Yes, not many tuners were made.
The Leak Trough Line 3 is one tuner I used before the Naim NAT 02, but I also used the Sterofetic, and another Troughline 2 and possibly even the first Troughline. I still have the Stereofetic, which matches the Leak Stereo 70 with a row of push buttons, and a small meter for tuning. I may also have one of the Trough Lines. I think there is also an early Rogers tuner in the loft, just a bare chassis I remember…
Not enough for a museum, but I have a few examples of various Leak amplifiers as well as the tuners - (was going to write I have a few Leaks!!).
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I used to own a sansui t80 together with an a60 amp and d90 tape deck.
The tuner had an analogue dial and a quartz lock vfd, I remember it being quite an awesome setup.
Unfortunately I’ve got to the age now where I cannot for the life of me remember what happened to the whole system!
I’d love to have it back - just the way the knobs were weighted was a joy.
Regards
Neil.
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I had one of these back 1981/2 ish. Fondly recall listening to the BBC radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings on this. Such an immersive experience with the lights turned down, oddly far more so than watching the movies.
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Does anyone remember the BBC experiments into quadraphonic In the 70’s which required 2 stereo Radio systems? My dad used his stereo system combined with my diy system to try it. I only remember hearing a play performance, probably the nativity, never the less it seemed very impressive to my young ears on the day.
I think it used up two FM radio bands.
Still have a great fondness for Radio dramas like that and always try to get a few put on the iPad for a holiday
Last year, I played entire the radio version Smiley’s People with Simon Russell Beal via the Blu Ray Player into my Naim System all in one evening , it was superb , my Harbeths rose to it magnificently .
It was a superb audio experience (helped by a few glasses of wine on a warm summer evening)
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The sansui tuner I’ve picked up… A T5, is a little gem. It needed a clean up… Lights realigning… Perspex needed a good clean…
The tuning knob bearing was seized and difficult to turn… Some dry joints. Sorted the joints… Drop of wd40 carefully loosened the tuning bearing and its great now… Can go from one end of dial to the other on a single spin… Sometimes I spend ages just doing that… With the tuner off!
Little things…
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I too appreciate the R4 series of John le Carre Smiley’s series, and captured them for easier listening as mp3’s, but they were at their best on the NAT 02. Look out for re-runs as the output on Radio struggles for content in these days.
Slightly different thoughts here, but with the lack of new content and the constant rush now for the BBC to save money FM radio may be in more trouble than the promise of another 10 years suggests. There are better ways to save money in my opinion, starting with the salary bill…
The old '70s Sansui kit was great. I had an old TU-719 that was similar to what you describe - a big analogue tuning dial with a quartz lock digital readout set within. I might even have a picture of it somewhere.
edit: yes, here it is…
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I bought them as CDs (appreciate that is off-thread, but as they started as radio…)
I prefer to play that type of CD on blu ray as it picks up where I was before
Suspect the Le Carre trilogy (T,T,S,S, THS, SP) was superb on NAT 02
Thanks, indeed this is where the NAT 02 excels. R4 listening on the NAT 02 reveals a lot and pre lock down even live broadcasts from studios were very good. Now sound quality is very variable. I wonder what equipment has been shipped to far flung parts of the world to continue the broadcast industry without using studios. The various podcast and zoom type audio is poor, and the rooms used for these broadcasts never seems to have been taken into account. The chatter of talking under duvets is where someone is thinking about sound quality (never mind the content, these days often to be desired…).
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Some lovely kit on here. I follow a few Hi-Fi restorers on Instagram and it’s great to see some really beautifully engineered kit from the 60s and 70s brought back into service.
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I have just started reading The StanCurtis article inCritic. He’s talking about fixing up old hifi for something to keep him occupied during lock down . He described The look of older hifi as having the right balance of laboratory instrumentation about it, built for a purpose, as apposed to today’s designer look.
I tend to agree, the old ferrograph tape players looked the biz.
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Agreed…
Yes I agree too. I had a 632H, in my teens, which was excellent, except it did hiss quite a bit, even with top quality tape. Mind you I didn’t run it at 15 ips often as the cost of tape outstripped my budget.
But this is going off-topic quite a bit so I will add that I used to use a Quad FM tuner with a separate stereo decoder in those days. This photo is off the Internet. I must have some original photos in the loft somewhere!
It used to have a separate multiplex decoder. Again this is a photo from the Internet. I remember modifying my tuner and decoder so that a stereo light would show through the tuner dial when it received a stereo transmission.
Of course you needed the Quad 22 control unit and two Quad II amplifiers, but I think a photo of those would take the thread too far off topic again!
Best
David
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Its a shame the art-deco aesthetics of the 401s have to contend with those ironing-board stands 
Although I am sure they are much more functional than the original Gale tulip stands, which to me always looked like a unipivot bearing, allowing many degrees of freedom in which to excurse!
I like those wooden stands. I never liked the tubular originals, which I felt looked too much like escapees from a '70s Habitat store, and, as you say, probably didn’t help the performance a great deal.
Yes I have a vague recollection of these and they were quite effective on drama. Very short lived though as I recall.
Indeed they are free to move on the (replica) tubular stands, but ( sorry, Richard ) they sound so much better on them than my homemade plywood tripods!
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