62 audioXpress 6/02 www.audioXpress.com
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By Nancy and Duncan MacArthur
Some years ago we moved toward a minimalist audio
system: one source, one volume control, one amplifi-
er, and one set of speakers. In the process we elimi-
nated much equipment, including our old Dynaco
FM-5 tuner.
In the intervening years we forgot how much fun
playing with a tuner could be. After burning in the NAD
C 420, the Parasound TDQ-150, and the ADCOM GFT-
555II, we spent hours flipping through the FM band,
finding a huge variety of music—some pieces famil-
iar, some not. We ran across Navajo chants, opera,
rock, symphonies, and Spanish music, not to mention
the local deejay who termed himself the “Commissar
of Your Radio Commune.”
Eventually the situation got out of hand. When the
public radio station ran a long program of Colombian
music, I found myself dancing around the living room to
the Swamp Cumbia. Halfway through the song, I turned
and ran smack into a scandalized eleven-year-old.
“Cut it out, Mom,” he growled.
“Whatever for?” I asked.
He considered the matter briefly. “’Cause if you
don’t, I’m gonna get out the video camera and put you
on the Internet.”
Oh. Perhaps it was time to stop dancing and start
writing this review.
REVIEWING TUNERS
An FM tuner review requires a different listening ap-
proach from reviews of other components. Local FM
stations rarely provide a clean, uncompressed sig-
nal. Even if their signal quality is good, they typically
don’t play the same piece repeatedly for the conve-
nience of reviewers. Obviously, under these circum-
stances a listening critique of tuners can’t be as rig-
orous as critiques of other components. But at least
three aspects of tuner performance beyond lab test
results have some importance.
First, listening tests may reveal some sonic differ-
ences. If the tuners all sound the same, we’ll say so;
when we hear obvious differences, we’ll point them
out. Second, if the sonic signatures are similar, the
choice may devolve upon price, features, and opera-
tional convenience. Third, a brief comparison between
these tuners and other sources may be useful. Our goal
is to give you an idea of what to expect before making
a purchase.
The NAD C 420 and the Parasound TDQ-150 arrived
from the manufacturers by way of Chuck Hansen’s lab.
The ADCOM GFT-555II was an older model borrowed
from Ed Dell for use as a baseline.
We burned in each tuner with an antenna signal
sufficient to exceed its muting threshold for at least
100 hours. Tuners are significantly easier to burn in
than many other components because they do not have
moving parts or large sources of heat. The sound of the
NAD and Parasound changed significantly over the
burn-in period. (Presumably the ADCOM had burned in
long ago.)
Following burn-in, we listened to each tuner in turns
using the same set of popular and classical stations.
As might be anticipated, the popular stations provided
a horribly compressed signal. (On the other hand, they
frequently played songs we knew well.) The rest of the
reproduction system was identical in each case, and
all three tuners were plugged into the same circuit of a
Monster Cable HTS 2000 power conditioner.
Each tuner also receives the AM band, although we
concentrated on FM performance in this review.
ANTENNAS
The reception quality of any tuner critically depends
on the antenna connected to it. For all our serious
listening we used a multi-element roof-mounted
Radio Shack special.
Out of curiosity we briefly connected the twin lead
dipoles supplied in each box to their respective tuners.
Because most of the stations we listen to are about a
hundred miles away, we didn’t anticipate satisfactory
performance from the dipoles.
Table 1
lists the number
of stations in our area that each tuner received cleanly.
When we say
cleanly
, we mean with lack of noise and
sibilant distortion. (Many more stations were intelligi-
ble from a DXer’s standpoint.)
Practically speaking, all these sensitivities were
comparable except for the NAD’s reception with the in-
door dipole. All three tuners exhibited good sensitivity
when attached to a “real” antenna.
Even if your system hasn’t suffered from them be-
fore, the introduction of an external antenna that is
grounded for safety reasons often causes a ground
loop. The antenna safety ground is likely to be located
far from the audio system ground and may easily be at
a different potential. These problems may be exacer-
bated by a grounded tuner (such as the Parasound)
but can be present even if the tuner itself is unground-
ed. Numerous companies, including Jensen, Mondial,
Tributaries, and MIT, manufacture products intended to
break these ground loops.
