother, who is a bit of a tuner guru and runs RadioXTuners.com
I started with my first component tuner in early December, a Yamaha TX-540 that I picked up for $30. It was a nice tuner, but wasn't in the best shape and the bass was a little weak. I then picked up a Pioneer Elite F-51 tuner for a really good price. It had noticealby better sound and was in much better shape. So I sold the Yamaha on Ebay for about 4 times what I paid. Played around with the Pioneer for a while and was enjoying it when I found an Onkyo T-407 for $36. I jumped on it because it was a perfect match for my Onkyo A-809 amp. To my surprise, when I got it, it was nearly perfect and the sound is about as good as the Pioneer. I like the Onkyo tuner the best and now I'm in the process of selling the Pioneer Elite tuner on Ebay. Its crazy what some of the older high end tuners sell for.
Enjoy your find, but be careful of getting the "tuner bug". Some of the guys I've seen on Ebay buy and sell tuners by the handful.

HiPerf360

Mazeroth wrote:

Hell yeah, nice find!

I'm VERY picky with the music I listen to, but sometimes I just have to kick it on over to the FM for some sanity.

I couldnt agree more...

But i listen to FM in my truck, but i have to get a tuner for the house.