APPEARANCE
The NAD C 420 is a rarity among components: a
good-looking black box, well proportioned with an el-
egant oval display window. Its preset/tune rocker
echoes the shape of its display window. The most
salient feature of the Parasound’s appearance is its
tiny size—roughly half as wide, half as high, half as
deep as the other tuners. (If you have a 17″ rack, you
could mount the Parasound side-by-side with its
matching preamplifier.) The ADCOM GFT-555II is a
standard chunky black box; its most noticeable fea-
ture is a long row of buttons on the front panel.
Popping open the Parasound reveals a single,
densely packed, PC board. The board dominates the in-
terior of the Parasound and fills the available space.
Although the Parasound is much smaller than the
other tuners, it weighs about the same.
The NAD’s main PC board is well laid out and less
densely packed. It fills about half the enclosure. As you
might expect in an older component, the ADCOM’s main
board nearly fills its box. Although all three tuners are
well laid out and cleanly constructed, the NAD and
ADCOM probably would be easier to service or modify
due to the extra “elbow room” within the enclosure.
EASE OF USE
Both the Parasound TDQ-150 and the ADCOM GFT-
555II were easy to use. The Parasound has five front-
panel buttons and includes a remote. To set the pre-
sets you must use the remote. (You can tune the pre-
sets sequentially using buttons on the front panel). The
remote is also handy for changing stations and ac-
cessing the presets in random order; in addition, it has
preamplifier controls intended for use with a matching
preamplifier (also half rack width). The Parasound
uses the U.S. frequency interval of 0.2MHz and can be
tuned rapidly across the FM band.
The 30 presets on this tuner are accessible in se-
quence by the up-and-down buttons on the front
panel. We preferred the random access ability provided
by the remote. The tuning buttons on the Parasound
operate in two modes. A short press on one of the tun-
ing buttons will change the frequency by 0.2MHz. Ac-
cording to the manual a continuous press will tune to
the next strong station; however, our sample would not
stop at any station regardless of strength. Like the En-
ergizer Bunny®, it kept going and going and going.
The ADCOM GFT-555II has only 16 presets (8 AM
and 8 FM) but has an individual front-panel button
permanently assigned to each. It thus provides totally
random access for setting and tuning the preset fre-
quencies. The ADCOM didn’t come with a remote, and
its manual makes no mention of remote capability. It
tunes in 0.1MHz intervals.
The ADCOM has three modes of tuning. A short
press on one of the tuning buttons will change the fre-
quency by 0.1MHz, and a continuous press will tune
continuously. Activating the “FM scan” switch will stop
the tuning at the next strong station. These features
are straightforward and easily understood; describing
them here takes more time than learning to use them.
The NAD C 420 also features 30 presets that are ac-
cessible sequentially from the front panel. A remote
control is optional with the NAD: it’s the same remote
supplied with the matching NAD preamp, and the
manufacturer doesn’t want to charge you twice. If you
buy the tuner but not the preamp, we would strongly
recommend purchasing the remote separately.
Many of the NAD’s features were not self-explanato-
ry: we frequently had to refer to the manual. The tech-
nique for erasing presets, which required multiple
timed pushes of two buttons, seemed particularly
opaque.
Different buttons operated in different ways. Some
toggled front-panel lights, and some didn’t. We had to
push some for a certain number of seconds to enable
one feature and a different number of seconds to en-
able another.
The NAD uses a seek mode of tuning: it stops at
every strong station whether you want it to or not. This
characteristic becomes less important once the pre-
sets are set but can lengthen the process of moving
from one end of the band to the other.
This tuner also incorporates RDS, a useful feature
if
nearby stations transmit RDS information and
if
the
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CRITIQUE
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NAD C 420, PARASOUND TDQ-150, AND ADCOM GFT-555II
TABLE 1
NUMBER OF STATIONS RECEIVED
CLEANLY FOR EACH TUNER/ANTENNA
COMBINATION.
OUTDOOR INDOOR
ANTENNA DIPOLE
NAD C 420 25 19
Parasound TDQ-150 29 26
ADCOM GFT-555II 27 25
